Captain Jerk Palythoas coral

Zoanthids and Palythoa are not as demanding as other corals when it comes to lighting. They can be kept under a wide variety of lighting types, and are tolerant of both low and high light conditions. It is always wise however to acclimate new arrivals in lower light areas because it is far more likely to be damaged from overexposure than starve from underexposure.

Moderate to high water movement is recommended. Zoas and Palys benefit from enough flow to keep detritus from settling on them.

While both Zoanthids and Palythoa polyps derive much of their energy from the products of their zooxanthellae, they do have the ability to capture prey. Palythoa seem to feed much more readily than their Zoanthid counterparts.

Some Zoanthids and Palythoa contain a powerful neurotoxin called palytoxin in its flesh that can be extremely harmful if it comes in contact with your blood stream. By harmful we mean deadly. Take special care handling these polyps for this reason especially if you have open cuts on your hands.

In practice you are not likely to get palytoxin poisoning just by having zoas or palythoa in your home aquarium. It resides in the flesh of the coral so it becomes an issue when the colony is damaged. People have gotten sick from scrubbing palythoa off of rocks or propagating a colony with a band saw that would send the particles airborne and then inhaled. People have also gotten sick by boiling rocks with colonies on it because that too sends the compounds airborne and unlike many other proteins, palytoxin does not lose its toxicity when heated.