Zoa wars . episode 1: ORIGINS

euphoricgear · Sep 20, 2011

The highest I saw was the Orange People Eater and it went for I believe $600 per polyp.

revhtree · Sep 20, 2011

These palys were discovered by Blaine Prerun in 2001. HEre is a little hitsory on this coral, written by Blaine:

I obtained this colony by chance in or around 2001. In addition I have a matching zoanthids colony, as to where I believe this to be Palythoa or Protopalythoa. After about 1 year the specimen began coloring up and I sold off about 15 fragments for $25-$35 bucks each,ironically most of these people complained about the piece when they got it. The colony at that time still was not mature, not reaching it’s full beauty. The following year I sold propagation’s for about $40 bucks and people were outraged, So I stopped but soon saw them selling on ebay for about $200.

I know that Blane was not one who found these though. Brian from what was Pure Captive back in the day actually discovered these and Blane eventually named them.

Wy Renegade · Sep 20, 2011

euphoricgear said:
When I first started collecting @ 2000-2001 they were mostly browned out zoas and were called polyp rocks cause you buy them in rocks and not in frag plugs. 9 corals for $99 at Jeff's Exotic Fish in Gardena, I think.
Most were brown and the only cool ones were the yellow ones. Not until 2004 that I heard about the Purple People Eater, I don't remember who named it but I know it wasn't Tyree, and the Tubbs blue. That's when the PPE I think were going for $100 per polyp and the tubs blue I think I bought at $10 pp.

Blane Perun is the first to have named a zoa (or at least that seems to be the general consensus), and it was the PPE. Unfortunately his article on naming this particular zoa and why he did are now gone from his website.

Oh darn, Rev beat me too it.

Wy Renegade · Sep 20, 2011

euphoricgear said:
The highest I saw was the Orange People Eater and it went for I believe $600 per polyp.

Wasn't the $600 one originally called Envy Orange rather than Orange PE (same polyp I believe, but different name).

secretreefer · Sep 21, 2011

this is turning vewy vewy interesting.

revhtree · Sep 21, 2011

Yes it was called Envy Orange. Really the zoa craze is what birthed this site.

secretreefer · Sep 21, 2011

I thank the guy who created this site. bottom line brutha you brought reefers together.....

Lateral72 · Sep 21, 2011

I'd be willing to bet that the origins of the zoa coming into the trade lie with the harvest of atlantic live rock (prior to aquaculture and the bans).

euphoricgear · Sep 21, 2011

oh yes, envy orange, but yeah, it was just an orange people eater. lol Last I checked zoa id, there were only 3 pages, that's the last time I was into zoas. Now I wanna get back but I hate buying frags or 1 or 2 polyps. lol

Mr. Microscope · Sep 21, 2011

I was told that around the time of the PPE and Tub's Blue that even Whammin' Watermelons and RDE's were super hot and went for a $$$/frag. Now, you can find these guys by the rock full at Petco for christ sake. LOL! Funny how fast the hobby changes.

secretreefer · Sep 21, 2011

what's next a rock full of utterchaos nobody wants? LOL! (if you do send it to me, ill pay shipping)

Wy Renegade · Sep 22, 2011

Mr. Microscope said:
I was told that around the time of the PPE and Tub's Blue that even Whammin' Watermelons and RDE's were super hot and went for a $$$/frag. Now, you can find these guys by the rock full at Petco for christ sake. LOL! Funny how fast the hobby changes.

Yes they were hot because they were named, but they never sold for $$$/frag until recently. Originally you could get either of these as named zoas for about $30 for a rock, with lots of polyps. At least you always could around here - and usually still can.

johnanddawn · Sep 22, 2011

- i was raising zoas long before the naming trend came about and as i remember it ppe's were def the first as everyone agrees but that was followed by an a bunch of naming as the trend caught on fast. fire and ice, tubbs blues, cat eyes, watermelens, dragoneyes ,rde, and eagle eyes, bam bams ect the list goes on

it was a little crazy at first because with the common color morphs everyone had them already so people would aurgue about little things and differences that were mostly lighting efects and many zoas that are actually basically the same ended up with many names depending on who named them - zoaid is a perfect example of this all literally hundreds of new names for what was basically all the same couple dozen color schemes. this trend meant that every zoa "needed" a name and the name game went crazy and it became more of a marketing sceme then actual new colors

then we entered a new phase - when new zoas were actually being sought out by the guys in the water collecting them and the actual color varieties skyrocketed and a brand new wave of what were new morphs entered the market, and new names started appearing everywhere again. i think this has slowed some again as even the divers are finding it hard again to find something both unique and special

zoas have such diverse color variations that naming will always be part of the hobby but i think we are entering a new phase where the name isn't going to sell the polyp - the color will and just cause it is new with a cool name isn't going to draw attention unless it truely shines out in a crowd