Zoa Vs Paly

[ReefFreak@]

You'd have to prove that with pics.

I find palys are pretty much green purple brown & fairly dull compared to zoas. I also find that palys seem to sting other corals harder faster & have more of a tendency to become a weed.

i agree palys will sting nearby corals, and zoas defiantly have more color, well under actinics.

 

[Oscaror]

Most if not all on your list are actually zoas. They would fall into the category of zoanthus gigantus which are more often than not confused with palys. Examples of true palys would be captain americas, nuke greens and purple deaths.

I think this thread was including zoanthus gigantus as palys. Why would someone ask how to tell the difference between giant protopalys and tiny little zoanthids?

 

[kschweer]

I think this thread was including zoanthus gigantus as palys. Why would someone ask how to tell the difference between giant protopalys and tiny little zoanthids?

The only reason I bring it up is that by calling something a paly that is not a paly it adds to the confusion when people are trying to identify whether a coral is a zoa or a paly.

 

[Triggreef]

Most if not all on your list are actually zoas. They would fall into the category of zoanthus gigantus which are more often than not confused with palys. Examples of true palys would be captain americas, nuke greens and purple deaths.

thats kind of what I thought too, But i'm not a big scientific guy.

 

[joshporksandwich]

I always thought tiny and grow in clusters very close together are zoa. Ex. Rastas, fruit loops. Longer stems and some debri attached to base are palys ex. Sunny D, gow, cars. Big cinamons are the palythoa gigantus. Protopaly are slimers like nukes green, capt americas. And micro zoas are super tiny like timemachines.

I was told they are all zoanthus but in reality there's no studies done about zoanthids to really know what's this or that. I tried getting involved with a school down here to study zoas but there's too much red tape to go through to create a curriculum and I don't have the time.

 

[Tenor]

Palythoas are meat eater while Zoanthids are filter eater.

 

[reefwars]

I thnk e problem is the lasso fixations got shortened down to a confusing name lol

Zoanthids is a class of corals that include palythoas and zoanthus....so zoanthids are both palys and zoanthus

Zoanthus got shortened down to zoa......zoanthids got shotented down to zoa....confusing right?


True palythoas are almost always brown, white or green ( think grandis)

There are several species of zoanthus and over 100 zoanthids in total.


This will help and an ok read

Identifying Zoanthids | Central Florida Aquarium Society

 

[Diamond1]

Here's a good video on the subject from Than at Tidal Gardens.
Zoanthid and Palythoa identification and taxonomy - YouTube