"Utter chaos" paly placement near zoanthus garden

[3sxp]

Hi all. I'm starting a zoa garden and am wondering about placement. I currently have "utter chaos" in quarantine, three more arriving tomorrow ("dragon eyes", "bob marley", "stargazer"). Hoping to add some exospheres if these all do well.

My understanding is that the utter chaos being palys will eventually grow taller than the zoanthus? So I was thinking of doing something like this:

Basically glue the palys to the lower edge of the rock so that if they grow upward they're at an angle to the zoas which would be pointed upward. Then exosphere on the right side if I can get them. Hopefully spaced such that they all grow together and sort of contain each other.

What do you think?

 

[Saltyreef]

Hi all. I'm starting a zoa garden and am wondering about placement. I currently have "utter chaos" in quarantine, three more arriving tomorrow ("dragon eyes", "bob marley", "stargazer"). Hoping to add some exospheres if these all do well.

My understanding is that the utter chaos being palys will eventually grow taller than the zoanthus? So I was thinking of doing something like this:

Basically glue the palys to the lower edge of the rock so that if they grow upward they're at an angle to the zoas which would be pointed upward. Then exosphere on the right side if I can get them. Hopefully spaced such that they all grow together and sort of contain each other.

What do you think?

Probably not needed. My zoas and palys grow even height when in a garden provided with higher light.

 

[3sxp]

Probably not needed. My zoas and palys grow even height when in a garden provided with higher light.

Oh nice -- that's beautiful! Love how they grew around each other.

 

[The_Skrimp]

It’ll work for a while. That was my plan as well but they will eventually grow over the ledge and take over more space.

My utter chaos started lower down behind this rock but have since slowly started to take over the space where these orange zoas once were.

They just grow big enough to over shadow the smaller polyp zoas. The captain America palys right next to them are holding their own though.

 

[3sxp]

It’ll work for a while. That was my plan as well but they will eventually grow over the ledge and take over more space.

My utter chaos started lower down behind this rock but have since slowly started to take over the space where these orange zoas once were.

They just grow big enough to over shadow the smaller polyp zoas. The captain America palys right next to them are holding their own though.

Huh -- do you mind it, or do you wish you had kept them on their own island? And the orange ones were on top but the chaos sort of stepped over them? Thanks for the reply and the pic!

 

[The_Skrimp]

I don’t mind it too much. The others were established enough that it’s happening slowly but I know that eventually the utter chaos are going to win. They’re easy enough to frag back if I need to.

 

[encrustingacro]

Utter chaos are Zoanthus gigantus, not Palythoa. That being said, the height of the stalks will vary on how strong the light is. The only Zoanthus species that consistently has short stalks are Z. kuroshio.

Probably not needed. My zoas and palys grow even height when in a garden provided with higher light.

Those "Palys" are actually Z. kuroshio, not Palythoa.

 

[3sxp]

Utter chaos are Zoanthus gigantus, not Palythoa. That being said, the height of the stalks will vary on how strong the light is. The only Zoanthus species that consistently has short stalks are Z. kuroshio.

Those "Palys" are actually Z. kuroshio, not Palythoa.

Wow, fascinating. Do you have a reference that talks about this? I ask because I've been trying to find out the species info for utter chaos specifically and had been unable to. I got mine from Biota which lists them as palythoa, and I actually contacted them by email to ask if they knew it was palythoa. I got a fairly detailed response about their care and figured they'd know, but I do see them listed differently in different places. I'd love to be learning more directly where they came from, how/when/by whom they were taxonomized, etc... thank you for the reply!

 

[encrustingacro]

Wow, fascinating. Do you have a reference that talks about this? I ask because I've been trying to find out the species info for utter chaos specifically and had been unable to. I got mine from Biota which lists them as palythoa, and I actually contacted them by email to ask if they knew it was palythoa. I got a fairly detailed response about their care and figured they'd know, but I do see them listed differently in different places. I'd love to be learning more directly where they came from, how/when/by whom they were taxonomized, etc... thank you for the reply!

Inaturalist is a good place for reference images (although some images will not be IDed correctly), and WoRMS is the database for accepted and unaccepted taxonomic nomenclature of marine invertebrates, although reference images are not always provided.

 

[encrustingacro]

Wow, fascinating. Do you have a reference that talks about this? I ask because I've been trying to find out the species info for utter chaos specifically and had been unable to. I got mine from Biota which lists them as palythoa, and I actually contacted them by email to ask if they knew it was palythoa. I got a fairly detailed response about their care and figured they'd know, but I do see them listed differently in different places. I'd love to be learning more directly where they came from, how/when/by whom they were taxonomized, etc... thank you for the reply!

I also would not fully trust vendor IDs, even trusted vendors such as Biota, as the hobby has a knack for misidentifying our animals and using outdated taxonomic nomenclature all the time. Another guide I would recommend is Joe Rowlett's Indo-Pacific Corals. It is on the newer end of coral ID books, so it will have more up-to-date taxonomic nomenclature. However, the nomenclature is not fully up-to-date, as many taxonomic changes have happened since then, most notably the taxonomic overhaul of octocorals and some of the changes to some of the former faviids/merulinids.

 

[3sxp]

Inaturalist is a good place for reference images (although some images will not be IDed correctly), and WoRMS is the database for accepted and unaccepted taxonomic nomenclature of marine invertebrates, although reference images are not always provided.

I also would not fully trust vendor IDs, even trusted vendors such as Biota, as the hobby has a knack for misidentifying our animals and using outdated taxonomic nomenclature all the time. Another guide I would recommend is Joe Rowlett's Indo-Pacific Corals. It is on the newer end of coral ID books, so it will have more up-to-date taxonomic nomenclature. However, the nomenclature is not fully up-to-date, as many taxonomic changes have happened since then, most notably the taxonomic overhaul of octocorals and some of the changes to some of the former faviids/merulinids.

Thank you again! Really appreciate this info. I imagine it's hard to keep up for the vendors who are moving a lot of animals.

I'd wondered if iNaturalist was being used for corals. I use it on backyard plants and while hiking, etc. Mixed info sometimes but a very neat project.

I've been desperate for a book, but thought things were changing too fast. I'll check out the Rowlett!

This chaos also came covered in aiptasia, so knowing it's a zoanthus is giving me a bit more comfort getting my face close to it.