where do zooas get their color?

[hediki12]

ok, i know this question may sound very funny. But im from the reptile hobby. i use to keep snakes and arachnids. Now corn snakes and ball pythons come in morphs (colors/ patterns) and i noticed you guys use that word on zoas a few times. In snakes you have ginectic morphs and domininat ,risesive ect. i was just wondering to make a long story short, are each zoa morph its unique own species or just a ginetic mutation?

 

[reefs4life]

that's a really good question that I'd like the answer to as well...here's what I know or what I think I know: Most corals get their color and nutrition from a microscopic algae called zooxanthallae which I'm not really sure how it gives a coral a different color if they all have the same microscopic algae, I'm guessing arrangement maybe. But anyways, as you said about recessive and dominant traits, I don't think those come into play with zoas due to the fact that they usually reproduce asexually so the offspring would have the same genetic information as the mother. I'm not saying any of this is correct but that's what I think I know about this topic

 

[wschang812]

i think it is a genetic mutation. im not too sure but corals are not complex organisms with specialized cell so it can live with mutations. mutation in the way the protein is made may be the cause for different colors. as learned in biology, different shape proteins, different phenotype. i do not know if im right but just applying what i learned. lol

 

[Killerdrgn]

Well coral live with a variety of zooxanthallae it's not just a single type. This was just discovered recently as the oceans are warming up coral are activating more heat resistant zooxanthallae.