Morphing zoas

[partsguy247]

How many of you have had zoa's morph colors? It has happened to me twice. Could it be some short of cross pollination?

 

[Kdocimo90]

2 or 3

 

[650-IS350]

A Bunch of times.

 

[ura]

2 times

 

[mtc1966]

i have some what i believe are palys changing from green to steal blue right now.

 

[Fishindude88]

I don't think it is like cross pollination but more of a reaction based on environment from my understanding.
I have had a plain dark green polyp morph into what is now a nice blue. I have also had my Rainbow palys morph under PC lighting and then morph back to its original color under T5s over the course of several months.

 

[Reef Bass]

+1 for it not being cross pollination, if for no other reason than zoos are animals, not plants.

It's more a function of water chemistry and lighting. I've had bland brown zoos color up nicely to various bright colors.

It can go the other way too with the specific color pattern fading / changing to something else, again depending on water and lighting. My Darth Mauls now have fewer orangey specks, a more defined center mouth color and longer tentacles than when I got them. Still very awesome. This pic isn't incredibly recent, but you get the idea.

 

[flyyyguy]

if you keep any given polyp long enough, as well as pay attention 100% of the polyps you keep can and will morph based on the environent they are in, some can do it more drastically than others

 

[manhorsedog]

ok i have a question, is cross pollination possible? I have poseidon's fury on a rock with purple haze and or alien eyes and the purple palys that are the most close to the poseidon's are starting to get a peach like color in the center. The rest of the purple polys not close or touching the poseidon's have not changed at all.

 

[flyyyguy]

its an animal...not a plant so while I seldom will delve into the true biology and science of these animals, I can tell you with absolute cerrtaintly that cross pollination between polyps is an impossibility

 

[betamed]

cross pollination no, but is it not possible for corals to exchange zoax?

 

[YoungReefer06]

I know some stony corals can change their zooxanthellae, but the bright colors in the zoas is pigments not the zooxanthellae, thats why if you move them to lower light the zooxanthellae multiply to make up for it and the polyps colors fades and the density of the gold/brown zooxanthellae increases.

 

[Blurp]

Might be related to the light length? Read some zoaxanthelidae capture better some light ranges than others, thus, different lamps at the same depth could cause a morph in colour, as well as moving the colony up or downwards in the tank?

 

[Ynotme4886]

I had a whole colony of orange Bams morph on me....I am left with about 6 polyps out of a whole colony of them.

Here are a few pics of the colony in the middle of the morph...half have changed and half are still bams.

Dont know what they morphed into but its a definite disappointment to say the least

 

[Skeptic_07]

umm.. your orange polyps didnt morph into that, they are being crowded out by another type of polyp. just a single polyp that reproduces faster than the rest of the colony can reproduce and take over the rock and crowd out all the other polyps on the rock.

 

[Ynotme4886]

Ummm when I got the colony they were all orange....there were no other colour or type of zoos on the rock.

The colour that they morphed into is only located on this rock in my tank and am now down to about 10 orange polyps left out of a colony of 60 plus polyps.

Am tempted to frag them to see if I can salvage a few

 

[IridescentLily]

Wow, this is interesting, it looks like you've got three zoanthids on that rock; a dragon eye on the top middle, orange bam bams, and gorilla nipples (or something close to gorilla nipples).

I often wondered if the others simply "jumped ship". Survivial of the fittest and all that.
I had understood that if there are a bunch of various of zoanthids together, that some of them might acquiesce to the others' growth taking over the territory (rock).
Could this be the case here?

When they are very small or closed up is it possible that they were very hard to see on the rock initially?
Does anyone know?

Again, pardon my ignorance, but i am curious incase this happens when i get some.

 

[Ynotme4886]

Actually the top polyp is in the process of changing into the polyps on the left side of the colony.

First the skirt slowly changes and then the center goes from a full bright orange and shrinks down into a small orange yellow center.

I'll try to get a few more pics tonight....I have a few that are in the middle of changing and have the bright orange centers.

As for another zoo overgrowing them.....they had sat near a colony of coco pinks for the last year.....so no possibility of something doing that.

 

[Ebob954]

My orange eclipse some have morphed into reverse gorialla nipples.

 

[partsguy247]

My zoas morphed but not because of light. What i am refering to is when a zoa rock that I have had for awhile all of the sudden a single zoa pops up with a little different color or pattern.