Greenish-yellow frill, purplish/orange speckled disc. Did I get as lucky as I think?

[ying yang]

I'm new to reef tanks so happy with the cheaper frags,got a 12 polyp paly for £ 20 which is like $22 and a 21 polyp zoa for £ 20,im running stock t5 lights 2 sunlight and 2 marine blue so colours don't pop so much but will be getting some supplementary led running more blue shortly and changing my 2x sunlight t5's for actinic blue or 1 coral plus maybe

12 head green mouths and red body's with blue speckles and darker red frills got sold as magician palys and 21 head zoa blue centres and burgandy red around and greenish frills but hoping as move them higher up shortly and epoxy them down and change lights they colour up some more,so im happy enough with cheap zoas like this for time being but who knows may change my mind and get £ 70 a polyp zoas in future ha ha but as I'm new tank at 8 months I'm sticking with cheaper stuff for time being and getting them to grow out first ,also bought some orange zoas 11 head for £ 15 and got 2 polyp nuclear green paly for free a few months ago .I got feeling orange zoas need be higher up as starting to get smaller as they in bottom if a deep tank.
But a nice colourful zoa garden always look great ,I toying with ide if putting some zoas higher up on my main rock structure and if zoas start growing fast get some metal straw and siphon some up like I seen timfish show some videos off or chip them off rockwork somehow

 

[Tired]

Don't put any zoas on your rockwork that you don't want to have a lot of on your rockwork. They're harder to remove than you think. If you end up putting them on your rocks, pick nontoxic species- i.e. definitely not that nuclear green.

There are definitely some nice zoas running around at low prices, but some of the really flashy ones are always going to be a bit pricier. Like how the Holy Grail micromussas are always going to cost more than a basic green and purple micro lord, even once the hype pricing is totally gone. And slower-growing things will also cost more.

 

[ying yang]

Don't put any zoas on your rockwork that you don't want to have a lot of on your rockwork. They're harder to remove than you think. If you end up putting them on your rocks, pick nontoxic species- i.e. definitely not that nuclear green.

Yeah this is my dilemma,which species if zoa/ paly are toxic and which are not and even though rare,people get sick so always that risk.
I'm new so just at stage if researching ways to put zoas on say a overhang of a rock so can only grow one way but put another coral at edge of where you want to stop the zoas growing which is more powerful so to speak and will act as a break so lots thinking and researching for me ^_^ but I'm sure I get there eventually

 

[Tired]

Aggressive stinging corals can be a barrier, yep. Though you don't want to use them to fence highly toxic corals, as those toxic corals may release poison upon being stung. The best barrier for toxic corals is just putting them on a rock in the sandbed.

As to toxicity, just wear gloves, wear eye protection if removing large zoas/palys from the water, and never boil, sandblast, or otherwise scatter the zoa bits into the air. Should be fine. Most zoanthids in the hobby aren't particularly toxic, it's mainly a few species of palythoas (actual palys, not just big zoanthids people call palys) that are toxic. Anything shaped like those Nuclear Greens, for example.

 

[ying yang]

Aggressive stinging corals can be a barrier, yep. Though you don't want to use them to fence highly toxic corals, as those toxic corals may release poison upon being stung. The best barrier for toxic corals is just putting them on a rock in the sandbed.

As to toxicity, just wear gloves, wear eye protection if removing large zoas/palys from the water, and never boil, sandblast, or otherwise scatter the zoa bits into the air. Should be fine. Most zoanthids in the hobby aren't particularly toxic, it's mainly a few species of palythoas (actual palys, not just big zoanthids people call palys) that are toxic. Anything shaped like those Nuclear Greens, for example.

Ok thanks for info,so basically big looking brute palys ? As I know them nuclear green ones are maybe 8 times the size of smallest zoa and nearly twice size them ones I got sold as magicians

 

[ying yang]

Aggressive stinging corals can be a barrier, yep. Though you don't want to use them to fence highly toxic corals, as those toxic corals may release poison upon being stung. The best barrier for toxic corals is just putting them on a rock in the sandbed.

As to toxicity, just wear gloves, wear eye protection if removing large zoas/palys from the water, and never boil, sandblast, or otherwise scatter the zoa bits into the air. Should be fine. Most zoanthids in the hobby aren't particularly toxic, it's mainly a few species of palythoas (actual palys, not just big zoanthids people call palys) that are toxic. Anything shaped like those Nuclear Greens, for example.

So what you think this method for removing paly's ?

 

[Tired]

Bigger zoa/paly shapes are more likely to be palys, yes. IIRC, palys integrate sand into themselves. For nuclear greens, look how the shape is different; they have those ridges, and the very narrow tentacles with space between them. The disc is thin and less fleshy, as well. Palythoa grandis are another example of a very toxic species, and if you look, you'll see the shape has some similarities.

That method looks pretty effective, but you'd want to be careful not to touch the resulting paly slurry. I also don't know that it would remove every cell of the palys, which could mean they'd grow back where they were before. I haven't tried it.

 

[littlebigreef]

@Hooz GMKs actually started out at $1300pp if you can believe that.

@Tired I do agree they look to be predators. A note on this strain and a word of caution. Predators, from what we've all see, don't appear to be particularly melt prone. However, probably 80% of the ones offered are wild collected and, through wholesales, they're still bringing colonies in. For that reason the price has fallen pretty dramatically since the beginning of the year from $300 to ~$70pp now. I got some this past spring and a single head is putting out 5 babies in each direction. I think you got a great deal and picking up the colony is a deft move. Just be cautious of the slippery slop that is buying colonies with the intent to chop and sell.

 

[Tired]

Oh, nah, I'm not chopping this up. That kind of thing strikes me as a bit iffy, if I'm being honest. Buying /anything/ just to chop it up and flip it. I know some people who have a greenhouse of exotic and semi-exotic plants, and they're having trouble with people who buy their nice grown-out plants of varieties that are in heavy demand, chop them into a ton of tiny cuttings, and sell each cutting for more than the whole plant was. It gives the plants a reputation for being fussy (since so many people buy tiny fresh cuttings that are prone to dying), and it messes up the market for people who are selling nice plants instead of snippets. Makes me wonder how many "fussy" new in-demand zoas are like that because people are all buying tiny single polyps, instead of a healthy little frag?

I bought a smaller chunk, as the bigger one was a biiit more than I'm willing to pay, just in case something does wrong. That one was a nice mini colony for $250, which I'm sure someone is going to be very happy to get. This one was 7 polyps at $70 for the frag.
I'm going to let it grow out a little more, then place rubble around it and sell whatever grows onto the rubble. If I can get $50 each for 2 frags, that'll pay back the price of the original frag right there. I get a really nice zoa that I'm genuinely delighted to have, /and/ I get to sell some now and then. And frankly, even if the price went to $5 a polyp tomorrow, it's still a nice coral that makes me happy to have.

I'd just been looking at a thread listing off Krak varieties the other day, quietly hoping maybe one of those varieties will get down into a reasonable price eventually. They're pretty cool. Well, this might not be a Krak (will get a picture up later today to confirm what they are, they were annoyed from transit yesterday), but it's close enough for me! I don't want the name, I want the looks.

 

[Hooz]

Predators are "Kraks", depending on which name you use!

Predator, Endgame and Funk Master Krak. Take your pick!

 

[Tired]

Any tips on photographing them nicely? I can't get the orange on these to show up in the photo properly. Granted, I'm using a phone, but it works okay for other zoas.