colors

[TMNZ]

Stupid question

If you buy a zoo with not much color, does it have the potential to color up more.

You see acros that are brown but you can get them to change to greens, blues etc

Is this the same for zoos?

 

[SeanT]

I do not believe this too be the case so much.
In acros, the expulsion of some of their zooanthelle algae, due to lowered nutrients, is one of the contributing factors for them 'coloring' up.

 

[gflat65]

Some do color up. Typically, the difference comes when you change lighting (PC-VHO/MH), but some will morph continually (seemingly).

 

[Reef Junkie]

I find my Zoanthids do color up, but it all depends on your tanks chemistry.
I've had brown turn yellow, pink turn orange, green turn purple...
Alkalinity seems to play a large role in coloration, IME.

If you keep your Alkalinity at a high stable level, your corals will color up more"." That is assuming you're taking care of the rest of the params (temp, salinty, calcium, current, light...)

 

[mecold]

I can say I bought a brown colony, and now it has reds, oranges, and greens. It was under very poor lighting at the store though.

 

[tekknoschtev]

Its sort of a highly dependant thing. I tend to see bits of the color poking through in the store, but as mecold said, the brown likely comes from very poor lighting. Its expensive for stores to keep all of their tanks properly lit to show off the best colors.

At any rate - I've had some corals color up nicely, some change colors but they remained nice, and others just turn more brown It really depends on the zoanthid. If you look at the zoa closely and see some other underlying color (sometimes it has hints of color to it, but very subtle) then give it a shot. Its still a gamble, but chances are the boring brown ones are cheaper so it makes the risk easier to take.

 

[IsThisNameTaken?]

I have basically nothing but zoanthids in my tanks and I have found that they will definitely color up or change color depending on lighting, params, and where they are located in the tank. I have some blue zoos that went from a nice blue(LFS) to all the way brown with no blue (directly under a 150watt metal halide) to a neon baby blue with red skirt (indirect light from a 70watt halide). In answer to your question... IME they definitely can change color and will change color for a # of different reasons.

 

[furforfour]

I agree. I have gotten many different brown zoas from the lfs I work at, which are kept under 2 year old PCs, and taken them home to my tank and been baffled by the color. Also, my friend and I went to a guy's house the other day who was selling all livestock. He had some pale brown and green zoas in his tank, my friend bought them and under his lighting they turned out to be eagle eyes. I do believe this all to be due to lighting; I dont think any physical change goes on in the actual zoanthid.

 

[TMNZ]

I hope this dose not change color then.

 

[oceana]

absolutely... I always find out what kind of lights the store has them under and how high over the water the lights are placed makes a big difference too.
One of my hobbies is trying to spot the cool colorful zoas at some of the local stores that don't offer enough lighting to get true color from the zoas
I've gotten several that appeared brownish at the store and were incredible when I got them in my tank (just look in my gallery for some of my great finds) ... you just gotta know how to spot them and have good enough lighting in your tank to bring out the color