Zoanthids: Care, Palytoxin Safety and WYSIWYG Zoas for Sale

Zoanthids are the right first coral for most people and a lifetime collecting habit for the rest. Flat round oral discs on short stalks, joined by a mat, with a fringe of short tentacles around the rim — and colors that come in named morphs selling for wildly different money on pattern alone. They are hardy, they multiply fast, and a zoa garden under blue light is the cheapest spectacular view in the hobby.

Zoanthid or palythoa?

Palythoa polyps are larger, with a thicker, fleshier stalk and often a sandy texture from grit embedded in the tissue. The distinction matters for one reason: palys can carry palytoxin, which is genuinely dangerous. Never boil rock with polyps on it, never scrape colonies in a closed room, and wear gloves and eye protection when handling or fragging either genus. Treat every unknown polyp as a paly until you know otherwise.

Care at a glance

Reading closed polyps

Closed zoas tell you something only if you read the pattern. All shut at once points at a whole-tank event — a parameter swing, something in the water. A few closed beside open neighbors points at predation: zoa-eating spiders, sundial snails, nudibranchs. The full diagnostic, pest by pest: Why are my zoanthids not opening?

Zoanthid names explained: the named-morph field guide

Every zoa name you have seen — Gorilla Nipple, Halle Berry, Blue Steel, Fruit Loops — is a trade name, not a species. All of them are Zoanthus or Palythoa; the name describes a color pattern that a particular line of polyps carries and passes on when it spreads. That is why the same morph can turn up under two names from two farms, and why a name means nothing until you have seen the polyp under the light you will keep it under. Here is what the names on our rack actually refer to.

Zoas and palys in stock now

One thing to know before you order: the $10 Box & Handling Fee is charged by the box, not by the coral, and UPS Next Day Air is one flat shipping charge per order. A box holds several corals for the same $10 Box & Handling Fee and the same overnight ride, Florida orders under 6 lb ship UPS Next Day Air for a flat $30, and livestock orders of $349 or more ship free. If this page puts one coral on your list, it is worth seeing what else belongs in the box — start with corals under $100 or the newest WYSIWYG pieces.

Our stony corals are either aquacultured at the shop in Key West under Florida Aquaculture Certificate #AQ0254072 or conditioned in our Key West systems before they ship, and the photo on a WYSIWYG listing is the exact animal that ships. Corals ship UPS Next Day Air every Tuesday and Wednesday. If you are ever in Key West, come see the raceways.

Have coral your reef has outgrown? Trade it coral-for-coral on FRAG (free, no fees) or sell or trade it to our Key West farm for cash or store credit.