Zoos - from short skirts to long skirts..?

[GinaD]

What would make the zoo skirts go long? Less light than they are used to getting... I imagine??

 

[nunofs]

I've had the same thing happen in my old tank, most of the zoos I kept ended up with long skirts after a while... at the time I attributed it to increased flow (?)

Nuno

 

[GinaD]

These aren't under much flow at all.

 

[Scott G]

mine have very long skirts, they went from T5 to PC lighting so maybe thats the case...

 

[nunofs]

Example...

Before:

After:

Nuno

 

[nunofs]

These aren't under much flow at all.

Must be something else then... lighting is a good guess.

 

[GinaD]

Oh, there they are. Nice before and after pics! Looks like the color got brighter too.

 

[Kiah]

I've noticed a big difference in size and color with lighting changes.

 

[FinzAquatics]

after looks alot better to me

 

[NateHanson]

In low light they get longer stalks (under each polyp). Maybe the longer skirts are due to lower nutrients, so they try harder to trap food?? (total BS, shot-in-the-dark guess)

 

[spivack]

long and short

I have 2 colonies on the sand and one has short eyelashes and the other has very long ones they are virtuallin the same light and flow

 

[GinaD]

I'm assuming they are getting less light, because I have t5's and I'm also assuming the person I got them from had MH's.

 

[TomD]

I think they look way better.

 

[Bidadari]

I have zoos that has short skirt in a tank with PC, but when I move them to the tank with stronger light (T5), much stronger flow & low nutrient tank, their skirts become longer. Initially I thought because of stronger flow, but now I'm leaning toward low nutrient.

 

[dg13]

Gina - I'm having the same problem, but my lighting increased a lot. I went from PC's (in a 31" deep tank) to a 250W MH and all my zoos got long skirts. Nothing changed with flow.

 

[Mikeaveli21]

Gina,

I know you said they are not in a high flow area, but I have experienced the same thing and IME it was due to flow. (There was also a recent discussion about this on RC in the zoanthid forum).

I have a large branch of zoas in which both sides receive the same amount of light, but the side away from the flow is normal while the side getting directly hit has skirts 3 times a long. I have another colony that I moved from a lower flow area to a higher flow are (at the same level) and saw the same thing.

Try 1) moving it vertically to an are with the same amount of flow to see how the lighting effects it. If no help, 2) moving it horizontally to an area of almost no flow. Could even be both! Good luck

 

[GinaD]

Ok, I'll try that. THanks! By the way, this is what it looked like when I bought them last month...