Purple WYSIWYG Zoanthid Coral – Zoanthid sp

• Date Added: 02-17-2012
• Tank: Cardiff 24 Gallon
• Status: Active
• Purchased at: FAOIS
• Cost: $12.00 (12 polyps)
• Coloration: Green skirt with purple center and small green eye
• Lighting and Camera:
  • 250w MH 20000K Ushio
  • Apple iPhone 3GS
  • Aperture photo software editing used trying to adjust to viewable color

General Information

• Description: They are easy to maintain, making them a good choice for the beginner reef aquarists. They will reproduce easily in the reef aquarium by budding (splitting off a portion of their base or mouth), which will increase the size of their colony. They are colonial animals with multiple individual polyps attached to a piece of live rock.
• Care Level: Easy
• Water Flow: Moderate to low intermittent water current within the aquarium.
• Lighting: For optimum coloration, it should be given low to medium light.
• Supplements: It will require maintaining stable levels of calcium, magnesium, pH, alkalinity, and other trace elements as you would with other types of corals.
• Feeding: The Zoanthus Colony Polyp contains the symbiotic algae zooxanthellae which satisfies almost all of their nutritional requirements. If the lighting is not optimal, the Zoanthus Colony Polyp should be fed micro-plankton or baby brine shrimp.
• Care: Zoanthus Colony Polyp Corals are easy to maintain, making them a good choice for beginner reef aquarists. For continued good health, they will also require the addition of iodine and other trace elements to the water.
• Range: Indo-Pacific and the Red Sea, including the western, northern, and eastern coasts of Australia, to Tahiti, and north to southern Japan. Most of those that are imported into the industry originate from Tonga, Indonesia, Fiji, and Australia.
• Other Names: Sea Mats, or Button Polyps