Thoughts on IDing different types/groups of zoas/palys and General Topics

[Wy Renegade]

Hey folks Charles has the assorted list of topic he's coving, and I'll certainly be contributing to those as well. However, I'd like to develope my own list of topics as well. My interests/strengths run a little different than Charles obviously. My identifying PEs thread was/is fairly successful, although it still needs some work. The "Death Paly" thread needs to be reworked, and I'll try that one again, and the JDW thread was a flop. Thought I might also do a Hornet ID thread - since sooo many none hornets are being named hornets (I see this one potentially generating some strong controversy), but it should tie nicely to Charles' new morphs/names thread. Any other groups of zoas/palys you would like to see clarified characteristics for?

Also have a thread on the importance of waterflow for zoas/palys on my radar, and maybe would like to do one on suggested best placements for various types of zoas/palys.

Any other thoughts or ideas also appreciated.

 

[650-IS350]

Nice, I likes....

 

[Stray32]

Let's have everyone list their z and p inventory so I can generate a shopping/trading list

 

[hunnicuttz]

Let's have everyone list their z and p inventory so I can generate a shopping/trading list

I like that Idea!!!

 

[moto826]

i dont know all mine names lol but i have lots

 

[Wy Renegade]

Let's have everyone list their z and p inventory so I can generate a shopping/trading list

Interesting thought - I would imagine that would be a very long thread LOL!

 

[Stray32]

Interesting thought - I would imagine that would be a very long thread LOL!

Yeah but fun!

 

[tampasnooker]

Back on topic, I think this is a great idea. It will be a great tool for buyers unsure of placement. By now, we know that several species are misnamed (probably deliberately by collectors looking protect their turf). JDW's are quite the opposite of the name. Keys offshore zoa's seem to be closer to shore than the name implies. A taxonomic breakdown along with current/lighting parameters for various families/species would be fantastic. It seems that the Rev and others were working on a database at the top of the zoanthid forum. Several of you have done great work since the reformatting trying to make some of these threads better organized. I've never seen a good taxonomic break down of the family. Perhaps the same could be done in the corallimorph forum, too. Every time I post about St Thomas mushrooms, someone tries to correct me and call them rhodis...
For starters we have zoanthus, palythoa, protopalythoa, parazoanthus all lumped together as z's and p's but they are collected anywhere from a foot deep in grass with crystal clear water to filthy, brackish estuary mouths to fairly clear water up to 50 feet. Not exactly a one size fits all...

 

[Wy Renegade]

Back on topic, I think this is a great idea. It will be a great tool for buyers unsure of placement. By now, we know that several species are misnamed (probably deliberately by collectors looking protect their turf). JDW's are quite the opposite of the name. Keys offshore zoa's seem to be closer to shore than the name implies. A taxonomic breakdown along with current/lighting parameters for various families/species would be fantastic. It seems that the Rev and others were working on a database at the top of the zoanthid forum. Several of you have done great work since the reformatting trying to make some of these threads better organized. I've never seen a good taxonomic break down of the family. Perhaps the same could be done in the corallimorph forum, too. Every time I post about St Thomas mushrooms, someone tries to correct me and call them rhodis...
For starters we have zoanthus, palythoa, protopalythoa, parazoanthus all lumped together as z's and p's but they are collected anywhere from a foot deep in grass with crystal clear water to filthy, brackish estuary mouths to fairly clear water up to 50 feet. Not exactly a one size fits all...

We'll try and work up something on the taxonomy, however based on my research into the topic over the past few months, there are very few zoas, palys, or protopalys that have been identified all the way down to species. I would venture to guess based on what I've found that species wise there are less than a dozen polyps (not talking trade names) commonly found in the hobby that can be positively IDed as far a species; Z. giganticus, P. grandis, P. vestilus are the three that easily come to mind, beyond that you are talking Zoanthus spp. or Protopalythoa spp. With coral taxonimist arguing over the proper placement of palys into protopalythoa or palythoa its rather hard for the average hobbiest to determine proper taxonomic placement. That said, I think we can cover the genuses fairly well. See what we can do.

 

[650-IS350]

I concur.

​

 

[tampasnooker]

I wonder if we can get Colin from morphologic involved. He seems to have a decent grip on ID. I"m looking forward to reading his new article in Coral mag - I liked how he covered coralimorphs.

 

[ficklefins]

I smell someone doing a hornet spotlight for us!

 

[Wy Renegade]

bb

I wonder if we can get Colin from morphologic involved. He seems to have a decent grip on ID. I"m looking forward to reading his new article in Coral mag - I liked how he covered coralimorphs.

Yeah, me too, if I can get my hands on a copy.

I smell someone doing a hornet spotlight for us!

Yeah, that one could be interesting - lot of controversy out there on these right now.