Can zoas grow into a cup coral

[Marcellina]

I bought a zoa frag from a LFS about 2 months ago and it has bright green skirted zoas on the left and a little piece of what I found out to be a cup coral on the right.

It has resided on the top part of my tank and been under 36W PC lights and 36W 50/50 lighting until a couple of days ago. Now I just got a SunPod 150W with Ushio 14K

Today I see that the yellow cup coral has what looks like tiny green 'flowers' on its body. It looks like the zoas that are on the same rock.

Is the zoa killing it ?

Shortly after I got it.

Today

You can see some of the flowers are now getting the greenish color that the zoa has and the yellow body of the cup coral is darker now.

another view

 

[nanoreefer22]

Personally I would frag off the what looks to be a tubinaria (sp?) and place it somewhere else. The zoas are going to grow a lot fast and chances are they'll stifle the other coral out and kill it.

 

[Marcellina]

I want to do that but have never cut a coral and dont know how to go about fragging that tubinara off? Any tips?

 

[rookie07]

I think you can leave it as is...It has made it this far. Zoas need rock/some solid to grow, the turbinara will create its own skeleton. Thus, they should be able to live together. If there was a problem, you would know it by now.

If you decide to seperate the two corals:
just hack it off...use what looks like giant nail clippers, and just chop chop...or, you could just pull/push the turbinara off the rock, it should break off.

On a side note: It appears the 1st pic was taken thru the glas, the last two were taken from above, this would explain the difference in colors you are seeing. however, if all pictures were taken the same way, then the new stronger lighting is to explain. Things look better in last 2 pictures.

 

[Marcellina]

So the green polyp extensions in the tubinara are normal? It used to be a uniform yellow color.

 

[Aquatic Life Direct]

that is normal for the turbinaria... those are the polyps. I would have to agree with rookie.. they should be able to live together but if you want to frag it off, you can follow rookies suggestion...

 

[Marcellina]

I think I will leave it as is if its not threatening the tubinaria. I liked the way the coral colors look together and if it can live together it will be interesting to see how they grow.