Black zoa's

foxhuntr · Feb 10, 2014

just picked these up from my LFS. has anybody ever seen black zoas before ? they were one a rock with some rainbow zoas and I had him frag them off for me.... I brought them home and dipped them and put them in .... they have only been in my system for 24 hours so the are not completely open yet....let me know what you think

Brem · Feb 10, 2014

Wow.. Awsome! Havent seen these in a few years! Keep them alive and growing!

foxhuntr · Feb 10, 2014

38 views and no remarks.....come on good or bad let me know

foxhuntr · Feb 10, 2014

hey brem.......where have you seen them before ? and what were they called ?

joshporksandwich · Feb 10, 2014

wow very cool. Ive never seen those

Brem · Feb 10, 2014

I have seen these in the aquastore i used to work in.. cant remember the name.. Rarity from 0 to 10 in my opinion, a 9,5;-)

foxhuntr · Feb 10, 2014

thinking about calling them Nosferatu's...what do you think........

TJ's Reef · Feb 10, 2014

Very cool looking but my guess is that they will color back up now being in adequate light again reverting back to a autotrophic existence -vs- heterotrophic

Cheers, Todd

P.S. Biology lesson of the day autotrophic -vs- heterotrophic

Supreme Reefs · Feb 10, 2014

Those are called "Black Crystal Death" a classic one

foxhuntr · Feb 10, 2014

I looked at those black crystal deaths..... they look different than mine..... the whiskers on them are real light and mine are not...plus mine does not have any whitish speckles in them

foxhuntr · Feb 10, 2014

hey TJ Reef......what does that mean ???,.,,,,LOL

foxhuntr · Feb 10, 2014

even with them all closed ..they still look pretty wild

Lovge · Feb 10, 2014

Yeah thats a pretty crazy zoa. Hope the stay stealth black for yA

butts182 · Feb 10, 2014

those are worth at least $250 each!! Post them on Ebay, quick.

KoleTang · Feb 10, 2014

foxhuntr said:
I looked at those black crystal deaths..... they look different than mine..... the whiskers on them are real light and mine are not...plus mine does not have any whitish speckles in them

I'm thinking they are the same species. Nanofins originated the black crystal deaths a while back so he may be able to give some info. Last I heard they are rare and ID is unknown, but they don't command very high of a price because they just aren't very flashy.

TJ's Reef · Feb 10, 2014

foxhuntr said:
hey TJ Reef......what does that mean ???,.,,,,LOL

They're definitely a Paly being that they have encompassed surrounding material (black sand and possibly where the black pigment is coming from) into their column tissue and are able to capture prey as a species in general. If Paly's are are over shaded like in above pic they can survive as heterotrophic (being able to capture/ingest needed nutrients) as apposed to relying on light for photosynthesis generated nutrients aka autotrophic existence. Guessing that if the case they will slowly develop some color pigments to use newly available light. I have not tried to research these yet so may actually be a non-photo Paly species which would be even more Cool in my opinion than 'just another crazy colorful zoa/paly'

Cheers, Todd

ritter6788 · Feb 10, 2014

TJ's Reef said:
may actually be a non-photo Paly species

That was my thoughts also. Especially after seeing them closed up. I've never seen them either and just guessing.

1.0reef · Feb 10, 2014

Pretty crazy, due to the sediment on their stalks I'd classify them as a species of palythoa that is less commonly imported for our hobby.

warhorseart · Feb 10, 2014

I too had these black palys. Thriving for 6 mo in my nano tank. I did feed them freshly hatched brine shrimp every other day. The color never faded. I kept them under LED lights. My tank was killed and I sure miss those jet black (almost metallic) palys. Good luck!
Stephanie
PS
Mine also came on LR I purchased