what's the difference

[raoul]

Okay all you zoanthid enthusiasts, I've been looking and reading the different threads and have a question. I've seen different terminology and assume that there are some different types of corals under this heading, I was hoping someone could explain what the following are, how they're different from each other and how they're similar.

zoanthid

palythoa

protapalthoa (?)

I'm hoping I spelled those correctly. Do the different names have something to do with the size of the zoa, the length of the skirt, or their eating habits?

I've been getting interested in zoas since we're moving quite a bit from our 30 into our 75. In the 30 we'll be leaving some things, but it will probably end up being mostly the anemone tank (we have a sebae that we don't plan on moving over). We may have a few sps in there, but I would love to place a variety of colors in there and I love the way these look.

Thank you!

 

[chris2222000]

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=626249

HTH
Chris

 

[gflat65]

Long and short of what James is saying in that thread is that most of the items people call zoas (smooth coenenchyme with no particulate uptake) are Zoanthus sp. The larger polyped zoas with white striping on the underside of the oral disc (commonly called people eaters-PPE, RPE, GPE, etc.) are Zoanthus gigantus. PE's used to be called (and still are in many circles) Protopalythoas. As James mentioned, Protopalythoa will likely be incorporated into the Palythoa genus. Paylthoas (and non PE, etc., Proto's) take up sand and particulate matter (look at common button polyps and you can see the particules). Typically, a Palythoa has very little coenenchyme (stalk), as they usually appear as a mat with openings that form mouths. There may be some sort of stalk, but it is usually out of proportion with the oral disc size. This does not include the non PE Proto's (namely button polyp types).

Essentially, the smaller smooth stalked zoas you see are typically Zoanthus. The larger variety of smooth stalked zoas with white striping (the people eaters) are Zoanthus gigantus (still called Protopalythoa by many). The larger variety of zoas with stalks that look speckled by particulate are Palythoas. Many people have always called Proto's Paly's, which can confuse things. With recent learnings, it may end up that the button polyps (particulate stalked larger zoas) will be classified as Paly in the end. I still call all larger polyped varieties Proto's (even though I know Z. gigantus is not a Proto), the smaller varieties Zoanthus, and the thick mat with no stalked polyps Paly's. When the word zoa is used, it is typically a generalized work meaning all types (Zoanthus, Palythoa, Protopalythoa, Acrozoanthus, Parazoanthus, etc.). This may have further muddied the water. The biggest issue is that there is no solid convention for most people (even though science is bringing us around to the labelling convention)...

 

[raoul]

At some point I may take some pictures and just ask. I'm a very visual person and it really helps to "see" what people are talking about. It looked like one of the supplied links had pictures, but it no longer exists. Thanks for the info guys, I'll keep reading and trying to figure it out too. I'm not a complete idiot, but I had no idea what some of the words meant! So thank you for clarifying those for me!