Well since these are very easy to get now for any coral vendor, I might as well tell the true story.
These are imported from Hong Kong. There is no CITES for stony coral export from this region, hence they are ripped off of the rocks they are collected on. Mind you if you lived in HK it would be perfectly legal to own these on rock, since they allow collection, but not export. It is perfectly legal to import and export any soft coral not on live rock from this region.
From my understanding they are not necessarily "deepwater" zoanthids, they can occur anywhere up to 15 feet of water. The waters where they are collected are probably cooler and have a higher turbidity than many reefs we commonly get corals from. This "deepwater" moniker may have come from the fact that they seem to appreciate cooler water and less light.
I think most of the troubles from these zoas are from the collection. For the zoas to be ripped off the rock, then stuck in a bag for 24 to 35 hours is a lot of stress. We acclimate them for 2 to 4 weeks before sale, which is the time period where they are most likely to have any problems.
I have seen thousands of dollars of these guys melt away, and spent time and money doing countless dips. I had pretty much wrote these zoas off! But now that I know how to acclimate them it is not a problem.
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Originally Posted by Acro76
