Transferring Zoo polyps to a new rock?

[Anonymous]

Hiya. I know with some soft corals such as mushrooms, it's pretty easy to peel them off of their rock and get them to attach somewhere else.

What about zoos? They grow so much slower and for some reason it seems like they would not take well to being peeled off their rock and transplanted.

But, of course, that's exactly what I want to do.

 

[reefdood]

I had zoos on the lower rocks of my reef. They would multiply onto the sand and from there I could easily take them, insert them in a hole or superglue them.

 

[Anonymous]

Best way is to use a chisel to get off the bit of rock they're on. Don't actually remove them from the rock. Then you can glue the little bit of rock they're on to the new rock.

 

[Anonymous]

Wow ... I fear I would mash, chisel or somehow ruin the zoos doing that, Matt.

Also a followup question. Do different zoos out-compete each other for space, or are they all basically same-same?

What I'm planning is to actually arrange a neato (amorphous, natural) color pattern of zoos on my rocks. Think of how a marbled rock looks. So I won't want the huge rock that the polyps come on.

 

[Anonymous]

I have peeled them off the rock and superglued them on another rock before. It worked OK, the ones I was working with were very crowded and it wasn't too tough to peel them up with your fingernail but they are kind of slimy and the superglue didn't always hold long enough.

I think the chisel method works good, like Matt suggested. On some rocks you can jam a flathead screwdriver into the rock and twist a bit, breaking off bits of rock with zoanthids attached.

My different color zoanthids all grow up cozy together, although some do grow faster than others.

 

[Anonymous]

You touched the toxic zoos with your bare hand?

 

[Anonymous]

I do, I wash them afterwards now that I found out they are toxic.

You could wear gloves or something though.

 

[mattstewart]

on a slightly related topic, I can just peel mushrooms off a rock with my hand? I have on little guy that found his way on to the rock my chilli coral is on and i want to move him off, just wasn't sure how to do it.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes matt, you can do that quite easily. The shroom may need something to keep it in place until it attaches.

Speaking of attaching ... anyone know how long zoos take to attach? I'd imagine it's much longer than shrooms.

 

[mattstewart]

man that's sweet

 

[auto_loader]

I usually carefully seperate the zoos from the rock with a small knife so they are in tact in one piece. Then rubberband them to a rock for a week or 2 and they will attach to the new rock.

 

[Anonymous]

You touched the toxic zoos with your bare hand?

wha? they're toxic, zoos? shoot...anyways cut and paste is the way i have done it in the past...

 

[Fozza]

Opps hehe

I've been picking up zoo's for years, never knew they were toxic