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I have googled it but can't find the answer. Where do Zoanthids grow naturally?


TonyInVa

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I quickly scanned "Aquarium Corals" by Eric Borneman and "The Reef Aquarium, Vol. 2" by Julian Sprung and Charles Delbeek. Both say that zoanthids are very widely distributed (worldwide) but more so in warm waters. Borneman's book mentioned the Pacific, Atlantic and Mediterranean, too. Neither source was any more specific. Googling zoantharia distribution, some in Japan are limited only by the colder water at higher latitudes.

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Honestly, if you want to see them you have to know what species are in that area, roughly where to find them.  Once that is done, asking some locals is important.  

 

One carribean species of some interest (because I thought I might have it), Palythoa mutuki, (one "green implosion" variant) IIRC has been found near cave openings.  John Tullock, in his book on Natural Reef Aqauria, says that there are lots of lagoon-area rubble fields and patch reefs in the Florida Keys that have large green sea mat colonies.  The cold water non-photosynthetic zoa I mentioned, Epizoanthus scotinus, lives in "vertical rock faces and overhangs" from SE Alaska to SoCal.

 

I've only seen wild zoanthids once: in a very small branch of a fairly small tidepool, on Hawaii.  (Honaunau, for those familiar with the place, at one of the tidepools on the rocks between two-step and the road.  That being said, at high tide I've seen a small sea turtle in that tidepool; it's rather small but not really small.  This means also of course that the pool has good access to the sea at high tide, so zoanthids are probably at other areas in the vicinity)   

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Googling "Caribbean zoanthids" comes up with a few hits. Here's a gallery of some from St. John, USVI. They're apparently out there in places....

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I've seen them in several places around the Caribbean and Florida while diving.  Without our bright lights the colors are usually muted so they don't jump right out at you.

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Lest us not forget...Colin Ford was pulling zoanthids out of the channel in Miami.

 

 

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Lest us not forget...Colin Ford was pulling zoanthids out of the channel in Miami.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You telling me this was what got me thinking that i should be able to see some on my next trip to the Caribbean. But didnt know where.

 

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