Pineapple Express

Pineapple Express is a Zoanthus strain recognised by a yellow-green face and a spiky, pineapple-like skirt, the pointed tentacles around each polyp giving the colony a textured, crowned edge unlike smoother-skirted zoanthids. The colour blends yellow into green across the disc, so a colony reads as a bright chartreuse patch with a distinctive frilled outline. It is a Tier 2 name, familiar to many collectors for that skirt alone.

Care

Rated easy, it requires medium lighting and medium flow in the bottom to middle of the tank. As with all zoanthids, keep nutrients measurable — they sulk in ultra-clean water — and alkalinity stable, with flow through the mat to keep the spiky skirts free of detritus. It is a hardy strain in a stable tank and its skirt form shows best when polyps are fully extended in moderate, indirect flow.

Keeping and spread

Growth is moderate and mat-forming, encrusting outward over available rock. Provide about 2 in of space around the colony, as the mat can smother slower neighbours on contact. Aggression is moderate. Fragging is done by cutting the mat between polyps and mounting the piece to a plug or rock, then leaving it in medium light and flow to reattach and resume growth.