Serious discussion! WILD ZOOS! (eye of rah)

[smp]

I have bought some wild colonies in the past and most recently, this weekend.

First, I would like to outline what kind of equipment I have:

29 gallon
175 watt 14k halide on icecap ballast (coralvue bulb)
moderate water flow throughout the tank



My problem is that the wild fiji colony of zoos that I bought, which looked much like this:

http://www.zoaid.com/index.php?module=Gallery2&g2_itemId=1946

when I first got it, now looks like this:

Notice the faded colour, longer skirts and longer STALKS?
To me it just stinks of light depravation. I've had the zoos in my tank for about six months now. They grow and spread but they look like crap!
Other zoos in my tank, that aren't from fiji, look fine.
These particular zoos are growing on acropora skeletons .. so I'm guessing they are from high up on the reef.
I just purchased some more wild fiji zoos:

and I'm worried the same will happen to them. Though, I think they will hold up better as I've seen them in other people's tanks as well.




So!
If you have bought wild fiji zoos before, please tell me about it!
In particular I'm interested in your experiences with the Eye of Rah or "gold ring" whatever you wanna call em! (I think they're all the same, different tanks, different conditions).

I've seen these zoos in other people's tanks around here and they looked like crap in their tanks too.
I want my colour back! I'm about to spend money on a 250 watt HQI setup but I won't bother if I can't get these to look good.



Also, what's with the long skirts, most of my zoos do this :\


I'm pretty serious about figuring out some of these issues, this isn't your usual "what kind of lighting for my zoos" .. this isn't only about lighting, but about all water quality issues, water movement ..
I want to focus on wild caught fiji zoos to keep this sort of scientific. The eye of rah and it's cousins mostly.

Also, if you happen to know where in the wild these zoos come from, high on the reef, tide pools or what have you (no assuming please), that would be very helpful.
Also, the actual polyps are bigger now than they were when I first got them .. they were flat on the rock and just gorgeous, now they are about 1"/1.5" off the rock and just fuzzy and ugly!

Thank you!!!

 

[organism]

I have a 250w 20k over an oceanic 30 cube and they do well, for some reason I find that zoos do really well under a bluer halide than anything else, are yours too low in the tank?

 

[smp]

Which zoos do you have and what are your water parameters like?

I should add that I'm keeping mine in a tank with a torch, frogspawn, yellow leather, ricordia and some other stuff. Alelopathy couldn't be out of the question I suppose?

The halide is about 8" off the water and the zoos are about 7" from the surface.

And yes, zoos look better under 20k, for sure.
But, the difference that occured in the example zoos can't just be a matter of colour temperature.

 

[surfnvb7]

lol had no idea they were called that.

here is what they looked like when i got them, they were under a 175w 15k XM in a 20g, but in the winter i stuck another 175w 15k XM on there since the heat wasnt too bad and was trying to get some sps to do better.

they havent changed much since then. other than the skirts getting longer in my girl friends tank for some reason, which was a 175w 20k XM (btw all of these were on magnetic ballasts).

i think this was a 6mos pic under the XM 15ks

now i have them under a 250w radium in a 30g. cant say they've changed too much other than growing fast.

i think they looked best under the XM 20k. JMO. i think that the 15k once it turned white made them fade a bit, and the zoas had less *pop*. same thing i'm experiencing with the 5mos old radium bulb at the moment.

definitely one of my favorite zoas.

 

[smp]

Interesting, thank you.

All the good pics of this zoo on zoaid were taken under 20k halides.
Maybe.

Note the colour intensity on this zoo:
http://www.zoaid.com/index.php?module=Gallery2&g2_itemId=895

1000 watt 20k

 

[surfnvb7]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8001826#post8001826 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by smp

1000 watt 20k

on what size tank? thats ridiculous IMO and not necessary. just get several 400's or 250's. corals dont need to be blasted by light to the point they undergo mutation to another color.

 

[smp]

If you look in the other thread with the picture of the wild colony in the tide pool .. I think he said it was 2' deep and 3' wide (something small anyway) .. think about that amount of water under the hot equatorial sun!!!

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=906649

 

[limestro]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8001466#post8001466 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by organism
I have a 250w 20k over an oceanic 30 cube and they do well, for some reason I find that zoos do really well under a bluer halide than anything else, are yours too low in the tank?

I agree. I run 20K 250w MH in a tank full of zoas. I've frag a couple of zoas that were placed under PCs and I've noticed a loss in color, i.e. fading or less vibrant. Also through my experience, water quality can also attribute their loss of color. For example, when I fragged some green skirted zoas and threw them in my "crap tank" due to bad parameters, they bleached or other words turned faded yellow. I've also experienced some zoa morphs that will not sustain their color or pattern under certain lighting configurations and revert back to their previous look. It all depends, but in your case with the "eyes of rah" its just a question of lighting intensity. Hope this helps.

~Mike

 

[mecold]

Um, I have a ton of those. They grow like gangbusters, but seem to lose/gain color on a whim. My colonies came from the soloman islands though. I did notice that the ones that retained their original color liked higher flow and bright lights. The colonies that were place lower changed into a completly diferent zoa all together.

 

[surfnvb7]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8001928#post8001928 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by smp
If you look in the other thread with the picture of the wild colony in the tide pool .. I think he said it was 2' deep and 3' wide (something small anyway) .. think about that amount of water under the hot equatorial sun!!!

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=906649

yeah, but the difference in how much and types of radiation b/w natural light and artificial light is huge. and can no way be perfectly simulated. besides, i imagine it depends alot on how clear the water is, if there are any ozone disturbances, air quality, cloud coverage, storms etc.

there are way too many variables to justify blasting zoas with more light just b/c there is enough light to sunburn a person out in the equitorial regions.

and i've seen plenty of pics of wild zoas that are deeper than 20feet.

so basic fact is that they can live at all depths. and they can change color accordingly. who's to say they live or look better in a shallow area with more light vs a deeper area with less light? they are still growing and look healthy right?

its all subjective reasoning if you ask me.

 

[smp]

I don't think it's subjective at all.
I have zoos that prefer lower light, no doubt about it.

What I'm after is INTENSE colour, not just pretty colours. I like the PPEs and the palys that everyone is going crazy about these days, but my real love for zoos are the ones that are BRILLIANTLY coloured, as in 'intensity'.
Such as the 'eye of rah' or the wild colony in that thread, or the ones under the 1000 watt halides that I linked to.

Regardless.
I'm just trying to figure out if it's lighting intensity alone that brings out those colours or other factors. My frag tank (once set up) will house mostly zoos. What I'm going to do is turn the pumps off at high noon to replicate a tide pool and see what happens. This isn't going to materialize for a while yet however.