Zoas. A force to be reconned with?

[River_Styx]

So, I was browzing around multiple forums and now I'm a tad confused. Supposeofly, zoas will grow on basically everything, including on sps (obviously bad) yet I see pics of sps colonies in the midst of zoa gardens. Then I have also seen acans growing in a midst of zoas (which I think looks awesome) but I'm not sure if one will eventually win out over the other.

Some help on what corals zoas can grow alongside?

 

[the_fish_man]

I have something like that i just trim down the zoas weekly

 

[River_Styx]

Do you just chop off the zoas that grow too close?

 

[the.fish.guy]

most lps will win against zoas, protopalys are another story. the only lps i would really worry about are chalices . ive seen them recede when surrounded by zoas to nothing. i usually cover them in aquarium epoxy if there getting to close. this insures there death, and when they eventually grow on the epoxy you can just pop it off and you have a frag.

 

[drainbamage]

fish guy made really good points- there's 'nice' zoa's/paly's and then there's protopalys.


I actually have a red planet that encrusts over some Red Ked Zoas- forms a tubular structure around the polyp, then grows over it and covers it up- but it's a faster growing SPS- it's more small colonies of anything that are at risk.

 

[River_Styx]

This is the first time I've read of these "protopalys" What are they?

Also, is there a way to know what zoas will play nice?

 

[Lateral72]

This is the first time I've read of these "protopalys" What are they?

Nuke Greens, Purple Deaths, Captian Americas, etc. are all Protopalythoa sp.


There a ton of various morphs. But they are easily differentiated from Zoanthids or regular "Palys"

 

[drainbamage]

%

All bellow are just references of general body 'types' and somewhat growth structures- I'm not very good with the scientific naming and differences between them- but I can tell you the only ones you need to worry about is proto-paly's. Though great for filling up a lot of space super cheap- they can be very invasive just like Xenia, GSP, etc, and are often considered a 'pest'.

Zoa (as in what most hobbyists mean with zoa's)

'Paly' as reffered to by most hobbyist, but actually a zoanthid

Proto-paly

 

[River_Styx]

The proto-paly would be the pic that doesnt work XD

So when people say that you cant have a zoa/paly garden they mostly mean no zoa/proto-paly?

 

[drainbamage]

yea, sorry, I linked off a google pic so go figure I failed it out- use laterals, it's better than the one I found anyways-


and yea- people are mostly meaning don't toss a proto-paly into the mix as it will overtake your zoa's and 'paly's'