The same?

[Friday Night]

Question.... Bored at wk..

So i have 5 colonys of zoas i have never seen what they look like when opened...

I scatter the 5 colonys of zoas around the world in different waters..

Does colony A become "rastas" do to the enviroment?
Does colony B become "dragon eyes" do to the enviroment?

And so forth....

My question is were all colonys say brown and all the same color prior before placement at one time and then changed into "rastas" "dragon eyes"
due to the enviroment?
OR
Were they "Rastas" "Dragon eyes" from the start?

Thought id tickle your brain.......
:smokin:

 

[kichimark]

There is a trick to this but lets ignore this for now. There
would be some genetic variation among the group of different morphs. A "rasta" placed in another location will not turn into a "utter chaos". It will probably not even make it in the new location. Many times plants an animals have a certain coloration because it was evolutionary sought due to warning colors and/or camoflauge at that particular location.

But I also see a trick to your question in that you do not even know what they are in the first place so they could have been that all along. They could have been browned out but still a certain morph that came to be when placed in a more suitable habitat. So to answer your question both since they could have been all along and if browned out the environment if suitable could bring them back to their original looks.

 

[mallorieGgator]

My thought on this is that environment effects the phenotype of an animal so yes, it is possible for a colony to be brown and over time, due to environment plus genotype form a different color. It would take time but it is possible.

 

[A. Grandis]

The so called "morph" is due to the environment also. Not only the species' qualities.
A same species of Zoanthus could have different polyp colors in the same colony. That would be due to environment differences.
Grandis.

 

[kichimark]

phenotype is an expression by the genotype under environmental influences yes. A color morph difference in the same colony will most likely be due to an expression by genetic variation/mutation or even a suppression of certain alleles. A brown zoanthid colony of the same genotype can be say a red hornet but does a red hornet morph into an utter chaos? not likely.

I bet there are hundreds of possible species/subspecies of zoanthids. I know we just think of them as color morphs but I bet there are many undocumented species here just grouped together.

 

[mallorieGgator]

As they say in my genetic improvement class: phenotype = genotype+environment Geesh it's so hammered into my brain by now I want to barf.

 

[A. Grandis]

Yeap!

 

[kichimark]

haha I know right....so what do you think Friday?

 

[SIR PATRICK]

The brown polyps were rastas and dragon eyes to begin with.

Placement will cause some morphing though, so your rastas and dragon eyes might look a little different than some others, due to nutrients, flow, lighting, and water parameters.