Pink Panther Palythoa

Pink Panther Palythoa is offered under the retail name shown in the product title.

This is a colonial zoanthid or palythoa sold under an aquarium-trade morph name, not a verified species identification. Color can shift with spectrum, intensity, nutrients, and photography, so the product image and title should be treated as the listing reference rather than a guaranteed color standard.

Care Guide

• Lighting: Use Medium — PAR 100–250 and acclimate gradually. Avoid moving a newly received frag directly into the brightest part of the aquarium.
• Flow: Use moderate flow. The colony should remain clean without the polyps being forced closed.
• Placement: Lower-to-middle rockwork. Isolate on a removable rock if you want to limit spreading.
• Feeding: Direct feeding is optional. If offered, use very small portions and prevent food from collecting between polyps.
• Handling: Wear gloves and eye protection, keep hands away from your face, and never boil, scrub, or pressure-wash zoanthid-covered rock. Some zoanthids and palythoa can contain palytoxin.

Keep salinity and alkalinity stable, inspect new frags for pests, and allow several days for shipping-related closure before making repeated changes.

Shipping: Ships UPS Next Day Air from Key West. Current eligibility and delivery timing are shown at checkout.

What to expect when it arrives

Zoas ship closed. Every polyp will be shut tight and the frag may look like nothing at all when you lift it out of the bag. That is expected and it is not a sign of damage. Float the sealed bag 15 minutes, drip acclimate for 30 to 45 minutes, and dip before the frag goes anywhere near your display.

The dip is not optional with zoanthids. Zoa-eating nudibranchs and sundial snails are small, well camouflaged, and arrive on frags from every source including ours. A coral dip and a careful look at the underside of the plug takes ten minutes and prevents the loss of an entire collection.

Expect polyps to begin opening within 24 to 48 hours. A frag that stays fully closed past four or five days is worth investigating — check flow first, then look for pests with a magnifier.

Placement, and why color changes

Put the frag low and moderate on the first pass. Zoanthids tolerate a wide PAR band, but the same morph will look substantially different at 80 PAR than at 180, and the change takes two to three weeks to complete. Judge color after that window, not before. Many keepers move a zoa too early, decide the morph was misrepresented, and never see what it would have become.

Growth, and keeping the colony contained

A healthy frag puts out new polyps around the perimeter within a few weeks. Growth rate varies enormously by morph — common morphs can double in a couple of months while prized ones stay slow, which is exactly why the slow ones stay expensive. Zoas will spread onto any surface they touch, so mount the frag on an island rock if you do not want the colony crossing onto neighbors.

The safety rule that is not negotiable

Zoanthids and palythoa carry palytoxin. Never boil, scrape, cut, or pressure-wash rock carrying them. Wear gloves and eye protection when fragging, work in a ventilated space, and do not handle them with an open cut. People have been hospitalized by cleaning a rock in a closed bathroom. Treat every colony as though it carries it, because you cannot tell by looking.