Does this sound possible?

[bkztrini465]

Hey everyone I know this might sound a little ok maybe really stupid but I was wondering if you put to frags of zoos to grow together would they eventually mix and form a new type of polyp?? Has anyone had this happen?
-Kris

[mightymouse]

hmm ive never tryed it but it seems like a plausible idea i mean if they crossbred it could be done but i dont know if zoas breed or just reproduce by making copies does anyone else know this?

[Confooseld]

Doesn't sound possible to me.

[Nuhtty]

Zoos breed by budding off...they dont have zoanthid sex, unfortunately.

[bkztrini465]

Hmmmm I guess thats true. Woulda been cool though. I just got curious wondering how all the new different color combos came about.

[Nuhtty]

Originally posted by bkztrini465
Hmmmm I guess thats true. Woulda been cool though. I just got curious wondering how all the new different color combos came about.

The zoo milkman comes by when daddy zoo is at work

[Nuhtty]

Anyway, more than likely they are just individual variations that (for whatever reason) prosper more than the other color morphs within neighboring colonies.

Perhaps a particular color is less prone to being picked at by fish or inverts or a certain color is able to get more light.

Makes you wonder what sort of zoo colors we can see if we continually grow them in our tank

[Reef Junkie]

From my experience, when zoas colonies mix, one will eventually outcompete the other for space. The less aggressive colony recedes and eventually dies.
I have not yet seen a mixed colony that both species survive over time. (usually years) Unless they both have room to grow in separate directions.
Keep this in mind for the long haul.

[whodah]

i remember the site 'megazoos' claiming to have made morphs by 'years of proprietary matting techniques' (or something to that effect) which is all he'd say about it...

not vouching for it, just remembering it, heh!

but i have seen colonies for example that are green on one side, brown on another, then green w/ brown speckles in the middle. always made me wonder!

[whodah]

hrm... 'cloning', not 'matting'... sorry bout that! went off memory, heh!

We have spent the last 2+ years coming up with a industry first. It can be called cloning. I cannot share this process with you....

Our process constantly amazes us with new colors developing in every new generation of zoos.

http://web.archive.org/web/200404161....megazoos.com/

[tekknoschtev]

Originally posted by Nuhtty
Anyway, more than likely they are just individual variations that (for whatever reason) prosper more than the other color morphs within neighboring colonies.

Perhaps a particular color is less prone to being picked at by fish or inverts or a certain color is able to get more light.

Makes you wonder what sort of zoo colors we can see if we continually grow them in our tank

Evolution at work I personally agree that with the newly budded polyps eventually there may be some variation to them which gives that new variation a slightly higher survival rate given its current location in the world.

In a home aquarium setup, I'm not sure how long it would take to actually see any noticeable differences, considering for the most part, we try to limit the amount of damage our corals get, and pick tankmates that are more suited for a community tank (ie. ones that wont chew up your prized corals) so they really wouldnt have much of a reason to change.

Another thing to think about is that if this was the case, and there wasnt just some random "chance" thrown in there, that most of the zoanthids from a given area would assimilate to a common color. But in the wild, I have seen pictures of two VERY distinctly different colonies of zoanthids right next to eachother. I'm a firm believer in Evolution with a little pinch of "whateverelseisleftover" thrown in.

[mightymouse]

im sure u could inject one colony with genes from another if one of u out ther is a gentic engineer or something lol there could be a great market in selling genetically enginered coral it worked for those genetically engineered glofish

[MinibowMatt]

I have a colony that is half green stars/half purple centers.. in the middle, they are starting to be sort of mixing.. some have purple stars, some have green centers, some are green centers with touches of purple etc... I have often felt they were morphing from being close to each other...

[bkztrini465]

Matt, Do you have any pictures? It would be really cool to see. I'm in the process of making some frags and putting them together and seeing what happens over time. Maybe 2-3 polyps of each on a small piece of rock rubble.

[Reef Junkie]

Boy, I hate to be the ney-sayer, but this normally will not happen.
the only true explaination to variations in zoanthid color morphs is location, water conditions and sexual cross fertilization.
Placing corals next to one another will not create a color morph.
That's like placing my beat up Saturn next to a Shelby hoping to get some of it attributes...
Anyway, I don't mean to say that the idea has no meritt, but it just doesn't happen that way. Corals have built in defense mechanisms (palytoxins in zoanthids) that prevent other corals (zoanthids) from just connecting to them and changing the colors/species. As with other corals, when they encounter each other, the more agressive coral will out compete for space by growing over the other.
In the wild, if you encounter a mixed colony, be sure that it is at war. If they're both aggressive, then the war can last a long time. Plus there is also the potential to have enormous growing areas.

Yet, there is also the very common occurance of corals changing colors when they arrive in our individual tank; even tank to tank.
Browns turn red/purple/green/yellow/blue... And vise versa.

Then there is chemically enhanced corals (painted fish ) by using certain chemicals that claim to bring out brighter color from corals. That is a whole other topic most people aren't ready to tackle.

Otherwise, when I see two completely different zoanthid colonies form one animal, then I'll believe it. Hasn't happened yet...

Bill

[bkztrini465]

Bill,
Really good points you have there. I guess it takes more than placing em together. Thanks for the insight.
-Kris

[gflat65]

I've got some that that started out as orange centered and green skirted, but as new ones have popped up on the same rock, I have some that look like the center is tye dyed (mixture of the green skirts and orange centers. I'll see if I can document it...

[Azurel]

Zoanthids if they are from the same species then the genetics will be the same. Like dogs although they are different they all can breed with one another. Take Zoanthus sociatus for example if you have two colonies that are next to each other but the only difference is color then the actual physiology of the genes is the same except for the trait that determines color of the polyp alone. The difference in color does not suggest that it is an entirely different species just a color morph with in the species. Now if you had two different species of Zoanthus then they might war and the most aggressive would win and thus fend off the intruding coral. Another example is Euphyllia most of this species you can keep within general contact with each other in the aquarium as they can be seen within large colonies clustered on the reefs in the ocean because they are within the same genus but share different traits that dictate the species. So yes you could actually have colonies mixed that create different color morphs. I guess just my .02.....

[epidemic]

Try using unshielded DE Mh bulbs. A little UV will "spice" things up a little.