zoos anyone?
- Thread starter CKreef
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gflat65
New member
I've got a few zoa frags left. I'll need to weed through my 10 gallon to see what is a frag and what is a recovering mother... I know there are a few orange centered frags, and I believe there are a few red with bluish ring frags. I also have brown pipe organ and sarcophyton. $15 on the zoas and $10 on the others. I'll look for some pics...
, I really want to get some softies going in my tank. I would like to get them at the next meet or can arange a time to get them earlier if need be.
gflat65
New member
A recent research paper has come out from Japan (James Reimer). He didi a DNA analysis of different 'zoas'. Many that were once called Protopalythoa (all the people eater varieties, as well as what most people called palythoa before the paper) have been called for redesignation, as a result of his paper, into Zoanthus gigantus. As one person in the zoa forum pointed out, this is just one paper so take what you will from it. However, since this family of corals has had such little research done on it, this paper will likely stick for a while, unless someone sets out to do more testing and disproves something. Reimer tested some 'zoas' that look a lot like RPE's and some common zoas and found them to be close enough to be in the same genus. He also suggests that the Protopalythoa that he tested that didn't fall into the Z. gigantus classification should actually be absorbed by the Paythoa genus. What I have always thought of as Palythoa are a dense mat of polyps, with essentially holes for mouths. There is almost no stalk to a Palythoa (in my traditional thinking). I'm not sure which Proto's were absorbed... I asked about Proto grandis (the big polyps like what Rick has) and was told they had not been tested. The paper has some interesting findings, but cannot cover all possibilities.
That being said, I'd say that what we used to call Protopalythoa may largely be reclassified as Z. gigantus, but some may be classified as one of the four named Palythoa species. Now I'm itching for more research papers to further clarify. I liked being able to call the larger polyped zoas Protopalythoa as a descriptor, since they seem so much different in appearance, but apparently appearance isn't enough of a distinguishing factor (which we know is usually the case in alot of SPS).
Check out this article by Sprung. Some of this may or may not be superceded by Reimers study, but it gives a good idea of what the common thinking on species and genus are.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/invert.htm
I hope that helps more than it confuses... It's still kind of a sticky subject for some.
. I hope to be able to make the meeting tomorrow.Similar threads
