How do corals morph?

[redspot321]

I see zoanthids a billion different colors. Are these from nature? I see the word morph thrown around alot too. How is this done?

[crypticghost]

Well morph is something that is used to charge a higher price...I have heard that they take the pigment from the clam mantle (killing the clam) and inject it into the zoo, however I have just heard this... I really think alot are just from nature and they call it a morph, just like LE corals, its nothing special just a coral with different coloring that tyree was smart enough to buy up and call it LE and charge you a kidney for a 1 inch frag.

[redspot321]

So things like dragon eye zoos and superman monty are found in nature?

[reefshadow]

Yes, they are found in nature but not abundantly like some of their more drab counterparts.

There is some anecdotal evidence that colonies of zoas growing into each other may take on qualities of each 'parent'. I've had that seem to happen. I had a colony of green zoas grown into a colony of orange, and got some green skirted oranges going on in the middle, but it is only anecdotal evidence, I have no 'proof' that a morphing took place. There is a guy that was trying an experiment with this, he was attempting to suck out zooxanthellae from one zoa and injecting it into another, i'm not sure what the consensus on that was. I think it was a thread in the zoa forum.

In the end I think most morphing is probably done by sexual propagation, and limited by geography and environmental factors, maybe that is why some types/morphs of corals are comparatively rare, because it was an 'accident' in the wild. Fish morphs are also available and sometimes very pricey because they're rare, and because you can't frag a fish.

I've never heard of zoox from one species used to enhance another, but there are cases where wild tridacnid stock is taken and purposefully made to shed gamets to get a desireable mix for the aquarium/restock market. I was under the impression that zoox in clam mantles and zoox from say a zoanthid were different and very specific types and so an attempt to make a swap would not work. Who knows though.

What is certain is when a 'rare' morph enters the market it doesn't take long for it to become very hot and expensive. A nice thing though is that they soon become much cheaper and less desireable when they have been propagated to the point that they are much more common. I remember when the rose anemones were fetching prices close to 200 bucks for a baseball sized specimin. Now you can get one from a hobbiest for less than 50 usually. Same with some colours of ricordea, zoas, sps, ect...

Anyway, it would be kinda cool if we could 'mix and match' but I don't think it's happening now and may never happen.