Interesting Rasta Experiment

[NanoReef]

I thought i would share this with all of you zoanthid lovers. A few months back i took a couple of frags off of my rasta colony and kept one of the frags of 3 polyps under very high light and flow. (about 3.5" from the surface of the water) Then, the other frag of 1 polyp we put right near the bottom about 10" from the surface of the water and in much lower flow. Over the last 3 months we have noticed a few things. The ones in higher light grew exponentially faster than the ones on the bottom (for obvious reasons). The other thing we noticed was the drastic colour differences between the two. The ones in higher light seemed to have lost almost all of their orange, only keeping a small ring of it, where as the ones in lower light gained more orange. Here is a picture of the 2 frags placed closer together. The frag on the top was the one kept in high light and high flow, and the bottom one was lower light lower flow. I thought this was interesting and figured i would share it with all of you! Thoughts?

[gqlmao]

Wow that's really cool. I like the ones in high light better! What kind of lighting do you have these guys under?

[thmh]

Thanks for sharing nano !!! I know a lot of people keep their zoa under low light but I have tried this test as well with my MJC tropical twist and I didn't notice the growth changed but there are some notable changes in the coloration.


-Tony

[pinkreef]

I love experiments

[lastlight]

very cool i'm going to try the same experiment as soon as i figure out how to frag a zoanthid. i can't believe how massive the blue bands are on those high-light rastas.

[GoFish]

Cool experiment thanks for sharing! I was just thinking that some zoas liked low light and some could handle higher but its good to now that some are just versatile like that.

[HaZRaTTy]

Interesting,


On the flip side. Can you mock reverse the experiment and see if the color morphs but to original? High Light to Low, and Low to High light?

[NanoReef]

Originally Posted by lastlight

very cool i'm going to try the same experiment as soon as i figure out how to frag a zoanthid. i can't believe how massive the blue bands are on those high-light rastas.

i thought the exact same thing. The big wide blue band and the blue dot on the mouth is what surprised me most

Originally Posted by Vancity

Cool experiment thanks for sharing! I was just thinking that some zoas liked low light and some could handle higher but its good to now that some are just versatile like that.

I have found with many of my zoas and palys they are good to go in any type of light/flow. The only exception to this (for me) has been my tubs blues which MUST be shaded in my tank

Originally Posted by HaZRaTTy

Interesting,


On the flip side. Can you mock reverse the experiment and see if the color morphs but to original? High Light to Low, and Low to High light?

Interesting question. Once both frags grow out a little further, maybe i will take a single head off of each and try that! I would be really interested to see the results

[NanoReef]

Originally Posted by gqlmao

Wow that's really cool. I like the ones in high light better! What kind of lighting do you have these guys under?

They are under a Radion Pro with a TIR lens kit. Lights are about 18" off of the water