buddythelion
2500 Club Member
Hello my fellow addicts,
It's been too long since I've written anything about these watery flowers I love called zoas. So how about instead of a "Zoa of the Month" highlight, let's do an "Underrated Zoa of the Month"?!
When some people ask me what my favorite zoas are, they always expect me to answer with some $100+ morph in my collection. Naw! Get ready to feast your eyes on one of my all time favorites zoas that I believe are truly under rated and under appreciated.
Everyone, say hello to Speckled Fire and Ices.
A photo of Speckled Fire and Ice straight from ExoticFrag's website. Such a beauty!!!
Description:
This zoa has a blazing orange skirt followed by a blinding metallic sunset orange face. The mouth is also a somewhat metallic sky blue. As the name implies, there are white speckles all over the face of the morph. For some reason the speckles seem to always appear on the center of the sky blue mouth, giving it the appearance that it's shining. This is also a smaller zoa morph, similar to the size of a small Rasta Zoa but not as small as say a Paradise Zoa. Did I mention that they're metallic?!
Background Story:
From what I can recall, this stunning zoa came from Jeremy (whodah) of Exotic Frags. He must have been really lazy naming them off of the already named Fire and Ices zoas, since they resemble something completely different.
Oh Jeremy... what were you thinking naming them after these???? :doh:
Similar Looking Zoa:
The most easily confused zoa for this morph is the Blondies, even to the point of sometimes being sold as Blondies. They share almost the same color pattern except Blondies are more of a true yellow face and cleaner looking blue mouth. Actually, everything on a Blondie is much cleaner and fattier looking. Blondies are also a much larger variant zoa, but I wouldn't group them as palys. Although Blondies are much cleaner looking and larger, they lack the metallic face that makes Speckled Fire and Ices so special.
This poor quality and overly blue photo taken by a novice Joshporksandwich of Blondies shows how this morph is much plumpier in appearances and has a much "cleaner" appearance. Note the lack of speckles, sky blue mouth, and the concentration of speckles found in the center of the mouth of Speckled Fire and Ices that Blondies lack. Also... NOT METALLIC!!! :cry:
Care:
This is where this morph gets even better. Followed by its good looks, it's also a really easy to care for zoa! Say what, it looks good and is also easy to care for? HECK YES!!! This morph appreciates a good amount of light to keep the brightness and decent flow to keep the tissue clean. Given those two conditions, this zoa will take off in a healthy reef environment. Be sure to give it some space, as once it grows... it GROWS!!! But don't worry, it's not to the extent of Joshporksandwich's Pink and Golds. More like tiny Sunny Ds! This morph is most impressive as a large colony because of its smaller size. So dedicate an area for your Speckled Fire and Ice and enjoy your investment in just a couple of months!
Why the Lack of Love?
Much of this hobby revolves around high price tags for corals to gain any attention. Being an older morph with a name associated with a cheaper morph found by the colony, it was most likely swept under the rug and replaced by it's much larger Blondie brother (see what I did there? Get it? Blondie, Blonde... blonde brother??? :tongue.
Footnotes:
One thing that I have personally experienced with this morph is that it does not tolerate fragging well. This is mostly due to its small size, making cleaner cuts harder to make. This morph, although hardy and a fast grower, also tends to melt quickly once something goes wrong with the colony. Once you find its happy spot LEAVE IT. If it grows to a decent size, it's recommended to make a back up frag (or buy a 2nd frag) just in case anything should happen to your main colony. My colony grew to an impressive size and then melted back down to 3 polyps for no reason. But have heart, remember it's a decent grower. You'll get your colony back in no time as long as you still have a polyp!
Oh my little Speckled Fire and Ice Colony... How I miss you... Thank God for spare frags!
Summary:
In short, this is an amazing zoa morph that's been in the hobby for many years. Almost like the hipster version of a Blondie. It's just surprisingly how I don't see people posting pictures of them enough. Sometimes when I do, they actually call them Blondies (lol!). So what are you waiting for, just because it's not $100+ for one polyp doesn't mean it won't make you ogle or love them! Grab this zoa the next time you see it, you won't regret it!
They may be small, but boy do they pack a punch! One to two polyps is all you need to start a colony of drool.
It's been too long since I've written anything about these watery flowers I love called zoas. So how about instead of a "Zoa of the Month" highlight, let's do an "Underrated Zoa of the Month"?!
When some people ask me what my favorite zoas are, they always expect me to answer with some $100+ morph in my collection. Naw! Get ready to feast your eyes on one of my all time favorites zoas that I believe are truly under rated and under appreciated.
Everyone, say hello to Speckled Fire and Ices.
A photo of Speckled Fire and Ice straight from ExoticFrag's website. Such a beauty!!!
Description:
This zoa has a blazing orange skirt followed by a blinding metallic sunset orange face. The mouth is also a somewhat metallic sky blue. As the name implies, there are white speckles all over the face of the morph. For some reason the speckles seem to always appear on the center of the sky blue mouth, giving it the appearance that it's shining. This is also a smaller zoa morph, similar to the size of a small Rasta Zoa but not as small as say a Paradise Zoa. Did I mention that they're metallic?!
Background Story:
From what I can recall, this stunning zoa came from Jeremy (whodah) of Exotic Frags. He must have been really lazy naming them off of the already named Fire and Ices zoas, since they resemble something completely different.
Oh Jeremy... what were you thinking naming them after these???? :doh:
Similar Looking Zoa:
The most easily confused zoa for this morph is the Blondies, even to the point of sometimes being sold as Blondies. They share almost the same color pattern except Blondies are more of a true yellow face and cleaner looking blue mouth. Actually, everything on a Blondie is much cleaner and fattier looking. Blondies are also a much larger variant zoa, but I wouldn't group them as palys. Although Blondies are much cleaner looking and larger, they lack the metallic face that makes Speckled Fire and Ices so special.
This poor quality and overly blue photo taken by a novice Joshporksandwich of Blondies shows how this morph is much plumpier in appearances and has a much "cleaner" appearance. Note the lack of speckles, sky blue mouth, and the concentration of speckles found in the center of the mouth of Speckled Fire and Ices that Blondies lack. Also... NOT METALLIC!!! :cry:
Care:
This is where this morph gets even better. Followed by its good looks, it's also a really easy to care for zoa! Say what, it looks good and is also easy to care for? HECK YES!!! This morph appreciates a good amount of light to keep the brightness and decent flow to keep the tissue clean. Given those two conditions, this zoa will take off in a healthy reef environment. Be sure to give it some space, as once it grows... it GROWS!!! But don't worry, it's not to the extent of Joshporksandwich's Pink and Golds. More like tiny Sunny Ds! This morph is most impressive as a large colony because of its smaller size. So dedicate an area for your Speckled Fire and Ice and enjoy your investment in just a couple of months!
Why the Lack of Love?
Much of this hobby revolves around high price tags for corals to gain any attention. Being an older morph with a name associated with a cheaper morph found by the colony, it was most likely swept under the rug and replaced by it's much larger Blondie brother (see what I did there? Get it? Blondie, Blonde... blonde brother??? :tongue
.Footnotes:
One thing that I have personally experienced with this morph is that it does not tolerate fragging well. This is mostly due to its small size, making cleaner cuts harder to make. This morph, although hardy and a fast grower, also tends to melt quickly once something goes wrong with the colony. Once you find its happy spot LEAVE IT. If it grows to a decent size, it's recommended to make a back up frag (or buy a 2nd frag) just in case anything should happen to your main colony. My colony grew to an impressive size and then melted back down to 3 polyps for no reason. But have heart, remember it's a decent grower. You'll get your colony back in no time as long as you still have a polyp!
Oh my little Speckled Fire and Ice Colony... How I miss you... Thank God for spare frags!
Summary:
In short, this is an amazing zoa morph that's been in the hobby for many years. Almost like the hipster version of a Blondie. It's just surprisingly how I don't see people posting pictures of them enough. Sometimes when I do, they actually call them Blondies (lol!). So what are you waiting for, just because it's not $100+ for one polyp doesn't mean it won't make you ogle or love them! Grab this zoa the next time you see it, you won't regret it!
They may be small, but boy do they pack a punch! One to two polyps is all you need to start a colony of drool.
