So zoa's and rics get along fine right??

[zanemoseley]

I'm getting 2 zoa frags from someone on RC, one's a blue with green rim and the other is a blue with red rim. I'm thinking of putting one on a rock with a few florida ricordea and want to make sure they aren't gonna hurt each other when they grow closer.

[BrokkenTWolf]

Actually, you may want to consider putting them separately. Ricordea (a type of discosoma mushroom) and zoanthids generally compete with each other. In areas of higher light levels the zoanthids generally win out while in lower light areas, the mushrooms win out. If you got the space, place them on separate rocks.

[zanemoseley]

Man I still wonder how people have tons of different kinds of corals mixed in the same tank. My 75 is all SPS almost and I still gotta watch out about them hurting each other. Apparently softies aren't much better.

So I assume different color zoas get along fine right.

[mfinn]

One of the problems I have found is the mushrooms and recordea with expand out during the day and actually cover up the zoanthids.
You can keep the together, just with a little space between them.
The diferent colored zoanthids will get along just fine.

[lildraken]

oh no! i bought a rock encrusted with purple mushrooms and there are about 7 polyps of zoanthids. The green ones with yellow centers. I didn't know the polyps were there until i brought the rock home. Should I remove the zoos? I don't want them to harm my rics. I've noticed that the ricordeas don't spread out as much, but I don't know if that is because of the tiny zoo's. what to do?!

[MUCHO REEF]

Zoas and Shrooms can will and do cohabitate well together in captivity. I agree with BrokkenTWolf and mfinn that concern and not caution is the optimal word when it comes to keeping both. If you view the picture in the link below of my tank, you'll see that every single colony in my tank was grown from less than a 1/3 of there current size with the exception of 3 ricordea colonies which had grown to about double their original size if I recall correctly.

When my zoas began expand towards my mushrooms I had the option of either removing the zoa rock, which isn't always possible, then removing 3 or 4 rows of zoas with a chisel. It would scar the rock, but in a matter of days to a few weeks the rock would become encrusted again. I could either sale the frags or attach them somewhere else on the reef.

It's true that mushrooms will expand outward and prevent the zoas in close proximity from receiving light which will eventually prevent the polyps from flourishing. Again, fragging or moving one of the two rocks will solve the problem.

When I saw that my growth was maxing out throughout the entire tank, I had to cut my photoperiod by 3 hours sometimes. It also gave me a reason to leave my tank completely dark once every 4 days or so. I never had, saw or witnessed any ill affects from doing this and I do it to this very day as well. A dark tank once a week is no different than a cloudy, dark overcast or stormy day in the wild.

As BrokkenTWolf said, you can space them out, which works fine until your growth causes them to compete for space and light.


lildraken, Ricordea are typically slow growing Corallimorphs. Expansion would be my immediate concern. If the zoas are on the far ends of the rock I would leave them alone. Wait and see how fast or slow they reproduce. If in time you can see that they are indeed growing and spreading towards your shrooms, I would begin fragging them periodically and seeding new/bigger rocks to sale or place elsewhere in you tank. You could also use a hammer and chisel and severe the entire portion of the rock with the polyps on them. Another option would be to secure several small chips of rock around the perimeter of the zoas. Using some reef safe glue, use a single dab of glue and secure small 3/4 inch chips or rock around the zoas, kind of like placing rocks around a camp fire. As the zoas expand outward and over the chips of rock, and since you only used a small dab of glue, just break off the chip of rock with the new zoas and Wah-lah, you have a new frag to sell, trade or keep. Or, you can just place the chips of rock between the zoas and the shrooms and keep the expansion towards your shrooms at bay.

Didn't mean to be long winded. Good luck my friend.

Mucho Reef

[gusmanda]

What about zoo's and other corals such as hammer/frogspawn, are zoo's suceptible to the sweeper tentacles?

[mfinn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8800671#post8800671 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gusmanda
What about zoo's and other corals such as hammer/frogspawn, are zoo's suceptible to the sweeper tentacles?


Yes the sweeper tentacles of most if not all lps will harm zoanthids.

[rubysmomma1]

We have an overgrowth problem in our 75 and are cycling a frag tank. Some of my more unattractive zoas are being completely shaded by my shrooms. The zoas aren't ugly, but pink and brown. I like them! Anyway, the only ill affect of the shrooms so close to the zoas is that the zoas are constantly reaching for light.

[Rebel]

Ok, I will ask this here instead of starting a new thread.

I understand that you can place various kinds/colors of zoas on a rock and let them grow together to form a colorful "garden." What about Palys? I am not all that good at ID and don't know a zoa from a paly all the time except with the really big palys. Can zoas and palys grow together to balnket common rocks, or will the faster growing one overtake and crowd out the other to its demise?

[650-IS350]

Some larger palythoa's, zoanthus gigantus/ granids can acutally shade out smaller zoanthids that can't extend as much as others.

[Rebel]

But chemical aggression is not really an issue, right?

[650-IS350]

with a lot of soft corals I would use carbon