Question; will browned zoas color back up?

[halcyonism]

My LFS has had some zoas in their tanks for almost a year now under sub par lighting, needless to say they are quite brown looking now. They have offered to sell them to for a pretty good price, but I am not sure it is worth the risk. Is there a chance they will color back up to their former glory under good lighting and tank parameters?

 

[reeflord]

If your water parameters are right, and you have the right lighting, it might take some time but those zoas should color back up...

 

[flounderfish]

Good news! I have the same question. (thanks for starting the thread for me)

 

[A. Grandis]

...and still have to acclimate them carefully to the new light, as always.

I've never had a "damaged" zoa coming back to it's "former glory" yet, when the problem was low light. Say, the zoa was behind a rock with low light and I've got it back on the rock after more than 6 months. Brownish looking, and most of the time with a longer shape. It never came back to the same look as it was, or like the others, from the same original colony, when placed on the rocks with proper light/flow, etc...

Sometimes they fade because of the brighter light, after moved back to the rock, but the colors won't come back the same, and many times they have their shapes compromised mainly because of the low light environment they were for a while.

Normally they "morph", as we say, and all I can tell is that apparently they loose some tissue pigment abilities (vitamins, and others) in the process. The pigments are kept by the polyps when there is enough light and they are kept only because the light is there. I don't know how that works and don't know anyone that can fully explain this "morph" stuff yet. It's hard to figure out where those pigments come from and how they get into the organism, so who knows how can we help the polyps? The pigments normally are transferred from the parents (frag) or they are added from the water in the natural environment, I guess (possibly live food/ absorption in the wild) (?). In the tank this process is much, much harder to happen because of the close system and the limit of availability of those pigments (basically zero), mainly because we don't know what and how to offer them to the polyps for the proper original color. Plus, skimmer,...

Possibly the pigments are mainly genetically transferred, and after totally lost, most of them are really gone for good. In that case, the time on the low light environment will determinate if they could "produce" more of the original pigments (colors).

I don't think you should expect them to come back, but the possibilities will depend on the time they were in the low light environment, the particular species' abilities for light adaptation, type of light change and more...

Try to know for how long they were in the low light environment.

It's a gamble, most of the time we'll loose. Sorry.

I'm sure some people here know about this subject and I'm waiting for their posts, so I can learn more...

Grandis.

 

[Cptn Spaulding]

ive seen horribly bleached or browned zoas/palys come back within a few months of getting more light. i believe their color is in part due to the amount of zooxanthellae in them, and when they arent getting enough light, more is necessary, thus changing the color. once they are getting the right amount of light, the color should change back unless the whole aforementioned "morphing" thing happens, which tends to be common in softies and acros ive noticed, while most lps just need time to go back to their former glory. ive also heard of similar species trading zooxanthellae, like acan lords and zoas, where one colony will give some of an adjacent or touching colony of similar or identical species some of their color. ive witnessed this with acans in my tank, where my orange ones were next to some pink ones, and the pink ones started to get an orange rim on the outside of the oral disc. if you look at combo zoa rocks in certain stores you will see slight differences in some, and every once in awhile a couple very different ones like the two were melded together will be thrown in there, but i digress. feed them if possible and keep giving them enough light and eventually they will color up. i have some blue steels that are legitimately poop brown right now and every few days i notice more blues in the middle of them. it takes a lot of time and patience but it can be done! hope this helps