How are different "designer" zooanthid colors produced?

[Pandora]

Are differently colored zoo's different species or are they just color variations or strains? How do they get so many color combos, are they seen in Nature like this? Seems like every other day I see a new super bright zoo with a different color pattern; I've had some pretty wild ones myself, one fluorescent bubble gum pink, and one very bright green with sunshine yellow & orange inside.

Since most corals won't ever go sexual in a tank, I'd assume you can't do a breeding program to get a new unique color variation, as you might with a horse or a rose. And is the color just due to the kind of zooxanthelae that symbiote with them?

[Pandora]

^Bump

[thehedge]

You know, I don't know how or why they have different colors, but I can say that they definately occur like that in the wild.

The place I usually go diving, has 12 different zooanthids in a small area...all in different locations...and some of them have pretty wild colors, like a purple and green!!!

[Pandora]

I posted it in the zooanthid forum, since no one seems to know here:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=754990

[clord]

I just watched a movie that said most corals can mate with each other and that makes many different hybrids which also causes different colors.

[Pandora]

clord, I said in captivity. Of course they mate in Nature, all animals have a form of sexual reproduction, otherwise evolution couldn't occur.

(And yes, I know that in rare cases corals also spawn in tanks, but the planktonic forms are close to impossible to raise... I know this is not how zoo's are typically cultured)

[MadTownMax]

I think it's more of a "strain" thing - I can see variants of zoos in a colony - so for zooanthid "nuts" to pick out a large colony that has one or two really crazy polyps and then cut those out and propigate.

FWIW - I think most "designer" zooanthids are just brought in from the wild - if they catch on, people propigate them. I know the guy who has the original colony of "safecrackers" is in my club - he said they came in on some live rock that he got, and grew from a tiny frag.

[Pandora]

Thanks Max, that makes sense... best answer I've gotten so far...