how to understand the anatomy of a zoa?

[Kigs!]

i was making some frags last night, and by mistake i cut a polyp in half horizontally, leaving maybe just a bit of loose skin. i was literally able to see its guts (brown curly liquid material) spill out. i thought it was a goner, and thought to chuck it but decided to glue it on to a rubble, just to see if it would survive...and this morning, the polyp was wide open like nothing happend.

does a damage to the body not matter much with zoas? anybody know a good read so i can understand how a polyp is made up, anatomical-wise?

 

[Briney Dave]

cnidarians are a pretty simple lot to say the least. just one step up from sponges. I have to say though that I am a bit surprised that it survived the cut. I am under the impression, though don't know it as fact, that the vast majority of the zoanthid diet comes from its algae partner so it should still be able to feed, if it can maintain stable internal conditions with the amount of damage you are describing. The glue will stablize the wound and prevent any extra infections, so if it did not loose too much internal goo then it will end up fine and good as new.