yet another Zoa ID

@DaveJ wrote:
Vivid aquarium has em for sale. $35 for approx 10 polyps.... http://tinyurl.com/c3e4k6 said:
seeing if these is interest in a GB (but I want the blues) cancel that about the blues, I just called and they have a lot of these in
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The colony I got will be fragged and dipped and then distributed to the club at cost and one of the frags donated to the club, at least, whatever is left after fragging since these are known melters, as in not many people can successfully propagate them for a long time yet. All the ones popping up are mostly collected from the wild recently. They're already starting to develop fungus so they're all being treated at the moment.
 
I suspect these zoa are being maricultured, most of the colonies are set on a very very symetrical ferrous stone....michelle is the stone yours are are on very dark, small and heavy?
 
@ddier2020 wrote:
I suspect these zoa are being maricultured said:
They are wild collected.. that rock base is just the type of rock that is indicative of African stuff. They used to sell African LR but it was way too dense to be used as good LR so its hard to find now.
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I finally had to... for clarity and truth (correctness)
@Allen Michelle wrote:
as far as the id of this zoa said:
Michelle, - I dont want to bust your bubble..... but there is no way that these two could morph into each other.... Ive been dealing with these ones for ALOT of years - and theres no way that you would get an
"alien-eye" to morph into an "AOI" or these new African zoas- mainly because the African ones have a solid inner ring and "rays" for the outside ring... "alien-eyes" dont have this trait.... so even if they did become "similar" in coloration, there would always be a major difference
-like the difference between "cherry-berrys" and "devil's stare" - its a totally different "type" of Zoanthid (sansibar VS. the Suluwesi variant)
* although you "might" get one to bleach-out and then revert to a totally different pattern - but this would be a "bad thing"
-and the African types have already been described as "not Sansibar sp."
-and the AOI is a "Caribbean paly" - so I realy doubt you could get it to morph into a Zoanthid.... and so I also doubt they are closely related...
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there are a couple of major "west-coast" distributors that are selling these all over the nation as "African bluesteel" zoas - one is selling them as "steel blues" (ooops!) and 1 (that I know of ) is just selling them as "african blue" zoas.... inevitably that name might stick....

-but I like "Morning glory" zoas - a pic for comparison:
 
grow em out and propagate em in your shop, then sell em as Neptune LE Morning Glorys ;)
 
yeah, but they are already out there...
-I just hope the name "morning glorys" zoas sticks
-someone get on R/C and call them Morning glories.....
:roll: 8)
 
@Neptune1 wrote:
there are a couple of major "west-coast" distributors that are selling these all over the nation as "African bluesteel" zoas - one is selling them as "steel blues" (ooops!) and 1 (that I know of ) is just selling them as "african blue" zoas.... inevitably that name might stick.... -but I like "Morning glory" zoas - a pic for comparison: said:
I don't know Bill those morning glory flowers look like a morph of the alien eye flower in my back yard :lol: J/K

I don't care what they're called I just hope we can start keeping them alive in our systems.
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sir,
your alien-eye flower is a "pansy" and not a "morning glory" although they may look the same somewhat....they are not... 8)
* there are over 30 varieties (morphs) of morning glorys available to botanists (people who like flowers) - but each one is known by a different name (refreshing) like yellow / red / purple/ common blue ect.... and Im pretty sure you wont have those "morph" into other types of flowers either.
:eek:
* this whole LE thing gets me..... Its like they somehow have a pact with God & all the people who get corals that they are "the ones" who can get them.... but this is NOT true at all....
-I should have done this with the watermelon chalice (and others) years ago....but its just not me.....you know "I sell stuff" so what is mine - is now yours - and we together can make alot more of them.....
-look watermelon frags are ALL over the place now - so "how limited" is this coral??? It just JUMPS the price up to the reefkeeper....
*Boooo LE - lets just say "somewhat rare" instead....
 
OK.... after looking at these guys real closely (atleast the majority of these) seem to be more of a "metal solid ring" where the pics show a "veined" or "bicycle spoke" pattern.... and these have yellow skirt-tips the same as the robot-eye ring around the mouth... but the majority of pics we see have a lt. blue fringe....so these must be different....more like ddier2020's pic maybe.
I would say they even look like the Bali"peacock-eye" zoas - but these new ones dont have a lt. blue/white mouth - and seem more "fringy".... I wonder if they are from N Africa( Indian ocean)- or maybe west African coast (atlantic)
-I doubt the later - but..... (must find out)
-Bali "Peacock-eye" for comparison:
*maybe it shows-up in a flash photo - but you cant see it w/ the naked eye...(nah..)
 
What is known as African Blues are Caribbean and this is why they are known to melt. I get the "African Blues" pretty often from a diver in Florida.
The Japanese Deepwater Zoas fall in this same subject, they are actually imported from Indonesia. I have no idea where the names African and Japanese come from but they are not places of origin.
To keep the African Blue from melting they require intense light and high flow. It took me forever to figure out that this really works. Under intense light and high flow they will grow at a very fast pace. Basically, they seem to like the conditions that most Acropora and other SPS like.
Gary
 
seeing that I don't have "SPS" conditions, it will be interesting to see how mine do under PCs. For those who don't know, 42 gallon tank, 4 x 96W PCs (however I am running 2 x 24w (2 ft. t-5) T-5s over my sandbed) I bought a 30+ polyp frag from Neptune's and most if not all have opened. What's the time period when they melt?
 
I can see how you might think these are the same as your Caribbean polyps- because AOI (Caribbean) does resemble these in the fact that they both have a golden "robot-eye" ring in the center - and you can find blue fringed morphs of AOI - which would even "look" closer.
3 thing stand out on why there not the same -

1) my distributor assures me theyre from Africa - and hes got an airbill
-if they were caribbean he would have told me - I asked... 3 major
distributors cant be telling the same lie to everyone - someone
would "break" and tell - QUICKLY!
2) AOI and caribbeans are TWICE this size and thats with ALL the palys
I get from there - these "zoas" are the size of pencil erasers - not a
dime. and you would think you would think that "someone"
would have seen these before now.
3)tons of these thing have been sold online now - and to the masses - and
with ALL these sources and people that "know" - YOU are the only one
who knows the truth. I doubt that...... just from a "logical" viewpoint.

* do YOU have a problem with Caribbean polyps "melting away" on you???
-I think all the "melting" thing is because people are TEARING them off a rock and superglueing them incorrectly to frag pods to sell - the next day - and then they ride all the way there on its head smushed...
-colonial & pseudo-colonial polyps dont like to be torn apart...

- Bill
 
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