Daisy Cutter

Daisy Cutter is a named zoanthid from the Zoanthids.com catalog shelf, and the master strain queue files its check in one line: a daisy-like pale face with a bright centre. The name reads as a flower claim. A keeper in a Reef2Reef identification game made the same observation from the other side, noting that the part in the middle looks like a daisy. Read the name as a pattern claim: pale, petal-like markings radiating on the face, gathered around a bright middle.

The naming history matters for buyers, because this strain travelled under an older name. Keepers in that same identification thread record that Daisy Cutters is the new-school name and Pinwheels is the old-school name, with Blue Pinwheels offered as the fuller old form. A second keeper confirmed the Pinwheels history and added that World Wide Corals sells an extremely similar form as Blue Pinwheels. The thread also carries a correction that keeps the history honest: the blue pinwheel, in that keeper's account, lacks the white and the yellow that Daisy Cutter carries. An old name with a colour difference attached is a lead for a buyer to check, and this entry records Pinwheels as history with the caveat attached, outside the alias field.

A second neighbour dispute runs through the current record, and the entry keeps it visible. In an October 2026 Reef2Reef identification thread, a keeper named a frag Daisy Cutters and added that he had also heard them referred to as Stargazers, a name he uses for his own colony. In his next post he reported the other side: he had also heard that Daisy Cutters and Stargazers are different, with a proposed rule that the ones where the white does not connect to the mouth are Stargazers. The frag's owner accepted the Stargazer reading for his piece. This database already carries Stargazer Zoas as its own entry, so the two names stay in separate entries here, and a buyer holding a pale frag should check the white-to-mouth connection against both entries and treat the rule as a keeper proposal, with the disagreement recorded beside it.

The identification check therefore runs on the pattern the queue and the keeper record agree on. Look for a pale, daisy-like face: light petal markings around a bright centre, with white and yellow both present in the colour read. A blue-centred form with no white and no yellow points toward the Blue Pinwheel material in the keeper correction. A pale form where the white stops short of the mouth raises the Stargazer question in the disputed rule. Colour shifts with spectrum — the Top Shelf Aquatics strain FAQ notes that too much white light can mute the centre pattern — so judge the pattern under a blue-heavy reef spectrum before judging the frag.

Care follows the family shape, and the strain page adds working signs a keeper can use week to week. The Top Shelf Aquatics FAQ for this strain reads tall, skinny stalks as a colony chasing light or dodging flow, calling for a gradual PAR increase and steadier, indirect flow. Tiny, tight polyps that refuse to open point the other way, toward blasting flow or too much light, with a 10–20% intensity reduction and a flow redirect as the first moves. Shading from neighbouring colonies belongs on the same check, because a frag growing in a neighbour's shadow stretches for the same reason a frag in low light stretches.

Water chemistry follows the standard reef shape, and the records read this run agree closely. Reef To Go's standard parameters suit the strain: temperature 77–79 °F, salinity near 35 ppt (about 1.024–1.026), alkalinity 8–10 dKH held steady, calcium 400–450 ppm, with low but detectable nitrate and phosphate. Top Shelf Aquatics gives calcium 380–450 ppm, alkalinity 8–9.5 dKH, magnesium 1,250–1,350 ppm, nitrate 5–15 ppm and phosphate under 0.10 ppm for the family, at 75–80 °F and salinity 1.024–1.026. The strain FAQ tightens the nutrient window for colour: nitrate about 5–15 ppm and phosphate about 0.03–0.08 ppm hold the centre pattern and skirt colour best, with too little nutrient paling the skirts. Zoanthids carry no calcium skeleton, so the colony itself makes no dosing demand; stability and steady nutrients do the work.

Light sits in the family band, with the strain signs as the guide inside it. Top Shelf Aquatics works zoanthids at 75–150 PAR, moderate light typically sufficient, with a slow transition required before any move higher; Whitlyn Aquatics gives 50–150 PAR as the moderate band. The working plan is to start low in the band on lower rockwork, climb in small steps over 2–3 weeks, and read the colony's shape as the report: even, open polyps at a steady height mean the level suits it, and stretching means the climb should continue.

Flow follows the same pattern. The family text calls for moderate, indirect flow that sweeps debris off the mat and leaves the colony open and extended. The strain FAQ adds random, moderate flow as the shape that keeps detritus off and growth even. A colony that stays tiny and tight under direct flow is giving the useful answer for its own tank, and the redirect comes before any light change in that case, because the FAQ lists blasting flow first among the tight-polyp causes it names for light and flow together.

Feeding is a supplement with a real but secondary effect. The family record at Top Shelf Aquatics feeds fine-particle phytoplankton blends plus products like Reef Roids and Benepets a few times a week, broadcast or target-fed with flow paused for ten to fifteen minutes, supporting colour and growth. Whitlyn Aquatics puts supplemental feeding at 1–2 times weekly and notes the feeding response is weak. The strain FAQ adds a trace-element note for colour: iodine and iron at natural levels support pigments, and a weekly 10–15% water change maintains trace balance without chasing numbers. That water-change figure is the practical route into the trace note, and the entry recommends it at that strength.

Placement should plan from day one for a fast mat on its own island rock. The strain FAQ states the overrun record plainly: once established, Daisy Cutters spread fast along rock and can irritate nearby LPS and encrusters, so the page calls for an island rock or sand gaps as barriers, monthly mat trimming at the edges, and carbon with good skimming to reduce chemical cues. A keeper thread read this run arrived at the same containment from experience with other morphs: mixed zoa gardens look strong at the start, and over time one morph outcompetes the others on a shared rock, so separate mini islands keep each morph manageable. Begin on a low island, walk the colony upward only as its colour and shape ask for more light, and keep the island wherever it lands so the containment survives the move.

Pests and health checks carry strain-page specifics worth keeping. The FAQ's closed-colony checklist runs: inspect at night for zoa-eating nudibranchs and sundial snails, dip to remove hitchhikers, look for zoa pox as tiny cream pustules on the polyps, increase flow to deter biofilm at the mat edge, siphon detritus, spot-treat encroaching algae on the rock beside the polyps with dilute peroxide out of water, and run fresh carbon with space from leathers to reduce chemical stress. Handling follows the family safety rule at full strength: Top Shelf Aquatics and Whitlyn Aquatics both warn that zoanthids can carry palytoxin, so gloves and eye protection go on for every handling session, colonies stay away from high heat, and hands and tools are washed thoroughly afterwards. The strain FAQ repeats the warning in its own words: even Zoanthus can contain palytoxin, and fragging aerosols or slime can be hazardous.

Price anchors place the strain in the middle of the zoanthid shelf. Top Shelf Aquatics lists its plain Daisy Cutters line at $49.99 for a 2–3 polyp frag cut from the mother colony, and its JF-prefixed Daisy Cutter listings at $44.99. AquaSD listed Daisy Cutter Zoanthids at $39.99 and $29.99 in sale posts read in search this run. Keeper-to-keeper sales on Reef2Reef ran lower: $20 in a hornet-heavy strain sale, $15 in a Florida sale list, and $10 across three frags in another large zoa sale list. A buyer comparing a retail frag against a keeper frag is looking at the usual retail-to-keeper spread for a named zoanthid, with lineage and polyp count doing most of the work inside it.

Field notes — what keepers report

- The Pinwheels history comes from a September 2026 Reef2Reef identification game, and every voice in it stays visible. Baldyreef named the frag Daisy Cutter at once. Oscar47f added that Daisy Cutters is the new-school name and Pinwheels the old-school name, offering Blue Pinwheels as the fuller old form. Baldyreef confirmed the Pinwheels history, noted that World Wide Corals sells an extremely similar form as Blue Pinwheels, and then corrected the equation: pinwheels were the old name, and the blue pinwheel lacks the white and yellow. Oscar47f also complained that large stores rename material to refresh it and sell it for more, a frustration about naming practice generally, recorded here as that keeper's view of the trade.

- The Stargazer dispute comes from an October 2026 Reef2Reef identification thread, and both positions stay in the record. Timnorthrop identified a frag as Daisy Cutters, said he had also heard them referred to as Stargazers, and posted his own colony under that shared use. He then reported the separating view he had also heard: the two are different, and the ones where the white does not connect to the mouth are Stargazers. The frag's owner, reefmarine, accepted the Stargazer reading for his frag on that rule. No source read this run settles the dispute, so this entry records the proposed rule and the disagreement at equal strength.

- A compound sighting appears in a third identification thread, where a keeper listing guesses for a group photograph wrote "Stargazer Daisycutter" as a single label for one colony, and another keeper in the same thread later wrote that item 2 in the set is Daisy Cutters. Compound labels in group photographs show the two names travelling together in keeper use; they carry identification weight at a lower level than a single-colony thread, and the entry treats them that way.

- The strain-page FAQ is a vendor care record with strain-specific signs, and the entry weights it as a vendor record. Its stretching and tight-polyp signs, its nutrient window for colour (nitrate about 5–15 ppm, phosphate about 0.03–0.08 ppm, blue-heavy spectrum, white light muting the centre pattern), its closed-colony checklist (night inspection, zoa pox as tiny cream pustules, biofilm at the mat edge, carbon, space from leathers), and its overrun guidance (fast spread once established, island rock or sand gaps, monthly trimming) all come from the Top Shelf Aquatics Daisy Cutter page. A vendor FAQ describes the vendor's own systems first; the signs agree with the family text read this run, and the entry keeps them at that combined strength.

- A placement sighting comes from a March 2026 Reef2Reef planning thread: a keeper mapping a zoa-only 50-gallon lagoon, with PAR from 180 near the surface to 60 at the base, placed Daisy Cutters on the mid rockwork beside Armor of God, with faster collector morphs higher and classic patterns lower. The keeper noted in the thread that the plan came from an AI draft and that all the corals would come from Top Shelf Aquatics using their terminology, so the sighting records a planned placement and a naming source, at that strength. Replies in the same thread pushed the general containment lesson — one morph outcompeting others on shared rock, mini islands as the fix — from experience with other morphs, and no reply singled Daisy Cutters out as a problem grower.

- The growth record rests on the vendor FAQ and the family record together. The strain FAQ says established colonies spread fast along rock. The family text at Top Shelf Aquatics describes rapid growth into dense mats, and Whitlyn Aquatics describes budding into large mats that crowd neighbours. No keeper growth-rate report naming this strain — a doubling time, a polyp count over months, a takeover account — was found in the sources read this run, and the entry records that absence beside the vendor and family record rather than upgrading either into a keeper claim.

- The difficulty record is an absence, recorded rather than filled. No melt report, no hard-to-keep listing, and no beginner warning naming this strain was found in the sources read this run. The care tile therefore holds the family Easy baseline from the Top Shelf Aquatics family text, which calls zoanthids generally hardy and beginner-friendly. A strain with a thin keeper file gets the family tile with the thin file stated, following the same rule the Cat Eyes and Variable Star dossiers used.

- The price record splits by channel, and both sides stay visible. Retail anchors read this run: $49.99 at Top Shelf Aquatics for the plain line (2–3 polyps), $44.99 for the JF-prefixed line at the same store, and $39.99 / $29.99 in AquaSD sale posts. Keeper-sale anchors on Reef2Reef: $20, $15, and $10 in three separate sale lists. The spread is wide for one strain name, and polyp count, lineage prefix, and channel explain more of it than condition does in the listings read.