Armor of God Zoos?

[xia]

So last week I went over to Sam's place (bluenassarius) and asked him if he ever saw any Armor of God or Armegeddon zoos come in. Turns out, he was part of the history. He says he got the original colony from our very own Alex Chern and gave some to his buddies in the Bay Area. One of the recipients is Mr. Ugly who named them Armor of God because they looked like a flaming shield.

Now knowing that, I remember getting what I call some pink zoos from Alex awhile back. They grew really tall in my softy tank with just pc's. At least a couple of inches tall. My maroon clown even hosted in them, until he recently passed away. I also remember some other people posting how they got some pink zoos from Alex, and they also grew really tall. Now what I want to know is if these are the Armor of God zoos? I recently placed these zoos in my big tank with the 400 watt radiums and to my surprise, not so pink anymore. Quite possibly the AOG zoos, now a bit more famous. I would love to post a pic, however my frag is not doing so great and is not opening up all the way. Can anyone else chime in if you got the same pink zoos from Alex. I remember they were pretty good growers.

I just set up a trade for some AOG zoos during the swap, so I would greatly appreciate it if I could get this figured out before then.

 

[xia]

Okay so I found some old pics with my clown still hosting in them.

And this is the picture Alex sent me. Thanks Alex. FYI Alex says he got them from Liz.

Most probably the same zoos. I wonder if I could get Mr. Ugly to chime in?

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Hi Xia,

Well, a few things...

Sam did get me some pink zoas that had been going around the MARS circles. And I remember seeing pics of Alex's zoas a while back when he had them on sale, and that I thought they looked like AoG.

The ones in Alex's pic above have the same exact pattern as AoG. The color is harder to tell, but it's so close that I would have to see them in person to be able to say.

Going from the pic, if Alex's aren't AoG, then they would have to be the closest I've seen compared to the ones that some people have been passing off as AoG. Particularly telling is the lack of white ring at the perimeter of the orange, and that the radial lines extend all the way to the mouth slit without a sharp demarcation between any dark and the orange.

Under what lighting had those polyps been growing under? I've not seen AoG morph to or from pink. I've had mine under a variety of lighting, and they've always been metallic orange. They are the most bright metallic orange of any zoas I've ever seen.

Hmm, remembering some more....

I believe Sam also gave some of those pinks to MangroveCoral/Piya. I got some of those from Piya when he took down his tank. I put the ones from Sam and the ones from Piya next to each other and they grew together. Either they are the same zoa, or one overtook the other. Pics of that one are on ZoaID as "Twighlight Pink". I picked that name because of the very dark lines in between the pink.

Ok, the ones that I named AoG(originally just Metallic Orange), I got from Steve at New Alameda Aquatics. He got them from Dale, one of the wholesalers in the Bay Area. That would have been about 3 or so years ago by now that Steve first got them.

Steve had only about a walnut sized rock, and he could frag only about 1 polyp or so periodically. Sam would visit Piya, and the 3 of us would run into each other or go together to New Alameda to see what cool stuff might be there. That's where we saw the zoa that got named AoG.

This was before the zoa prices went all nutzo, and we thought that the orange zoa was pricey back then. Compared to now, it would be considered dirt cheap for a unique zoa. Nobody bought any the first few times we saw it. I got one polyp sometime later in a trade with Steve. And Sam or Piya got some on a weekend after that.

That's about all I can think of right now.

Hope that helps!

 

[FunGuy]

The two types are definitely different. I have them both, of course under the same lighting. Alex's version is metallic pink. AoG is definitely more metallic orange than pink. Both are nice and large size polyps.

Going back to Zoanthids huh?

 

[Izsabelle]

Funny! I bought a rock the size of my husbands hand that was covered by those zoos for $40. I gave Alex some and he populated MARS with them.

I never knew they were called AoG or anything. I just thought they were pretty pink zoos, nothing really rare.

I have them under t5 and they are brighter then Alex's pic. I'd say more pink now then that picture.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8363721#post8363721 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mr. Ugly
Pics of that one are on ZoaID as "Twighlight Pink". I picked that name because of the very dark lines in between the pink.

Yikes, my bad... that didn't come out right. I'm not the person that "named" those particular pinks. When I sent my pic in to ZoaID, Whodah suggested that category and I agreed that it seems to fit. Do the MARS ones have the pink banding on the skirts?

Anyway, as Herman wrote, the AoG are metallic orange. I'll probably put some into the swap.

 

[xia]

Looking at the pictures again and with Norman's explanation. My pinks are definitely different from Alex's pic, and they're pink not orange. So I guess the answer is "No, I don't have AoG zoos."

Thanks everyone for chiming in. It's great to see corals get around, and it's great to be able to trace all this history. I just wish I still had that clown to host my pinks.

 

[Izsabelle]

Xia, are your zoos pinker then Alex's pic? These are the ones from Alex's pic. They became a darker pink in my tank.

I also have these.

 

[xia]

My zoos have a definite break in the lines with that large ring around the mouth. Yours look much more like Alex's, and they've also developed a nice green outer ring. My zoos do have a hint of green in the outer ring. Is that second picture the same zoos as the first? My pinks don't have green centers like the third picture. As far as pinkness, they're very true to color in those pics. Alex did say that his picture was taken with his old camera and didn't pick up as much of the metallic color. It could be that since my zoos were so extended it changed the coloration and patterns. I'll take another picture when they open up again, since they've shrunken down to normal size.

 

[Elite]

Very nice zoa Liz

 

[funman1]

hehe I got some like the top pics from Mihn, and then after they got really big, I ended up trading them to someone in the club for something though, I can't remember what..

 

[wombat2]

I remember seeing some of those in the top pic in a MARS member's tank about probably a year and a half ago. I can't recall their names for the life of me, they had two pugs, real nice folks. I don't think they're on the board anymore.

 

[bluenassarius]

my bad, those zoos look identical to me. i was basing it on the photo from norman.. didn't know they were more orange.

liz, you take some nice pix

 

[wongkwp]

Xia,

These were the pinks I got from Sam...

 

[Kinetic]

man, sam and norman are famous!

 

[bluenassarius]

i got to see a frag of the armor of gods this evening (thanks to funguy) they are more orange than the pinks from alex.

art u coming to the swap?

 

[Kinetic]

can't come to the swap =( I'm really busy every weekend until probably January! sucks!!

 

[dots]

I think the lineage of corals....how they are named and the clubs involment in it is really cool to read about, love to hear more.....ie: Karls flashlights etc.......very cool stuff people should be proud of and be recognized for.....