New DA morph?

aquaman3680 · Dec 4, 2008

Hey all,

I fragged my devils armor that were growing together with my candy apple greens. It seems like the frag that I took off of it has developed the green from the candy apple green. What do you think? Are my eyes tricking me? Heres a picture!

Matt

iani · Dec 4, 2008

My devils armor get that coloration as well. I don't think it has anything to do with you placing them next to candy apple greens.

bannshy · Dec 4, 2008

Nice looking regardless of the cause.
That would be cool if we could breed different morphs by placing zoo's next to each other. Has anyone else experienced cross polinization?

Saltysteele · Dec 4, 2008

well, these aren't plants, so it's not really cross pollinization in the sense we normally think of it in (a pig doesn't really pollinate another pig :haha

however, this is something i've often wondered myself. there has to be some way these dudes are morphing

bannshy · Dec 4, 2008

I couldn't think of a better word not sure how dna could transfer back and forth. Do zoo's and/ or palys spawn?

paintballer768 · Dec 4, 2008

The thing with zoas is that they dont mix zooxanthelle (I spelled it wrong, but it is the algae that corals harbor to use for food, and give off the awesome colorations) unless they physically intertwine and exchange. Meaning, unless a candy apple red and devils armor polyp fused together, which Im not sure if it is possible, they was probably a less prominent strain of zoox within the devils armor all along.

Different lighting/placement/nutrient levels/many different factors could have caused this strain to become more noticeable and show up.

Saltysteele · Dec 4, 2008

wonder if it's possible to cut two in half and join the two halves. don't think that would work, though. hmmm.....

Pazazz · Dec 4, 2008

That color is showing up depends on lighting...

er1c.the.reefer · Dec 4, 2008

i don't think zoanthids can "hybridize" in the normal sense through fusion. to get different color strains, it would have to go through some sort of sexual reproduction involving mixing of gametes or some sort of DNA alteration (e.g. via UV radiation) which in turn causes changes in pigmentation.

paintballer768 · Dec 4, 2008

er1c.the.reefer said:
i don't think zoanthids can "hybridize" in the normal sense through fusion. to get different color strains, it would have to go through some sort of sexual reproduction involving mixing of gametes or some sort of DNA alteration (e.g. via UV radiation) which in turn causes changes in pigmentation.

Yea either sexual reproduction or mutation. There have been accounts of various corals spawning in our systems, in particular, acans, zoanthids, pocciloporas, etc..

kitten0304 · Dec 6, 2008

Saltysteele said:
wonder if it's possible to cut two in half and join the two halves. don't think that would work, though. hmmm.....

I would love to see what that did..if the polyps survived that could be a way to make new color morphs.

dtpollard · Dec 7, 2008

These are not my pics. I saw this somwhere and saved it because I thought it was cool.

dtpollard · Dec 7, 2008

ReeferBen · Dec 7, 2008

zooxanthelle (I spelled it wrong, but it is the algae that corals harbor to use for food, and give off the awesome colorations

I was pretty sure that the zooxanthellea are all golden brown and the coloration is pigments corals produce themslefs. This is why is SPS, in a high nutrient tank the SPS brown out as the zoox multiply and the SPS brighten in color as the zoox reduce their numbers in a low nutrient system.

I could be wrong but that was my understanding.

If the pigments are from the coral producing them it would be neat if there was a way to extract and inject these into other zoas.