Wierd Zoa question....

[goldenseal]

Ive had these radio active dragon eyes for a long time, not sure how many years, any way I periodically trim them back so they dont totally take over.

about a year ago, I got some reddish ones with gold lashes, sorry nothing fancy , no popular TM name....strawberryicecreamconestrusel :) they were growing in between the green ones, but now, inbetween the green and the red, they seem to be yellow-ish?
do zoas morph or interbreed? here is a pic taken a few minutes ago, the circled ones are the funky colors. the others have been in the tank years, and nothing like this has shown up till now.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/morningrose05/FISH%20AND%20CORAL/zoanthus-1.jpg

[derekdelisi]

Yes! When two colonies meet they often produce a new morph with a 'random' combination of colours from either of the two colonies. I'm uncertain about how random it really is; i'd like to believe there is some rule to this, like blue eyes or blonde hair in humans. In any case, if you're as interested as I am in the affair, get in there quick and cut those new morphs right out and put em on a rock/plug -before it chooses to side with one of the colonies, or one of the colonies takes over.

I've done this a few times. I'd say more often than not the zoa keeps this new colour and and spreads. It has happened though (just twice, out of 25-30 times) that the zoa colour returned to one of the initial mother colony colours.

Good luck!
DD

[goldenseal]

thank you, I will remove them tomorrow !! :)

[ficklefins]

Yes! When two colonies meet they often produce a new morph with a 'random' combination of colours from either of the two colonies. I'm uncertain about how random it really is; i'd like to believe there is some rule to this, like blue eyes or blonde hair in humans.
DD

Sounds interesting DD. Can you provide evidence of this? I would like to see some cool photos of these "random" occurrences.

[ficklefins]

thank you, I will remove them tomorrow !! :)

Question:
Are the new color zoas small or look relatively new (IE babies)?

[goldenseal]

fickle....Im assuming they are babies? Im going to plop them on a plug and move them today, if they stay the same fine, if they go red like the others, thats fine too. I dont have any red ones on the other side of my tank lol