Zoa Id

[random_name_2]

sorry i know these aren’t the greatest pictures but if anyone could kind of guess what types these are I would appreciate it

 

[tbrown]

Really hard to see much in those pictures BUT it looks like a Green Palythoa. Maybe a Captain Jerk but likely just the standard Green Paly.

 

[random_name_2]

Really hard to see much in those pictures BUT it looks like a Green Palythoa. Maybe a Captain Jerk but likely just the standard Green Paly.

yeah sorry about that it was just at a weird angle that I literally spent 10 mins tryna take a good pic and just couldn’t. My lfs said it was a zoa but Ig he could be wrong.

 

[tbrown]

yeah sorry about that it was just at a weird angle that I literally spent 10 mins tryna take a good pic and just couldn’t. My lfs said it was a zoa but Ig he could be wrong.

Im just guessing based on the little we can see in the picture. The lashes look more Palythoa to me but there are some Zoas that have similar lashes.

 

[littlebigreef]

@tbrown for the win. That’s indeed a paly. Not something you’ll want in your tank long term. Does look to be a capt jerk fwiw.

 

[random_name_2]

@tbrown for the win. That’s indeed a paly. Not something you’ll want in your tank long term. Does look to be a capt jerk fwiw.

why don’t you want a paly long term??

 

[littlebigreef]

why don’t you want a paly long term??

I’m gonna preface my response with two comments first.

The industry as a whole has been terrible at differentiating between zoas and true palys for some time. If you work with them enough the difference is obvious, but the tendency has been to call larger zoa species ‘palys.’ This is wholly incorrect.

Secondly, there’s far too much fear mongering, especially from some r2r members, about the threat of paly toxin. However, while some amount of toxin is possibly present in zoas, it’s part and parcel with true palys.

The reason why you don’t want these in your tank long term is that true palys, capt jerk in particular, grow incredibly fast once established and choke out pretty much everything else. Eventually this necessitates manual removal which is where the potential for getting exposed to paly toxin becomes very real.

During the normal course of reef keeping these things pose no real threat. When you start disrupting them you’ve got to use caution, ppe and discretion and even still people can be unlucky and get sick.