Morphing-how does this happen?

[Tabasco1]

I would love to know how this happens. Is this something that happens if you get two close together a morph of the two will start being thrown or can an individual colony morph on it's own? Does lighting play a factor? Is this evolution where new polps have a different morph to adjust to the new lighting?

Would love to have some light shed on this mystery. Thanks!

 

[Wy Renegade]

Morphing of zoas is typically caused by changes in lighting, water chemistry or water flow. Conditions vary from aquarium to aquarium, and obviously from the ocean to the aquarium. As the zoa is exposed to new/different conditions the amounts of zooxanthel ("sp") (photosynthetic micro algae inside them) changes in response. I've seen lots of posts on the internet about people getting a morph from two different zoa morphs, but have never actually seen any real evidence of this. Zoanthids in our tanks reproduce asexually not sexually, so the only way such a morph could/would occur was if the zooxanthel from the two different morphs were somehow to exit the parent polyps and recombine inside a new forming polyp. Not very likely IMHO.

 

[Tabasco1]

Thank you for the response. That would also explain why zoas can change after they have been in your tank for a bit? Could be kindof a bummer though.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Indeed they can, and yes it can be a bummer.