Color Morphing

kidreef

Member
I was wondering if anyone here has tried to "pursaude" zoas to alter their colorations and if so how does this work?
 

rebelprettyboy

Active Member
I guess moving some closer to the light and furhter away from the light would cause it chnge colors. Not really change but Fade etc...
So Im not sure. But would like to see what others say
 

kidreef

Member
yeah i heard somehting some1 might have done (he wouldnt tell if he did or didnt) but anyway he said to bleach zoas put them in a container then take the most colorful clam u can find blend the mantle and put the blended mantle in the container with the zoas and the zooxthenelle from the the clam will be absorbed by the zoas. i thought it might work since thats what you do with baby clams does anyone know if it would?
 

rhagemann

Member
I've been very successful at it...(unintentionally). Work had me away from home a lot a couple years ago. After one of my trups, I came home to find my tank sitter had been topping off with pre-mixed SW. Needless to say, I lost all my softies and everything else was closed tight and on the verge of punching out all together. With a Salinity reading of 1.032 + (meter was peaked and wouldn't do any higher) you can understand why.
After several massive water changes over a two week period, all the zoa's started to slowly open up and I started noticing different color morphs (compared to their previous colors). Don't have anything wild like Red, White, & Tub's Blues or psychadelics but definately a color change.
Talking with a fellow local reefer who just came through a really bad cyano outbreak and some of his zoas and SPS's are doing the same thing.
Horrible and risky way to find out, but a substantial number of them did change colors when they reopened. Strangely enough, subsequent new polyps came out the original colors.
Don't think I have any of them left in the tanks...I'll look to see if I have any pics to post.
 

kidreef

Member
o so did they change colors or did the orginal color just become faded or darkend? o and pics would be awesome
 

flricordia

Active Member
Symbiotic algae play a roll in the color of the Anthozoa (soft, lps, sps, corallimorpharians, colonial anemones [zoanthids/palys], true anemones) and can be alterd to an extent with the play of lighting by moving closer to or away from, but I think this would only increase or decrease the shade, ie; lighter vs darker as zooxanthellae are brown to golden/yellow and increase in number or decrease. What give the individual Anthozoa fluorescence is the pigmentaion within which has been marked as just four autofluorescent pigments. These four pigments fluoresced with peak wavelengths near 486, 515, 575, and 685. Maybe the use of lighting that focused more on one or two wavelengths would increase the pigments to higher elevations if used over extended periods and bring about color morphs, which is probably what already happens to a certain degree within the closed system as we have noticed many times with zoas color morphing. Trying different bulb types would probably be sufficiant to bring about these changes over a months time. Just an idea. Not really sure the effects of running in the lower color spectrum range exlusively and the effects of chlorophyll though.
 

iyachtuxivm

Member
Originally Posted by kidreef
http:///forum/post/2652454
yeah i heard somehting some1 might have done (he wouldnt tell if he did or didnt) but anyway he said to bleach zoas put them in a container then take the most colorful clam u can find blend the mantle and put the blended mantle in the container with the zoas and the zooxthenelle from the the clam will be absorbed by the zoas. i thought it might work since thats what you do with baby clams does anyone know if it would?

Wow thats horrible!
 

kidreef

Member
Originally Posted by Flricordia
http:///forum/post/2657774
Symbiotic algae play a roll in the color of the Anthozoa (soft, lps, sps, corallimorpharians, colonial anemones [zoanthids/palys], true anemones) and can be alterd to an extent with the play of lighting by moving closer to or away from, but I think this would only increase or decrease the shade, ie; lighter vs darker as zooxanthellae are brown to golden/yellow and increase in number or decrease. What give the individual Anthozoa fluorescence is the pigmentaion within which has been marked as just four autofluorescent pigments. These four pigments fluoresced with peak wavelengths near 486, 515, 575, and 685. Maybe the use of lighting that focused more on one or two wavelengths would increase the pigments to higher elevations if used over extended periods and bring about color morphs, which is probably what already happens to a certain degree within the closed system as we have noticed many times with zoas color morphing. Trying different bulb types would probably be sufficiant to bring about these changes over a months time. Just an idea. Not really sure the effects of running in the lower color spectrum range exlusively and the effects of chlorophyll though.
so u can only dilute and intensify the color with high and lower spectrums of light?
 
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