How do Zoan's reproduce?... [Archive]

stu1210

22-02-07, 09:45

How do Zoan's reproduce?...

On the mouth of one of my Zoa's last night i noticed a small purple ball coming from one of the mouths of the Zoan's... is this something to do with reproduction?..

If not any idea's what it was!?...

Reefer Madness

22-02-07, 10:45

Hello mate,
Zoanthids reproduce asexually, new polyps can be seen forming on the base of the matting.
It sounds like what you are wittnessing is expulsion of waste from the oral disc, this occurs naturally from time to time, but can also be triggered by stress,

HTH,

Pete.

stu1210

22-02-07, 12:54

Thanks Pete...

It was just the one polyp so i'm not worried...

Thanks for you help

Stu

JAYJT

22-02-07, 19:21

About 8 months ago, I witnessed all my zoa polyps mouths open and a brown thread about 1 to 1.5 inch from each mouth appeared with a bud like tip pn them all. This happened with both my colonys. cant really descibe it that well! Anyway this lasted a few hours and then they went back into the mouths. I searched the internet but could not find out what was going on.
The next day the same happened again, but since then i have not witnessed it again.
Anyone any ideas???
Thanks
Jay

Mandarin Dragonet

22-02-07, 23:42

With mine (Although they are Palythoa's) ,they bud from the foot.
What you saw was probably ejection of waste.

berns

23-02-07, 00:35

About 8 months ago, I witnessed all my zoa polyps mouths open and a brown thread about 1 to 1.5 inch from each mouth appeared with a bud like tip pn them all. This happened with both my colonys. cant really descibe it that well! Anyway this lasted a few hours and then they went back into the mouths. I searched the internet but could not find out what was going on.
The next day the same happened again, but since then i have not witnessed it again.
Anyone any ideas???
Thanks
Jay

hi jay, your zoas were expelling zoanthalea (spelling) ie pooing lol,

zoas/palys gain nearly all their nutrician from photosynthasizing cells in their polyps using light (just like leaves on trees) and from time to time they have a clear out of expelled/used cells = brown stringy pooing and regenerate more cells to again feed from the nutritian produced by photosynthasizing.

often when new zoas are placed in our tanks we see a preceding pooing and i personally think its cause our intense lights signal this activaty cause we use too powerful/intense lighting to wat most zoas live under in the wild. ie zoas grow at various depths receiving low white but higher blue spectrum, then we chuck them under twin units of 300-500 watts in only 2ft water depth at most lol

i use a QT with low lighting and hardley ever witness pooing in there, but 48 hrs in my reef with twin 150w and they poo:)