my new baby... AKA The Café

[Soren]

Definitely a zoa. Maybe a punk rocker

My research has me leaning heavily to thinking it is a zoa, so I'm not too concerned about palytoxin.

Unless it is just my incorporation of whiter/natural light on my tank, this zoa is simply brown with a green mouth, no other colors/speckling. It is probably too plain brown to have an industry name, and maybe has limited presence in the hobby since most would probably consider it boring/ugly, especially in comparison to the brilliant array of colors available for zoanthids.

 

[Slocke]

My research has me leaning heavily to thinking it is a zoa, so I'm not too concerned about palytoxin.

Unless it is just my incorporation of whiter/natural light on my tank, this zoa is simply brown with a green mouth, no other colors/speckling. It is probably too plain brown to have an industry name, and maybe has limited presence in the hobby since most would probably consider it boring/ugly, especially in comparison to the brilliant array of colors available for zoanthids.

Palythoa look very different to zoas. For some reason some people/stores call larger zoas palythoa but they are not.

 

[Slocke]

Good morning everyone...

have a great day...

These are palythoa

 

[Soren]

Palythoa look very different to zoas. For some reason some people/stores call larger zoas palythoa but they are not.

That is what I've seen in pictures. The skirt "lashes"(?) on Zoanthus polyps seem to be shorter with rounded tips and a more plump disc, while Palythoa seem to have longer, pointed lashes and flatter discs.

Of all the pictures I've seen, no Zoanthus polyps match mine. The green mouth is just the smallest inner opening and does not cover any part of the disc. Maybe I need to turn off my white light, crank up the blues, and add a little photoshop to get an ID.

As it is, though, I really don't care to confirm a trade name or whatever, just that it likely has limited risk of palytoxin.

 

[F i s h y]

Anybody have an ID for this polyp? It came in on a piece of live rock from another reefer shutting down his reef.

I assume it is a zoanthid, palythoa, or protopalythoa, but I don't know how to determine which it is. The polyp is about 7mm across the disc when open. The mouth is bright neon green and the disc is dark brown with a pale brown skirt and medium-brown radial lines from mouth to skirt. I like it, but not sure I want the risk of palytoxins if significantly likely. The original reef had hundreds of these polyps on the opposite side of the tank; some were about 1.5cm in disc diameter.

At the lower center of this picture, with mushrooms and GSP around:

could be old school purple people eater that is bleached out a little

 

[Soren]

could be old school purple people eater that is bleached out a little

Thanks, yeah, Purple People Eater is also what I found that seemed the closest match, although mine is distinctly brown and not at all purple. They also looked brown in the original reef under more typical blue-heavy lighting. I definitely think they are an old school variety, both from appearance and from other tendencies in the original reef.

At this point, I at least seem confident in a Zoanthus ID, which I think is safe enough without significant palytoxin risk, so I'll keep it and see if it spreads. It might be limited in my reef with less controlled conditions and with other invasive corals already covering the rock to which it is attached.

 

[tbrown]

Thanks, yeah, Purple People Eater is also what I found that seemed the closest match, although mine is distinctly brown and not at all purple. They also looked brown in the original reef under more typical blue-heavy lighting. I definitely think they are an old school variety, both from appearance and from other tendencies in the original reef.

At this point, I at least seem confident in a Zoanthus ID, which I think is safe enough without significant palytoxin risk, so I'll keep it and see if it spreads. It might be limited in my reef with less controlled conditions and with other invasive corals already covering the rock to which it is attached.

Potassium plays a role in the blues of certain Zoas I believe... Maybe you have a low potassium system? Try feeding it some bananas and see if that changes the color?

Just kidding, don't do that. Some of the Florida Zoas are basically brown if I recall. Might be a wild Zoa?

 

[Soren]

Potassium plays a role in the blues of certain Zoas I believe... Maybe you have a low potassium system? Try feeding it some bananas and see if that changes the color?

Just kidding, don't do that. Some of the Florida Zoas are basically brown if I recall. Might be a wild Zoa?

Ha, it's been in my system for 2 days from a QT at home after about a month, so I doubt that has had that much affect yet, especially since they were brown in the original reef which was a fairly precisely controlled system with full automation.

I'm actually kind of happy that it is brown. It definitely could be a wild strain of Zoa.

 

[danieyella]

 

[Fish Styx]

Potassium plays a role in the blues of certain Zoas I believe... Maybe you have a low potassium system? Try feeding it some bananas and see if that changes the color?

Just kidding, don't do that. Some of the Florida Zoas are basically brown if I recall. Might be a wild Zoa?

 

[fishguy242]

Good Friday evening everyone...
Tried to catch up on some zzz today, didn't really work too well, will sleep good tonight...
how y'all doing tonight ?...

 

[Stang67]

Stuck but warm.

 

[Reefering1]

 

[fishguy242]

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