Zoanthus - Button Polyps

Zoanthus sp.
Pretty Colors!

We've wanted zoo's for a while now, and I thought I'd wanted to get a few seperated groups of the same color. But then we saw this one, and we decided we like the sporadic colors even better!

So many different colors!

Made up of green, red, and purple (which we later found out were just green ones that hadn't colored up yet). The green ones glow brightly under the actinic lights. The red/pink ones are very pretty all day long.

The red/pink ones seem to be doing the best (not sure why), as they are always the most open, and have gotten to be the largest ones. But the green ones seem to have the best placement (along the outer rims). I think new growth outward from the colony will be the bright green ones. But then again, I don't know a whole lot about how they populate, so I could be completely wrong. (wouldn't be a first, and it wouldn't be the last time either)

You can see how the red ones dominate.
But the green ones have good placement, strategically.


This coral has the same basic principles of colonies that I explained in the description of the Green Star Polyp, as do most corals in general. They are made up of a bunch of colonizing independent polyps.

One difference is that they don't grow the same. This coral grows by budding. That means that a new polyp will start to "bud" out from the base of a stalk (one polyp).

At night, all the polyps close up, and what was once colorful becomes quite dull.
(Accept for the few still not fully closed)

Zoos come in SOOO many colors.

We got this really neat clear one at the MACNA convention this year.
It's got a very small green/yellow mouth, but it pretty much clear
everywhere else. VERY neat!



And during a very fun road trip to That Pet Place, we found these really nice peach ones. HAD to get them!




FRAG SWAP: I've decided to partake in a Zooanthus frag swap. A Frag swap is where you take a few polyps from your coral, and give them away, in exchange for a few polyps from someone elses coral.

Here is the frag I traded
(you can read more about the whole thing here)
In return, I got some Zoo's and some Palythoa's sent to me.
We used a simple thermos to mail them back and forth.
(CAUTION: This only works with REALLY hardy corals like
Zoo's and Palythoas)

However hearty zoo's may be, only ONE of the Zoo polyp's
I received survived. However, that's all that really needs to survive.
The one will soon start budding off little daughter polyps!

Here's a pic of what I got (sent via US Postal Service):


I'd super-glued the loose zooanthids to a flat rock I'd had in the tank, then I let them acclimate for about an hour. I then took a bucket of RO/DI water and gave them both a quick 10 seconds fresh-water dip to kill off any hitchhiking parasites. I then immediately placed them in the tank.

After all that, here's what ended up surviving:
<-- Palythoa's


Zoo Polyp -->

They went in tank on September 30th, so they don't look like much now, but I'm VERY excited to see these guys start budding, and coloring up! VERY excited! hahaha

Make sure you check back later for updated pic's and news on how they're doing!


Red/Green zoos were added to the tank on April 10th 2005, from the Pet Loft, Mt Airy, MD. Clear/Yellow zoos were added September 17th, 2005, purchased from the Dr. Mac's Corals booth at the MACNA convetion.
Orange/Peach zoos added on August 11th, 2005, from That Pet Place. Zoo Swap frags added on September 30th, from Roger.


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Last updated 11/22/05