Zoos showed up on an old rock???

[Guest]

Got home from work this evening and what to my eyes appear, but a colony of 4 small Zoos. Brown they are, rubbed my eyes and yep they are there. They weren't there when I bought the rock 3 months ago???Hmmm, don't know whether or not to be happy or sad. I want them to grow, but, I am still trying to keep my Nitrates around 5 meg/L stable.
The largest of the 4 is about 1/4 inch wide and the others about 1/8th.

How long does it take them to grow in general?
What do they eat, if anything?
How do they just appear? Do they let off spores or something like mushrooms in the woods?

I don't want them to die a long undeserved death. So, I will be keeping my eyes peeled and try to take care of them. Oh, what am I worrying about, I haven't been taking care of them and they are there, right?

 

[tyler]

i'm not sure if zoos are like this, but i know mushrooms can grow from a very small piece of the mushroom. perhaps this is a possiblity.

do you have zoos anywhere else in the tank?

 

[michealprater]

If they are there and were not before then they must be growing. If the conditions were not right I can not see them growing. I would assume they would be ok. How bout a pic, eh?

 

[loganj]

IME, which I admit is somewhat limited, zoos are darn hard to kill. If anything else is growing in there, the zoos will probably do fine. Some of them like to be fed...some don't seem to care. You might try dropping a small piece of krill or even some flake on one of them and see if it closes up around it. If it does, you can accelerate their growth by feeding them.
Logan J