Purple Hornets

Gdevine

Gdevine

Premium Member
Posted this in Reef Discussions...probably belongs here.

We had a decent frag swap here in Fort Lauderdale over the past weekend and I did good picking up two gorgeous quad-colored rics for 16 bucks! I got there late and my LFS EcoReef Aquarium in Pompano Beach FL sold a rock the size of a softball covered with Purple Hornet Zoas!!! I thought he was going to frag the rock and I'd get a few polyps for sure in the afternoon...but no luck...someone knew what they saw and bought them all up.

Turns out the guy had buyers remorse and returned the rock the same day...he paid hundreds of dollars and I think his wife freaked out to tell you the truth.

At any rate, I stop by the store tonight and low and behold, there were the Purple Hornets! Well I didn't wait, I picked up about 10 polyps from a frag and promptly went home and mounted them in the tank totally fired up!

If you don't know; Purple Hornets are a morph of zoanthids that comes from Indonesia. They are a stunning with a purple backdrop with a yellow/green ring and faint white mouth. The Purple Hornet's unique alternating skirt color matches it's base and ring stops every Zoanthid collector in their tracks and you got to see it to believe it.

Below is a crappy photo I just took after mounting them in the tank. They are a bit ornery as you can see but it didn't take all but 5 minutes for them to start to open. They will need some time to color up and take hold but this is a real treat and something you don't get a chance at very often as they are very rare Zoa's indeed.

BlueHornets.jpg


If you're interested in these animals here a link to a good article:

http://www.coralpedia.com/articles005.php
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15035869#post15035869 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by IridescentLily
Never heard of them.
Click to expand...

I believe they are a morph of 808's 'pimple ho-nutz'
 
They are a morph, and these may or may not be true Purple Hornets; on close inspection they do look like them but I won't really know till they color up and grow out some...but they sure are nice either way.
 
Gdevine-

Take some time to read through some of the blue/purple hornet posts, the blue steele, AOI's, deepwater zoas and african zoanthid posts. You will most likely come across some very usefull info on the polyps you got there.

Good luck with your polyps.

You used to be from michigan right?? I could be wrong, but the name and pennstate tag are both very familiar....
 
Man! This has become a hot topic down here!

I was at the same swap and i'm 99.9% sure that those are NOT hornets. I didn't actually see them but heard enough people talking about them.

I don't think those guys have the alternating color skirts do they? I love the guys at Eco reef but before you get too excited, i dont think you have the "true" hornets.
 
p.s.- i'm betting the "buyers remorse" was when he got home, got on the net and realized he didnt have alternating skirts and hence not "true" hornets.

Once he realized he couldn't frag them and sell them for $100 a polyp, back they went;)
 
pimple ho-nutz

Ive said it before, but thats funny right there


the word purple hornet has become annoying, and I like the name game as well as would call myself a serious collector, but I honestly dont even want any at this point.

I would rather put a couple thousand of them in a bowl with some sugar and milk and eat them until I drop dead before I would put them in my tank at the moment.

I dont care if theres any dangerous toxins in them or not, I bet if you ate enough of them it would kill you
 
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<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15036628#post15036628 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by flyyyguy
pimple ho-nutz

Ive said it before, but thats funny right there


the word purple hornet has become annoying, and I like the name game as well as would call myself a serious collector, but I honestly dont even want any at this point.

I would rather put a couple thousand of them in a bowl with some sugar and milk and eat them until I drop dead before I would put them in my tank at the moment.

I dont care if theres any dangerous toxins in them or not, I bet if you ate enough of them it would kill you
Click to expand...

lol Flyyyguy. Just lol.

I know eleventeen threads about the bloody things really kill me sometimes.

*runs over virtual purple hornets with my virtual car*
 
To be sure Gdevine...........I am just joking, and in no way directed anything I said at you or your post. Just making fun of a topic that the horse has been beaten, kicked, shot, stabbed, raped, killed, and then raped again on, which im sure you were unaware of,

They are nice polyps, and good luck with them :)
 
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I love Zoanthids and every type of species has thrived in my tank. I don't buy because it's "rare" but more because you don't see this color combination in may types of Zoa's.

I've got ten heads and paid $5 per so let's see what happens...if they take, color up and spread then I got my monies worth.

Only time will tell...

Peace
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15035982#post15035982 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SIR PATRICK
Gdevine-

Take some time to read through some of the blue/purple hornet posts, the blue steele, AOI's, deepwater zoas and african zoanthid posts. You will most likely come across some very usefull info on the polyps you got there.

Good luck with your polyps.

You used to be from michigan right?? I could be wrong, but the name and pennstate tag are both very familiar....
Click to expand...

Not from MI. Am a tried and true Nittany Lion though.
 
Our club out here in california bought a colony of blue lanters and fragged it up. Only problem is it seams that almost every frag darkened and shriveled up and were gone after a few weeks. Even the few frags that survived arent really looking that good. Anyone else experience problems with these lanterns?
 
These specific polyps just like Jap.Deepwaters are all susceptible to melting, even if they look good for a couple weeks, months then all the sudden gone downhill within days.

I guess that's what happens with wild colonies, that are chopped, transhipped and sold as fast as it gets in the LFS. They don't get time to adapt to tank life. mortality rates are very high on these blue hornets/steel blue and what ever else creative name someone wants to give these polyps.
 
they look like AOE or whatever they are being called these days to me.

painfully common right now and any connection to purple hornet is purely a grasp to get a higher price then they are really worth.

and I would say 5$ a polyp was on the high side. for a single polyp sure, costs that much to be bothered to frag it, but as a 10polyp frag, Id be willing to spend 20-25 tops. seems everyone and their sister have these right now.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15042133#post15042133 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by areze
they look like AOE or whatever they are being called these days to me.

painfully common right now and any connection to purple hornet is purely a grasp to get a higher price then they are really worth.

and I would say 5$ a polyp was on the high side. for a single polyp sure, costs that much to be bothered to frag it, but as a 10polyp frag, Id be willing to spend 20-25 tops. seems everyone and their sister have these right now.
Click to expand...

I am certain now that what I have are either African Blues or Florida Blues with the former being more likely. I paid $60 for 10 polyps fragged directly from the mother colony so I am satisfied with the deal...just wasn't aware so much of the mortality rate. Day two and all polyps are open and bending towards the light which is a good sign. Zoa's thrive in my tank (run EcoSystem method) so only time will tell...but they do look good...so far.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15042133#post15042133 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by areze
they look like AOE or whatever they are being called these days to me.

painfully common right now and any connection to purple hornet is purely a grasp to get a higher price then they are really worth.

and I would say 5$ a polyp was on the high side. for a single polyp sure, costs that much to be bothered to frag it, but as a 10polyp frag, Id be willing to spend 20-25 tops. seems everyone and their sister have these right now.
Click to expand...

Just one comment on your post; you say "seems everyone and their sister have these right now..." where is that coming from? I am very active in the hobby here in South Florida collect Zoa's and can tell you directly that's not the case here. What do you base this comment on? Tell me.
 
^ probably the sheer amount of threads on these the past few weeks, a few LFS here in Phoenix have a TON of them...pretty cheap too.

I would also say that these are a very common polyp right now.
 
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