Designer Zoas

 What Is a Designer Zoa?

 

Red Oxide?  Nuclear Green Dragon Eyes?  Golden Revolver?  What separates these zoanthids from ones that are simply “red”, “green” and “yellow”?  What makes a designer zoa a designer zoa?  Simply put, a designer zoa is a zoa with a commonly recognizable trade name that will have roughly uniform colouration and size regardless of its source.

 

Where Do Designer Zoas Come From?

 

A common misconception is that designer zoas are created through cross breeding, gene splicing or other science fiction techniques.  While this would be undeniably awesome, it’s not where these beautiful corals come from.  In fact, designer zoas all originate from the wild.  Over time, certain colour morphs are cultured and propagated by hobbyists, suppliers and stores (such as the Fragbox Cultured Corals program).  As these zoas become more popular and widespread they are often given a specific trade name and thus become a “designer zoa”.   This has given the hobby such zoa specimens as Purple Monster, Sunny D and Blue Hornets.  There are literally hundreds of different types to choose from.

How are Designer Zoa Prices Determined?

 

The price of a designer zoa is determined by two things, beauty and rarity.  While beauty is somewhat subjective, it is hard to deny how stunning a colony of Rasta Zoas or Utter Chaos is.  Since these zoas have been cultured and propagated for many years, they are relatively inexpensive, despite their gorgeous colours.  A Spellbinder Zoa, on the other hand, is both stunning and rare and a single polyp often costs well over $100.  Currently the most expensive designer zoa available in the hobby is the Grand Master Krak, which often costs $500 or more per polyp.  Certainly not all designer zoas are this expensive, but newer hobbyists are sometimes reluctant to pay upwards of $10-$40 for a single polyp of a designer zoa.  However, a single polyp of a Mickey D zoa can grow into a beautiful colony in a fairly short period of time.  The trick to buying a designer zoa is to picture the colony rather than the polyp and then the price seems like a bargain!

Why Buy Designer Zoas?

 

The vast majority of hobbyists will buy a particular designer zoa for the same reason that  they buy any other coral: Because they like the look of it.  A garden of contrasting zoa rocks can make one of the most beautiful additions to any reef tank.  However, they can also be thought of as the baseball cards of the reefing hobby, and some hobbyists will make it their mission to collect as many different types as possible to add to their collection.  Whatever the reason for purchase, designer zoas have a number of advantages over wild collected specimens.  Because they have been bred for many years in captivity they are far more likely to thrive in a home aquarium than wild zoas.  They are also far less likely to contain pests than corals harvested from the wild (however, like all corals, they should be dipped before being added to the tank). They are generally considered to be a low maintenance coral and can tolerate less pristine water conditions than many other types of corals.  Their beauty, ease of care and wide range of price points make designer zoas a great addition to any reef tank.