One Zoanthid Growing into Another

[JimVision]

Question about one Zoanthid growing into and around another different Zoanthid.

In this photo that I took this morning in my 40 gallon reef I started out with 9 polyps of Orange Bam Bams. They multiplied quickly. Then I got a smaller group of 4 greenish Zoanthids and placed them about 6 inches away from the Bam Bams.

Fast forward one year and the Bam Bams have over grown into the small green Zoanthids. They seem to be peaceful with one another and the contrast looks nice.

My question is, I thought that different kinds of Zoanthids would fight with one another and create a sort of empty war zone space. But instead they have grown into each other and coexist with no problem.

Could these be the same species with just different color algae? Just curious about these beautiful critters.

Cheers!

Jim

 

[jayball]

One will eventually outcompete the other, until then it looks good.

 

[fity2pounder]

From my experience zoas don't usually fight/sting each other like most other corals do. As long as they have somewhere to attach their base to they should be good to go.

 

[josuer302]

All zoas regardless of thier color morph are essentially the same and will not sting each other. Like someone mentioned if you have a color morph that grows faster than another then the faster one will more than likely outcompete the slow growing one and could cause it to die due to it not having a light source.

 

[JimVision]

Very interesting! I'll report back here in several months with an updated photo at the same angle.

Thank you for the replies!

Jim

 

[gallegos]

Can't wait to see the result. I had fire and ice zoa morph with red people eaters