kireek Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Are there ways to encourage zoas and palys to morph? How would you know if you had a true morph? I am thinking one must frag the colony and move the pieces to a different system.Then you would have to wait for new polyps to grow out. Below I have included a picture of some Mind Blowing Palys,they have been this way for over a year.The second picture is also Mind Blowing palys from the same tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 It has to do with different lighting. For example the candle apple reds will turn more of an orange color when you put them up at higher light. You have to be careful though and sometimes move them up slowly for some because the higher par will make some zoas shrink in submission. I feel like the lower light tends to do the opposite and bring out less color. For example the nuclear winters I got from Bert have lost the white coloration because I have them in an area of really low par. Also I have found sometimes when you cluster 2 zoa colonies together sometimes one will start taking on the pigments of the other. As far as how you know it's a true morph, time will tell. Personally what I have noticed is if the color seems to be mixed more in stead of say the rim just looking brighter then it is likely a true morph. Hope that helps! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softy Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 what you have there is proper lighting and conditions for that zoa... they are turning into what they SHOULD look like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gil&Fin Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 what you have there is proper lighting and conditions for that zoa... they are turning into what they SHOULD look like. They should look like the second picture with the straight skirts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softy Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 They should look like the second picture with the straight skirts? The skirts will lengthen in higher flow... it's not that... the color. The color in the second pic is accurate of a Mind Blowing Palys. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenbasketreef Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 I think the first picture is not Mind Blowing Paly, it is just an established blue zoa that heads open up bigger. Mind Blowing is a protopalythoa, the skirt is tapered toward the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badxgillen Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 When a zoanthid exhibits changes from environmental conditions it is generally temporary, once in a while the expulsion or exchange of pigments\zooxanthellae is permanent and this is a true morph. Return some of the same polyps back to the original tank and give it some time, if it reverts then it is no morph in my book. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 When a zoanthid exhibits changes from environmental conditions it is generally temporary, once in a while the expulsion or exchange of pigments\zooxanthellae is permanent and this is a true morph. Return some of the same polyps back to the original tank and give it some time, if it reverts then it is no morph in my book. That's exactly my opinion too! Good stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kireek Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 It has to do with different lighting. For example the candle apple reds will turn more of an orange color when you put them up at higher light. You have to be careful though and sometimes move them up slowly for some because the higher par will make some zoas shrink in submission. I feel like the lower light tends to do the opposite and bring out less color. For example the nuclear winters I got from Bert have lost the white coloration because I have them in an area of really low par. Also I have found sometimes when you cluster 2 zoa colonies together sometimes one will start taking on the pigments of the other. As far as how you know it's a true morph, time will tell. Personally what I have noticed is if the color seems to be mixed more in stead of say the rim just looking brighter then it is likely a true morph. Hope that helps! Thank you Emerald,this is helpful.Lighting was a key factor here.I left the set too close to the LED's.As you can see the centers are quite muddled up and lack the distinct rings of the original variety. I think the first picture is not Mind Blowing Paly, it is just an established blue zoa that heads open up bigger. Mind Blowing is a protopalythoa, the skirt is tapered toward the end. I can assure you that these are in fact Mind Blowing palys.I fragged them myself,same mother colony.They eat like palys too. When a zoanthid exhibits changes from environmental conditions it is generally temporary, once in a while the expulsion or exchange of pigments\zooxanthellae is permanent and this is a true morph. Return some of the same polyps back to the original tank and give it some time, if it reverts then it is no morph in my book. Thanks Badx.I am thinking it's time to frag these up,move them around and see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 That's pretty amazing how much they changed. I wouldn't have believed that those were mind blowing palys in the first pic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kireek Posted October 19, 2015 Author Share Posted October 19, 2015 Thanks.I realize that my first post is confusing.I should have wrote it out exactly as I did on R2R,oh well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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