I got a single polyp GMK back in March of this year. It's been steadily growing for me, and in the 8 months I've had it, it has grown to 12-ish polyps (not always easy to count).
About 2 weeks ago the whole colony closed up on me. I wasn't too worried as I figured a snail or hermit ran over them, and my 38 other types of zoas all looked fine. But then it stayed closed. For days. Every once-in-a-while a polyp or two would open 1/2-3/4 of the way, but most were closed all day, every day. I was worried.
This morning a friend suggested that maybe the colony was just going through a growth spurt. I've had other, smaller colonies do that, but never for more than 5-7 days. So I started comparing pictures I've taken over the last 2 weeks and, sure enough, there are several new polyps!
This picture was taken a week ago. Pay special attention to the circled areas. And I apologize for the less than stellar, zoomed in photos.
And then this picture was taken today...
The polyps are closed, but they're not shrinking, and they look healthy enough. And, you can pretty obviously see that there are more polyps! In fact, I'm counting up to 18 now!
So now I've switched from worried to cautiously optimistic. If they all open back up after this is over, it'll be the single largest growth spurt of any zoa in my tank, and my GMK colony will be up to about 18 polyps.
About 2 weeks ago the whole colony closed up on me. I wasn't too worried as I figured a snail or hermit ran over them, and my 38 other types of zoas all looked fine. But then it stayed closed. For days. Every once-in-a-while a polyp or two would open 1/2-3/4 of the way, but most were closed all day, every day. I was worried.
This morning a friend suggested that maybe the colony was just going through a growth spurt. I've had other, smaller colonies do that, but never for more than 5-7 days. So I started comparing pictures I've taken over the last 2 weeks and, sure enough, there are several new polyps!
This picture was taken a week ago. Pay special attention to the circled areas. And I apologize for the less than stellar, zoomed in photos.
And then this picture was taken today...
The polyps are closed, but they're not shrinking, and they look healthy enough. And, you can pretty obviously see that there are more polyps! In fact, I'm counting up to 18 now!
So now I've switched from worried to cautiously optimistic. If they all open back up after this is over, it'll be the single largest growth spurt of any zoa in my tank, and my GMK colony will be up to about 18 polyps.