Zoa morph or stress?

[Bluephish13]

Just wondering what causes this? will it stay like this? If i cut the polyp out would it continue to grow with this morph or would the offspring polyps be normal eagle eyes.

A full colony like this would be really bright.

 

[cardiffgiant]

Quick, get it onto coralpedia.com! "URS tye dye watermellon dirt bikes"

It could be both stress and morph. It'll be interesting to see if it progresses. Awesome shot!

 

[Bluephish13]

lol i like how the "dirt bikes" is just thrown in at the end, that seems common in zoa naming.

I have a few with a little green on the purple oral area, but never seen it with this much and never extended into the orange disc.

 

[briangsxr1000]

Pic looks awesome...What kind of camera are you using?

 

[Bluephish13]

just a canon sx20is. i got the canon hack on it but i was not using it on this one. Gives it probably 100 new functions, RAW.

I like it. fun little all in one camera..

 

[tmz]

Nice picture. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Just wondering what causes this? will it stay like this? If i cut the polyp out would it continue to grow with this morph or would the offspring polyps be normal eagle eyes.

Can any of you zoanthid experts address the questions?

I've shrugged off morphs like this in the past but now I have one on a zoanthid colony and I like it as much or more than the "real" coloration, so I was actually planning on trying to do some research on it this week.

 

[tmz]

Don't know any zoanthus "experts" and haven't read aything on how they mutate or whether a color mutation will be replicated as that polyp multiplies if it's a morph. Might be reacting to predation from a pyramid snail, nudbranch ,etc. or bleaching if the polyp released some zooxanthelae or stopped producing some uv protective pigments . Looks healthy though.

 

[cardiffgiant]

I'd love to know if anyone does anything to try to increase the likelihood of a morph.

 

[tent boy]

What kinds of things could be done to create a morph?

 

[cardiffgiant]

What kinds of things could be done to create a morph?

I'm guessing stress, proximity to other zoas, having them bitten by radioactive spiders. Y'know, normal stuff.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Spider zoa, spider zoa
Does anything a spider can

 

[suppressivefire]

I've had that happen before, I notice that it happens most if a polyp stays closed too long. But in most cases the polyp will eventually turn back to it's original colors. But I would say stress related. I keep alot of zoas and palys and some can stay closed up and just bleach a little but stays the same colors. Seems to happen more to the rde,watermelons,eagle eyes etc. Just my thoughts and experience

 

[Bluephish13]

I had been Kalk pasting some palys in the area probably the result of some over spray, or small aiptasia stung it.

Thanks