Bytor Orange Zoanthids

melev

Well-known member
My babies. They have been quietly spreading across a huge rock in my reef and finally now is growing up on one of the overflow boxes. So I took a picture of a nice patch that didn't have an aiptasia spoiling the shot.

td_bytors.jpg
 
Some information about these zoanthids. Years ago, I got a few polyps from another RC member via a Thermos Trade, and these grew very slowly.

Several times I tried to share these with other local reefers, but every time they came back with reports of failure. They've grown steadily and adapted well to my reef. In the past few months, I've shared these with about 20 DFWMAS members. I followed up with those people, and had several post success and some growth. One person's melted away.

My reef is run with LR, DSB, refugium, MH lighting, Tunze & VorTech pumps, a large protein skimmer and Calcium Reactor.

I feed the tank daily with my own home-made fish food, and my mixed reef requires that I run fresh carbon actively. I change it out weekly.

I have many colonies of zoanthids throughout the tank. Some are near SPS, others near leathers, still others on the sand and rockwork. I have tiny polyps, medium sized polyps and very large zoanthid polyps.

I don't feel that they have any special needs nor specific requirements such as target feeding, but I do notice when salinity gets too high or too low, they can close up. So when zoas seem to be unhappy, I usually think about checking the salinity. (Salinity at 1.028sg or higher tends to close them up quickly)

I have observed and photographed a Tiger Cowrie chowing down on two patches of zoanthids (small polyped as well as the larger kind). I lent him to a local hobbyist to help him as his tank is overrun with zoas. Imagine that - too many zoanthids. :eek:

Water changes tend to be 55g at least monthly, but lately I'm changing the water more frequently and everything including my zoanthids seem to be happier.
 
Yeah, I'll have to take pictures of each one in my tank and make a thread some time.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10446321#post10446321 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
Yeah, I'll have to take pictures of each one in my tank and make a thread some time.

Marc,

Do you have any macro shots of this colony? Are the skirts orange or more of a copper?

~Mike
 
Somewhere, buried deep. I'll try to find one or get a new picture for you. These are about 20" back from the front glass.
 
Deep copper or burnt orange to my eye... along with a ring of blue which Marc swears is not in there but you can clearly see them in that photo ;)

What makes these so nice is that they are large polyps with nice skirts and a variety of colors.
 
Dave~ Have you tried keeping some??? Just wondering since I know you better than Marc... lol :D

Marc~ What do you attribute your success with these to??? Or perhaps, what do you attribute the failures of others to??? Whichever is easiest to answer... ;) They're gorgeous BTW... Oh, do you supplement any trace elements??? Or perhaps use a certain media that contains trace elements in your calcium reactor???
 
I got a 4 polyp frag from him this last weekend. I put them directly under the light in medium flow. His tank has ALOT of light and plenty of flow so I tried to duplicate as best as I could. I'll see how they do over the coming weeks. These are candidates for overflow decor in my display tank, along with Eagle Eyes, Bubble Gums and RPE's so I hope they do well.

If they grow out for me ct, I'll setup a trade with ya :D I need another set of Jokers and Eclipses for my display tank as the others are sssssssslowly growing in my Paly tank.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10455997#post10455997 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ct_vol
Dave~ Have you tried keeping some??? Just wondering since I know you better than Marc... lol :D

Marc~ What do you attribute your success with these to??? Or perhaps, what do you attribute the failures of others to??? Whichever is easiest to answer... ;) They're gorgeous BTW... Oh, do you supplement any trace elements??? Or perhaps use a certain media that contains trace elements in your calcium reactor???
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10455997#post10455997 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ct_vol
Dave~ Have you tried keeping some??? Just wondering since I know you better than Marc... lol :D

Marc~ What do you attribute your success with these to??? Or perhaps, what do you attribute the failures of others to??? Whichever is easiest to answer... ;) They're gorgeous BTW... Oh, do you supplement any trace elements??? Or perhaps use a certain media that contains trace elements in your calcium reactor???

I'm saying this with a smile, so don't be offended Dave: You're full of crap. :lol: There isn't a hint of blue, no matter how you strangle the polyp. I've looked at them closely, I've seen them in various tanks under all kinds of lighting setups and I've never thought for a second they had any blue in them.

And the reason I'm arguing this point is only because blue is considered valuable and rare and I don't want anyone to feel like I'm misleading them. Call them blue Dave, but when they come to burn down your village, I'll be way the heck over here in Orange land. :D

Here's a picture of them from March 2005.
bytors.jpg


Another
bytors2.jpg


And June 2005
bytors_0620.jpg


Here they are on the blue background of my old prop tank in Sept 05.
bytors_0903.jpg


The best way to keep these growing is to not touch them. If you leave them alone and maintain good water quality, they'll do fine. They've endured very high phosphates (as high as 3.0 with a Salifert test kit) and been in temperatures ranging from 76F to 85F over the past few years. Salinity has varied from 1.020 to 1.028sg and they never looked upset.

I have a calcium reactor and use ARM media. And the only thing I dose is Salifert's Amino Acids when I think about it every few weeks, and Magnesium when the levels drop in the tank.

I don't target feed them, but my home-made food contains cyclop-eeze which they may eat. Matter of fact, because I pour the food into the tank on that end, they are always closed up when the fish eat. I don't know if they are closing up because they just got hit with a bunch of food as an act of preservation or because they all grabbed a meal.

Dave, I'm really just giving you a hard time. If you see blue, that's fine. Just drop off $100 and I'll call it even. :D :fun4:
 
LOL.. Well Randy is an independent observer here. I'm not saying they are blue zoo's, but have blue rings on them!

Randy... do you or do you not see a blue/pruple ring around the base of the skirts on these things??

And Marc... you remember the photo you wouldn't take the other night??? I'm doing that to you at the moment!



:wavehand: :thumbsup: <-- cept it ain't the thumb!



I think alot of the success with these things may be the stability of the pH and Alk, along with your heavy feeding. Your system is pretty clean but you do feed a ton to keep your fat fish so fat. I think your zoos benefit from that along with your lighting. Its a lot of light, but its not blistering.
 
LOL

As the official unbiased observer... I would have to say that the blue may just be in the lighting... If you look at this pic, there isn't a hint of blue... And you can tell that its closer to a whiter lighting spectrum by looking at the sand and background...

bytors2.jpg



Where as if you look at the other pics, where you see the blue ring around the edge of the center, you can see a blue hue to the background as well, indicating actinic supplementation... ;)

bytors_0620.jpg



Sorry Dave!!! I'm still up for the trade though... :lolspin:
 
Too funny... thanks for the unbiased opinion Randy. Marc, they have no blue in them at all, other than when I look at them or they are under supplementation. :) So I guess that means you're out the $100??? See if you had just agreed with me, you'd be a little richer today!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10461518#post10461518 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
<b>All I see is blue.</b> Now show me some green.
lmao.gif


I already gave you some hair algae on that stag frag... what more could you want?
 
I don't think anyone is going to see any green any time soon. Unless we start posting other zoanthids in this thread.

Hey, speaking of which, if any of you have Bytor oranges, post them here. Surely some zoa-heads here have some after all this time.
 
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