Zoanthids & Palythoas

Zoanthids and Palythoa come in some of the widest array of colors available for your reef tank, and most have a phosphorescent glow under your blue lights that few types of beginner corals can match. A great introduction for what it really means for a coral to “fluoresce”, most of these are even starter level corals. It is essential to remember that when looking for zoanthids or palythoa to look at polyp size. Generally speaking, Zoas have smaller heads that grow very closely together and Palys have larger heads that may be spaced slightly further apart. Palythoa also are more likely to contain palytoxin, though with simple safety observation poisoning is easily avoided, even while fragging. Remember, whether or not you have palythoa or zoanthids it is possible to have palytoxin in your tank, as it can occur in dinoflagulates and algaes, and even in crabs and marine worms.