The Difference between Palythoas and Protopalythoas

[Jeremy Blaze]

Here are some pics so you may better see the difference between palythoas, and protopalythoas.

Palythoas, the polyps are Embedded in the mat. The mat is made in part by collecting sediments in the substrate and water. The polyps are actuall in the mat, not rising high above, they superficially look similer to a Favia or closed brain coral. The mat is usually light brown, and the polyps are often dual, dark brown. Ocasionaly you will find green ones.

Protopalythoas, look much like a large Zoanthid. The polps rise high above (1/2"-3") and can be found in much greater colors, however brown and green are most comon.


Palythoas

Palythoas on right, 3 colonies of Protopalythoas lower left

More images to follow.

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Protopalythoas, polyps open

Protopayltoas, polyps closed

Palythoas Polyps closed

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Protopalythoas, polps open

Polyps closed

 

[Reef Junkie]

Great pics.
Is there any difference in care for these colonies?

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Palys love the light, the more the better. They will also spread over anything, no coral is safe from them.

Protopalythoas, are tolerent of lesser amounts of light and may even prefer it. Not quite as aggresive either.

 

[Reef Junkie]

Ah, so what you're saying is as far as care, be careful not to place a Palythoa colony near another coral. They grow similarly to Green Star polyps.
And that Palythoas will not survive in low light situations.
You're Palythoas are nice and solids greens are not a common sight. The colonies I've seen are mostly doodoo brown.

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

You got it! Thanks for the kind words!

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Just wanted to bump this up, as it should be useful to others.

 

[acrylic_300]

How bout some pronunciations. I always like to pronounce things.

pay-lee ? pal-lee? anyone know?

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Bump in case anyone cares to learn.

 

[gflat65]

There is a recent article floating around that almost removes Protos from the game... It is just one and will take a while to work into 'law', but genetically what we normally call Proto's (people eaters and the like) have been classified as Z. gigantus. There was suggestion that Proto's don't even exist as their own genus, but have been absorbed into the Palythoa genus. Sine so limited testing has been done, this doesn't definitively mean there are no Protos (as I think Proto grandis may be still a little differet?), but it does hurt a zoa nazi like me... I liked Proto's as a descriptor...

 

[jreimer]

Paly/Protopaly/Zoanthus

Paly/Protopaly/Zoanthus

Couple quick comments - and cool to see people discussing what species/group/morph is what.

1. What people here seem to call zoas or zoanthids (the genus Zoanthus) do NOT take up sand to help make their structure. What people call PPEs etc. are a species in Zoanthus.

2. Palythoa and Protopalythoa DO take up sand to make up their structure. Also, what Glfat said is probably true - these two genera are really closely related, although we need to examine more samples, and most likely just one genus (Palythoa). That doesn't mean you can't still use Paly and Protopaly to distinguish between morphs.

3. zoanthids=general term for all the things we are discussing here - Zoanthus, Palythoa, Protopalythoa, and others! (but not Ricordia).

Cool pics posted by Jeremy too.

james

 

[ReefWifey]

I have a few frags that I've bought as 'RPE', and GreenStardust PE. I can't figure out how to make them happy.

This is them during happier days. Looking at them now, I'm not sure I'd call them 'PEs'. So your saying this are zoanthus, and not protos?

This is a picture of the "RPE" not happy. Its actually worse than this now, very shrunk looking, just barely sticking out its skirts.

I've tried giving them more light, less light, more flow, less flow. They are under PCs right now and I know thats not the strongest light, but they are right up under there. Water params are decent, they are currently in my husbands tank which tends to have some nitrite kicking around, but they are doing better in there then my nano.

Any ideas on what they actually are and how to get them to be happy again?

Thanks!
Kam

 

[twon8]

look like rpe's, and mine do well about a foot under a 400w 20k xm they like a lot of flow also

 

[Azurel]

I had the same issue with a colony of those and a bunch of polyps mixed in that people call Tie-dye PEs. I have lost all but 4 polyps of the green TDPEs. I think it is an internal bacterial infection cause when I pulled them out and cut one open DANG it stunk like pulling a rotting snail out of your tank. When I cut it open there was a brown jelly type material that was filling the stolen of the polyp.

Great pics Jeremy......Is it true that nudi's don't touch the Ptotopalythoas and palythoas. I know I have never seen nudis on or heard of them being on Protopalythoas.

 

[gflat65]

Not sure on the nudis, but my rabbitfish (scribbled) doesn't seem interested in Z. gigantus (people eaters). It devoured about 8 colonies in less than four days of regular/smaller Zoanthus sp., but still hasn't touched the ones I left in the tank. Now it's moved on to my more expensive acans... There may be something to the larger polyped varieties...

 

[jreimer]

Reefwifey,

Tough to tell from a photo, but yeah, I would say those are Zoanthus.

One other aside, the reason potential predators avoid Palythoa etc. may be due to palytoxin in Palys (and Proto). It is one of the strongest toxins found in nature, and lots of zoanthids are speculated to have it (maybe Z. gigantus too), as well as zooxanthellae. It is one of the few things that protects lots of clonal cnidarians.

j

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Bump

 

[MinibowMatt]

OMG! this thread is over a year old!

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Old but still has useful info.