Zoa question

A

Ajholms0427

Member
I am wondering can zoa morph together. If two different zoas are put on the same plug is it possible that perhaps down the line one of the babies be a combination of the two?
 
Ajholms0427 said:
I am wondering can zoa morph together. If two different zoas are put on the same plug is it possible that perhaps down the line one of the babies be a combination of the two?
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I would have to say no. I have a rock with roughly 7 different zoas and palys on it and none have done that.

Usually morphing is due to the environment that your corals are in. More specifically your lighting and nutrients. They will sometimes change colors on you but the newly formed polyps will exhibit the characteristics of the polyp it shares its matting with.

I am sure some of the more seasoned znp keepers will be able to elaborate on this a bit better though.
 
DD said:
I would have to say no. I have a rock with roughly 7 different zoas and palys on it and none have done that.

Usually morphing is due to the environment that your corals are in. More specifically your lighting and nutrients. They will sometimes change colors on you but the newly formed polyps will exhibit the characteristics of the polyp it shares its matting with.

I am sure some of the more seasoned znp keepers will be able to elaborate on this a bit better though.
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So a scrambled egg zoa could morph into a totally different zoa as in color but still have the scrambled egg characteristics?

I was wondering how people come up with new morphs
 
steveo9043 said:
So a scrambled egg zoa could morph into a totally different zoa as in color but still have the scrambled egg characteristics?

I was wondering how people come up with new morphs
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They would just change some of their coloration more or less.

One of my colonies is Utter Chaos. I have roughly 40 polyps on the colony. Half of it is in brighter light, the other half is growing in the shade. The polyps that are in the brighter light are the natural utter chaos coloration. The ones growing in the shade are more purple and orange.

I'm assuming that if I were to move the entire colony under the same lighting conditions, they would all look the same.

Now as far as nutrients go, I've never really messed around with dosing anything other than cal, alk, and mag. I've read quite a few stories about people dosing vitamin c and it has increased the colors of znps, but not caused them to morph. There was one thread where the person had stopped dosing vitamin c and saw the znps respond and look better.

There really isn't a rhyme or reason for them morphing. The only one I know of for sure is lighting.
 
My understanding is

Color on a coral is its protection against light and they regulate the ratio of amounts of pigment and zooxanthelia which provide them with food based on how strong the light is.

So, for instance a scrambled egg zoa no matter what's sitting next to it would change color based on the light you provide it with. Lower light might make it loose color and turn brown ( which means its decreasing the color pigment in the surface and accumulating more zooxanthelia which is actually in golden brown color. But as soon as its given proper lighting it starts transforming back to its original color ( only when it's done slowly, is there is too much light all of a sudden there isn't enough pigment to protect it and it just melts away.

Now there is another case of palys/zoas which belong to the same family but are different colors then there might be chance of them morphing together

Well all this is just my 3 cents ;)
 
Just to add to what Krishna said - different zoas require different lighting to bring out the right colors. So some do well shaded in low light, and some do better in high light :) Give them the wrong lighting, and they will shift colors, some to the point of not looking quite right.
 
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