I read to be careful with generic palys as they can overtake a tank, and to put them on an island rock of some sort to keep them there. Does this go for all the colorful cheap zoanthid frags I see at my fish stores or just a specific type of palythoas?
"Generic Palys" vs. Other Zoas?
- Thread starter Teebo
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happyhourhero
Burner of the Tips
Basically any of them can spread and become invasive but the palys will grow faster than most everything else and they are nearly impossible to kill. It's hard to do but if you can just buy super colorful ultra stuff that you will always like and plan for the spread of anything, reef life will be good.
Just applies to palys. Just for an example, I bought a green paly frag about a year ago that had maybe 15 heads. Now it has over 300. Fortunately they are bright green so i dont mind them and yes they wont grow on sand so if you can isolate them on a rock it will limit their expansion.
I believe they are Zonathids. My SunnyD's became invasive but they are palys, and my Fox Face mowed them down thankfully.
If Zoanthids are happy they are going to spread, maybe not as readily as palys. I keep my Rasta isolated from the main rock work because every time I do not they start spreading out.
I visited many reef shops and spoke with many employees, trying to identify corals and then ask to see if I am correct. I have come up with a pretty good way of determining a Zoa from a Paly...indeed they do generally have larger polyps, they seem to always have long eyelash looking tenticals. Some of the Zoas have extended tentical looking things but not as long and whispy as the Palys. I think I can see the "generic paly" I am making a fuss over...some of the lower end reef shops with poor coral and frag choices seem to be loaded with really creepy looking brownish palys not even on frag plugs but just growing on the racks and glass. With all the choices available I will never put those brownish palys in my tank, I did see a few nicer looking palys in my rounds today...probably the nicest looking ones I saw were florescent green but I am not sure if those will spread the same way the generic brownish ones do.
