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Zoa spawning

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I think my zoas spawned! What do you guys think? My main zoa colony is on a different rock structure than this small one, so it’s really cool to see coral spawning naturally in my tank!
 

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Supporting Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2024
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116
How do we know it didn’t detach or get knocked off and settle elsewhere? Not trying to rain on your parade. Just a question.
I looked it up online when I saw it there, and I read that zoas can spawn, so I assumed that’s what happened. When I first noticed it, it was tiny. you mentioned it could’ve just detached or been knocked off and settled elsewhere, which is a fair point. I thought about that too, but in my experience, whenever a zoa polyp gets knocked off, it usually doesn’t survive I’ve never seen one reattach somewhere else. That’s why I’m leaning toward spawning. Part of the reason I’m sharing this is to see what others think—maybe I’m missing something.
 
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Any urchins in the tank? Mine have been known to carry polyps around for a little while and then drop them off in other places.
G
 

JVU

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Feb 12, 2017
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Just that zoas showing up elsewhere without spawning (asexual reproduction) is very common and zoas successfully spawning (sexual reproduction) in a reef tank is exceptionally rare. Like everyone’s personal experience vs almost no one’s personal experience.
 
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It might be easier to tell once it's grown out some more. If it looks like a completely different phenotype from the others then it could be spawned. But I've seen singular zoanthid polyps appear in new places before
 
Supporting Member
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It might be easier to tell once it's grown out some more. If it looks like a completely different phenotype from the others then it could be spawned. But I've seen singular zoanthid polyps appear in new places before
Good to know, I’ll wait and see
 
Supporting Member
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Spawned or not, its still cool either way. Congrats man. Hopefully it grows as well as your colony. Nothing more enjoyable than finding new stuff pop up outta nowhere sometimes.

That's the best!

Before the Acan fad, I had one pop up on rock from Marine Depot. I was a lot of fun to watch grow into a coral.
 
Supporting Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2024
Messages
116
Spawned or not, it’s still cool either way. Congrats man. Hopefully it grows as well as your colony. Nothing more enjoyable than finding new stuff pop up outta nowhere sometimes.
Appreciate the positivity, man. it’s nice to hear some encouragement. I’m excited to see how this one turns out!
 
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That's the best!

Before the Acan fad, I had one pop up on rock from Marine Depot. I was a lot of fun to watch grow into a coral.
"Before the acan fad" & "marine depot" was probably before a good 30% of our active members were born Gresh! Haha

I gotta say, its good to still have some of the OGs in these threads
 
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