Zoo Question

[zsalinas]

The other day I was lookin in my tank and I saw that I have one single brown zoo. I've never had anything like that in my tank before and I haven't added and new live rock or anything. It's been running since October of last year and everything with the tank was from the previous owner. I was excited to have the little zoo in there. How could this have happened? Will it spread? thanks

 

[seannmelly]

check it close, it could be apstasia(sp) which isnt to good for your tank

 

[jerthunter]

Originally Posted by Zsalinas
The other day I was lookin in my tank and I saw that I have one single brown zoo. I've never had anything like that in my tank before and I haven't added and new live rock or anything. It's been running since October of last year and everything with the tank was from the previous owner. I was excited to have the little zoo in there. How could this have happened? Will it spread? thanks
I had a very similar thing happen to me. I had my tank up and running several months with very little light when I finally noticed a small brown zoo growing. I hadn't added anything since I started. Now it is well over a year later and the zoo has gotten to a good size but only within the past month or two has it actually started to spread.
Be careful to examine it closely to make sure it isn't something you don't want but I can testify that it is entirely possible for a zoo to hitchhike on some live rock and go unnoticed for quite awhile.

 

[zsalinas]

I'm pretty positive its a zoo. I seen my cleaner shrimp touch it and it sucked in and now it's back out. It's pretty cool. It's just a little guy all by himself. I don't have MH lighting either. I just rearranged my rock a few weeks ago and all of a sudden i seen it. Do I need to feed it or anything? It seems to be doing ok.

 

[jerthunter]

Originally Posted by Zsalinas
I'm pretty positive its a zoo. I seen my cleaner shrimp touch it and it sucked in and now it's back out. It's pretty cool. It's just a little guy all by himself. I don't have MH lighting either. I just rearranged my rock a few weeks ago and all of a sudden i seen it. Do I need to feed it or anything? It seems to be doing ok.
I don't think you would need to feed it, I used to feed mine for fun just because it is fun to watch. How big is it? Mine is probably over a half inch in diameter now and under pc lights. It had been near the bottom of my tank for over a year but I recently moved it to see if it would spread and like I mentioned before it has just started to sprout new zoos.

 

[maxalmon]

If you can move the LR it's on closer to the lights that will make the guy a little more happy, you don't really feed them, bu they need good lighting.

 

[zsalinas]

Originally Posted by Jerthunter
I don't think you would need to feed it, I used to feed mine for fun just because it is fun to watch. How big is it? Mine is probably over a half inch in diameter now and under pc lights. It had been near the bottom of my tank for over a year but I recently moved it to see if it would spread and like I mentioned before it has just started to sprout new zoos.
He's pretty small not near that big. I'm not even sure what to compare him to. If I didn't point him out to somebody they'd miss him completely. He's about half way up in the tank so pretty close to the lights. I can see if i can move it though I think it might be a supporting piece of the LR but I'm gonna look. I'm just excited about it lol

. Does anything in particular promote growth with these things. I'm a complete newb with this stuff

 

[jerthunter]

Originally Posted by Zsalinas
He's pretty small not near that big. I'm not even sure what to compare him to. If I didn't point him out to somebody they'd miss him completely. He's about half way up in the tank so pretty close to the lights. I can see if i can move it though I think it might be a supporting piece of the LR but I'm gonna look. I'm just excited about it lol

. Does anything in particular promote growth with these things. I'm a complete newb with this stuff

Light, and flow will help it grow. If you want, try to spot feed it.

 

[zsalinas]

One more quick question. What do I even feed it? I'm gonna try to get a picture to make sure it's a zoo for sure and I'm not feeding something bad lol.

 

[jerthunter]

Originally Posted by Zsalinas
One more quick question. What do I even feed it? I'm gonna try to get a picture to make sure it's a zoo for sure and I'm not feeding something bad lol.
When I tried to feed mine I would usually feed it frozen mysis shrimp. I would say as long as it is small enough for it to eat it should be fine.

 

[jerthunter]

Here is a picture of the one I had as a hitchhiker just for reference. If you look closesly you can see about 4 small offshots growing from it.