Joshporksandwich's TOP 5 Zoanthids: Vote on your TOP 5 as well!

[mfollen]

Donatello zoa, hopefully one day they come back to the trade

 

[ultraArcite]

How do I buy some of these!! All beautiful

Watch the sponsors forum for live sales if you want a good deal. https://www.reef2reef.com/sponsors/

Otherwise I got mine from Zoanthids.com and Top Shelf Aquatics.

 

[jkopfishman]

• What's your tank lighting?
• Did you do any post photo editing?

I have the latest S21 Ultra (Samsungs best) and I dont get pics like that....

Me too

 

[ou12004]

Stratocasters
CK Soul Suckers
AOI
El Corazone
Darth Mauls

 

[ClownSchool]

Let's get real....

I could take Aiptasia... put it in a photography light black box and take pics of it with a $4k Canon DSLR with a Macro lens.... and you'd be willing to buy the Aiptasia on a frag disc for $29

Ooooooooooooooh. Aiptasia
.

If you find a buyer, let me know

 

[littlebigreef]

I like them all. I just wish they would stop with the "custom" names. Call them what the accepted name in the trade is and be done.

There's no authority that oversees the naming of this stuff so you end up with strains being rebranded or mislabeled sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. Even in the zoa forum with people that know what they're looking at there's often disagreement. So, there's not always consensus on 'what is' or 'what isn't'. The best way to handle this is to look for distinguishing characteristics that are not prone to changing if the polyp morphs (or if it does it does so in a consistent way). Even then recognition of a strain is contingent on the name gaining traction in the community as a whole. Obviously the larger online vendors have a lot of sway here since they often post the first pics we see of new strains (whether its on their site or social media).

Then you have any number of zoas that all share similar characteristics that consistently vary. As someone who's been looking at zoas for the last 25 years the best way to handle naming is to put all of these similar ones in buckets. In that way probably 70% of the Zoa ID requests on the forum can going into: blueberry fields(pie), fire and ice, bam bams, laser lemons, blow pops, watermelon, creamsicles, greenbay packers, dragon eyes etc. People should be comfortable with buckets (morphs) simply because we don't need a name for every variation of Greenbay Packers.

The biggest issues with zoas is the mentality everything has to be 'something.' Too often I see names applied to stuff incorrectly only because someone is really stretching looking for an ID. The collecting is one of the best parts of zoas also its bane. It's A-OK for something to be an unnamed wild strain. It shouldn't diminish the specimen in anyway.

 

[Stang67]

There's no authority that oversees the naming of this stuff so you end up with strains being rebranded or mislabeled sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. Even in the zoa forum with people that know what they're looking at there's often disagreement. So, there's not always consensus on 'what is' or 'what isn't'. The best way to handle this is to look for distinguishing characteristics that are not prone to changing if the polyp morphs (or if it does it does so in a consistent way). Even then recognition of a strain is contingent on the name gaining traction in the community as a whole. Obviously the larger online vendors have a lot of sway here since they often post the first pics we see of new strains (whether its on their site or social media).

Then you have any number of zoas that all share similar characteristics that consistently vary. As someone who's been looking at zoas for the last 25 years the best way to handle naming is to put all of these similar ones in buckets. In that way probably 70% of the Zoa ID requests on the forum can going into: blueberry fields(pie), fire and ice, bam bams, laser lemons, blow pops, watermelon, creamsicles, greenbay packers, dragon eyes etc. People should be comfortable with buckets (morphs) simply because we don't need a name for every variation of Greenbay Packers.

The biggest issues with zoas is the mentality everything has to be 'something.' Too often I see names applied to stuff incorrectly only because someone is really stretching looking for an ID. The collecting is one of the best parts of zoas also its bane. It's A-OK for something to be an unnamed wild strain. It shouldn't diminish the specimen in anyway.

Which is why I dont go by the names I just buy what I like that is "pretty"

 

[Peanut]

Jokers are my all time fav ...also really like Sunny-D, Candy Apple Red, Armageddon

 

[reefsaver]

I almost spent $250 at my LFS for a single Polyp.
Kamikaze Zoanthid:

Instead I bought Galaxy Zoanthids because I resonated with the Space vibes and it was the only one with 2 Polyps on a plug with every plug going for $150 with a single polyp.
Galaxy Zoanthid:

 

[larangcon]

# 5 Hephaestus

 

[larangcon]

# 4 Exosphere

 

[larangcon]

# 3 Leprechauns

 

[larangcon]

# 2 Psychosis

 

[nano reef]

Now I know why beauty and the beast has become so popular lately and it sbecause of Josh! ! It used to be one of my favorites as well. I thought I had lost my beauty and the beast because they werent opening for a while and so of course after I rebought them from the same lfs the old ones opened! They looks so different now. The tank I had them in I noopsyche lights. I always loved the lights but I dont know if I do anymore! LOL. I dont get what happened to darken them so much! The pink barely looks pink! Thats the only zoa or coral I noticed change that drastically!

My new fave is speckled kraks and I cant find mine I cant remember if I moved them a long with some others into another tank because I am having a gha issue and it was starting to grow on my corals. I have one group of zoas not opening and can tell they are pink so I am praying its them and they will reopen! They are so bright its crazy and the polyps are huge!

 

[nano reef]

SORRY! I fixed it!

WOW! Totally blown away at the top 5! I noticed beauty and the beast has gotten so popular lately. I had 2 small colonys and one was beautiful and the other I hate! the crazy thing is the ones I loved died and I replaced them from the same person! I did have them in differet tanks so maybe thats what made the differnence but one was so pink and the other you can barely see the pink its mostly green and kind of folded so you really dont see the pink!

EDIT just reread and top 5 pics was Josh pics but the real top 5 is
Utter Chaos
Rasta
GMK
Hallucinations
bam Bam
That makes much more sense and I have them all besides Bam bam and that the only one I cant believe made the top 5!

 

[Topekoms]

WWC AOI

 

[Nano sapiens]

My favorite Zoas?...those that are big-plump-and-juicy, stay alive and multiply over many years:

I think the top ones are 'Shadow Prince' and the bottom are RPE (Red People Eaters), but you can call them whatever you like

3rd: Petroglyphs
4th: Utter Chaos
5th: Blue Agaves