Deepwater zoas

[Bella127]

I read somewhere Jim you posted a thread about deepwater zoas. Vendors were labeling these as DEEPwater , which in turn means low light and cooler temperatures. I bought a couple of these "deepwater" frags and placed them on the bottom of my tank tucked away of indirect sunlight . I run 250w halide with t5supplements on them . They both melted within a couple of weeks on me . The colors were decent , but if they are truly deepwater , why would vendors market them to us reefkeepers with our shallow tanks. Has anybody had any long term luck with these specimens?

[ReeferRob]

I got my hands on 3 different morphs a while back. Oddly at first there was a growth explosion from the intense light. Then they quickly started shrinking. They are still around but no where near the color and size they once had.

[jayjay60]

I have purchased an 8 polyp frag 9 months ago and they have sprouted into about 50-60 polyps under PC's then under t5's.

[ReeferRob]

I have purchased an 8 polyp frag 9 months ago and they have sprouted into about 50-60 polyps under PC's then under t5's.

Post a pic JayJay, I want to see which color morph you have!

[jayjay60]

They are the ones that go by the name blue thunder

[detguy123]

i think they are just putting a fancy label on these zoas..every zoa i have seen in the wild is in very shallow water and alot of them would even be exposed to air at low tide..not to say that there can't be a deepwater zoa becuase we are amazed at what we see and find in the ocean..now what i have seen labeled deepwater has not really impressed me much i have got alot better..but alot of people that i have seen that got these have not had a lot of success with them

[Argent]

Skyhigh has two morphs that seem to have grown well for him (I have frags of them from him)

[stunreefer]

"Deepwater" is all relative... how deep is deep? 5 m, 10 m, 50 m?

What I consider deep, no zoas grow. Zoanthids grow in shallow, turbid water. The whole "deepwater" scheme is just another marketing ploy, as with "Japanese" zoanthids - it's illegal to export from Japan!

[Manoj's Reef]

I have a clony of blue deep water zoas , they have done well for me so far. I never paid too much attention to where i put them though. May be I got lucky...I will try to get a picture this weekend

[Acro76]

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.