can zoanthids morph colours

[mr funktastic]

i purchased a small colony of zoanthids not to long ago just normal red zoos. here is a pic of them about 1.5 months ago.



something happend in my tank and my corals were on a slight decline in health and i noticed my zoas melting away. there was only 1 head left on a little piece of rock and i thought it was a gonner. i noticed the other day that there are now about 5-6 heads on it and they seem to be coming back but have completly morphed the colour. here is what they look like now. the picture is not very good im sorry. but they are a greenish center and a light pink furl on the outside and like a black stripe in the face



please ignore the red flat worms. they are fighting me to the bitter end. they just wont die. but has anyone ever seen this happen? i mean i know it must somehow to create new colours but it just thought it was very odd.

 

[Ingy]

What is your lighting and nitrate levels? Other levels too, but I'd suspect high trates or low light.

 

[mr funktastic]

zero nitrate and phosphate. i was running 4xt5 ho lighting 156 watts. now running 120 watt led taotronic style unit. lighting change didnt affect the look of them. its a 30 gal long tank. i dont have the rest of my readings right now. but everything is stable. tank is running perfectly. all other corals are healthy and growing well.

 

[Supa Belle]

Zoa's like dirty water not sure what that means but I kno it's different from sps that like pristine water and yes zoa's can morph

 

[mr funktastic]

that does make sense because there health started to decline when I had to pull the fish out for quarantine for just over a month. after about a week of them being out I was still following my water change weekly even with no fish. after I put the fish back in they started to recuperate.

 

[Grizz]

When you changed lights you upped the par a lot, it then killed the algae that grows inside of the zoa's
When you pulled your fish the water got a lot cleaner No food or poo to cloud things

There's a chance that if you move them to a lower light place in the tank they may morph back Those 120's have a par close to a MH 250 watt bulb. I melted a few of my corals with them.

 

[mr funktastic]

the colour morph happend well before the leds went on. they have only been on for about 2 weeks now. the colour changed happend about a month ago. i will try a lower light spot and see what happens. they are very unique in colour. reminds of like a zombie kinda green and a very odd faded pink around the outside. i am gonna keep trying to get a more true colour pic. i still cant figure out a good setting with my camera to use with the leds. even with a custom white balance it just isnt right.

 

[Grizz]

I kinda like the morph colors Mine went from blue to yellowish-green

 

[mr funktastic]

here is a closer pic. still not quite true to eye. the colours are a bit more vivid.

 

[Grizz]

They are unique i like the color I wonder as they grow if they will stay that color or revert back