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FAQs about Fungiid Coral Compatibility
Related Articles: Fungiid Corals,
Related FAQs: Fungiid Corals 1, Fungiid Corals 2, Fungiid
Identification, Fungiid Behavior,
Fungiid Selection,
Fungiid Systems,
Fungiid Feeding,
Fungiid Disease,
Fungiid Reproduction,
Stony/True
Coral, Coral System Set-Up, Coral
System Lighting, Stony Coral
Identification, Stony Coral Selection, Coral
Placement, Foods/Feeding/Nutrition,
Disease/Health, Propagation,
Growing Reef Corals, Stony
Coral Behavior,
A Ctenactis species, family Fungiidae... and a bonus Allen's Damsel to boot! N. Sulawesi image.
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Sick Fungia
-02/25/08
Hi. I hope you can help me.
<me too>
I picked up a small orange plate coral (Fungia) about three days ago. I
drip acclimated as I normally do any coral I get. The first night, he
seemed as happy as a clam. Mouth was visible and his tiny little
tentacles were extended. Sometime in the night, something horrible
happened. Something in my tank seems to have snacked on him.
<Hmm... no, looks like tissue recession to me.>
It is missing tissue that was fine when the lights went off. My GUESS is
a peppermint shrimp.
<not likely>
I also have some blue leg hermits and snails. As far as fish, I only
have a couple bar gobies, a canary wrasse and a Firefish.
After I found him the next day, I quarantined it in the tank so nothing
can get to it. It's now in a slotted breeder box (with sand in the
bottom) held in the middle of the tank by a magnet scraper (feel free to
laugh, but its working). It's little tentacles still extend, except for
the part where the flesh is injured. I have given it a small piece of
Mysis to see if it would still react to it, and it grabbed hold and
pulled it slowly towards its mouth. However, his mouth is not visible.
By that I mean, it's wide open. Maybe looking at a picture of it would
help (see attached jpeg). That is actually a piece of Mysis he has in
the 'mouth' (the black dot is a Mysis eye I believe).
<It looks like, maybe, the mouth is just very, very retracted.>
Should I keep spot feeding this guy every couple days to see if he comes
back around?
<Yes>
Do you think there is a snowballs chance he'll make it??
<Oh yeah, sure there is. Though these corals are not necessarily easy to
keep, they are capable of some remarkable recoveries. And your coral is
not in all that bad a shape. It's struggling for sure, but it's far from
doomed.>
(in the photo, the missing tissue is towards the edge of the top left)
:-(
-wuf
<Good luck,
Sara M.>
Re: sick Fungia... shrimp
bothering 3/2/08
Thank you for your response on my stressed out/damaged Fungia. However,
after several days of it recouping in a segregated box, I have to respectfully
disagree with your conclusion. Here is why (if you are interested):
After keeping the plate coral in a separate container in the tank and spot
feeding it, it came back to it's 'normal self'. It was polyping out fully and
the mouth was no longer gaping. Not 2 hours after I placed it back in the bottom
of the tank, I found TWO peppermint shrimp sitting on top of it picking at it.
Of course, all tentacles were pulled back in and the mouth was starting to gape.
I immediately pulled it out and put it back into it's separate area. I also
found the peppermints harassing my tongue coral.
That being said, I believe that peppermints can be more of a nuisance to these
LPS's than some would like to believe.
<Hmmm, I must not have been very articulate with what I was saying before. I
didn't mean to say that these shrimp can't be a nuisance to these corals.
Rather, I mean to say that it's unlikely that they are actually *eating* the
coral. However, there are plenty of other ways they can be a nuisance. They can
steal food (even from out of the mouths of the corals). They might also be
picking at the coral's mucus. Even just their "standing" on the coral can cause
the coral to retract and be stressed (as you've seen).>
Just my 2 cents......
<Thank you for the update. Great to hear your coral is doing better!
Best,
Sara M.> |
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Plate Coral placement and feather duster 3/21/07
Hope you are doing well!
<Quite! And wish you the same!>
I have a question about my plate coral. I have had this coral in my 55gal. tank
for well over 6 months, and it seems to be doing great. It has grown some, eats
like crazy, and inflates greatly during the day, almost doubling in size with
tentacles extending to an inch or so. Inflated, I would say that this coral is
about 5-6in. in diameter and looks most like the Fungia fungites specimen
pictured on the following link, with the pink outer rim and maybe a little more
greenish tint:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fungiidae.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fungiidae.htm
Mine also seems a little "meatier" during the day, with longer tentacles. My
first question is about how big do these corals generally get in an aquarium?
<Depends, can get pretty big.>
I try to do plenty of research before buying my corals, but I haven't been able
to find their maximum size. Secondly, when my coral is fully inflated, it is
somewhat scrunched up against a rock and also pressed against the side of the
glass. So I am curious if I should manually move the coral, when it is deflated
of course? I know that these corals often move themselves, so I am reluctant to
move it due to the fact that if they can move and it is unhappy, wouldn't it
just move itself? To me it appears "happy" just a little scrunched during the
day.
<Yes, leave it be.>
Finally, I have a couple places I can move this coral, one being next to my
giant feather duster and a candy cane coral. Can the tentacles of my plate coral
damage the FD or the stalk of the candy cane?
<I would not place here... irritants>
Any suggestions and guidance is greatly appreciated as always!
<I wouldn't disturb, is happy, don't mess up a good thing.>
Thank you in advance for your help and a wonderful website!!!
<Welcome and thank you for your kind words. -Mich>
Nick
Nips on Crocea Clam and Plate Coral 7/25/06
I have a small crocea clam and a short tentacle plate coral (Fungia
fungites) that recently have been getting half-circle shaped nips, about
2mm wide. They occur at night, and usually there are just 2-3 nips on
each. The nips are on the edges of the clam mantle, and on the tops of the
ridges on the plate coral. Both the clam and the plate coral have been in the
tank for about 9 months, and have been healthy and growing, and thus far, regrow
the nipped areas very quickly. I have not added any new live rock or coral in
at least 6 months, so I doubt I have a new hitch-hiker.
<Perhaps an old, getting-larger, hungrier one...>
Fish - Ocellaris Clown, Chalk Basslet, Longnose Hawkfish, Horned Blenny
(Parablennius spp.), and a Hawaiian Fourline Wrasse (Pseudocheilinus
tetrataenia).
<These last two might be the culprit here>
Invertebrates - Sally Lightfoot Crab (Percnon gibbesi), (2) small blue-legged
hermits (Clibanarius tricolor) and a larger zebra hermit
(Calcinus laevimanus), Margarite snails (Margarites pupillus), Nassarius snails.
<Mmm, note, genera are capitalized... I'll do this for you before posting>
I never see any of these animals on, or hanging around the clam or plate
coral. All of the fish & invertebrates have been in the tank for 1 year+,
except the blenny and the basslet. The crab & the blenny are at the tops of my
suspect list, but I don't know how to verify this. Any suggestions?
<Well... the Percnon is "nippy", but doesn't leave crescent bite marks... I
suspect one of the mentioned fishes... number one suspect the blenny... Could
remove to elsewhere and see if the bite marks cease... Bob Fenner>
Steve
Re: Nips on Crocea Clam and Plate Coral
7/25/06
Would it be normal for any of these suspects to show absolutely no interest in
the clam or plate coral during the day, and then munch on them at night?
<<Lisa here. Yes, that is quite possible.>>
Coral placement (Plate Anemone Coral)
Hello, I have a Heliofungia actiniformis placed about 8 inches below a
Euphyllia ancora. Both apparently healthy with skeletal growth and
extension.
<hmmm... is the Helio on the sand bottom... must be to survive long term.
They are free-living corals and will suffer if kept on rock and likely die
within a year or so>
Lately the Helio. Has extended its tentacles towards the Euphyllia (only towards
this coral, all other tentacles remain similar previous length). Is it
"targeting" the Euphyllia?
<indeed... quite possibly modified sweeper tentacles in defense of the very
aggressive (tentacles and allelopathic secretions) ancora Hammer coral>
If so, do you have any personal experience with placement of these species you
could share? Best, Michael
<popular thinking is 6-10" for non-aggressive species, 10"+ for
aggressive. Be sure to feed both (especially the Euphyllia) very very fine
minced meaty foods 3-5 times weekly for long term success. Best regards,
Anthony>
- Plate Coral Squirtin' Out Stuff -
Hello,
This is my 10th day with a plate coral. It was doing fine in the pet
shop. After the third day in my house it has excreted out a white substance.
<Maybe just poo?> The tentacles are often retracted, which I understand to
be either unhappiness or a sign of sickness. Can you
please help me understand what is going on? I have gone on
the Internet, read referenced several books, consulted with various pet
representatives. We do not have a good answer.
<Well, a "plate coral" is usually one of two things; a Heliofungia
or a Fungia. Heliofungia sp. have long tentacles and do very poorly in
captivity, usually due to damage and subsequent infection. Fungia have short
tentacles and are pretty bullet proof. Please identify this critter so I can
give you a better answer; Aquarium Corals by Borneman or Corals: a quick
reference guide by sprung are quick and easy references for an easy ID such as
this. -Kevin>
Thanks for your help.
Jim
Re: water change, Clown-Coral interaction
Thanks for the response, I appreciate you taking the time to answer my
question. Unfortunately, the precipitate made me nervous so I dumped the water
and started over. I did the same procedure as before, but added 1/2 tsp buffer
and the prescribed amount of pro buffer to bring pH to 8.4 and alk to
3.2meq/L. I don't currently have a calcium test (mine expired) so I don't have
a reading there. One is on the way....
<Okay... very likely whichever brand synthetic mix you are using, the calcium
will be fine.>
You mentioned that it seemed a lot for my 65 gal tank, what about it seems like
too much. Too many fish, or too many coral or both. What would you suggest, I
really thought it was the right amount, but your advice would be appreciated.
<Too many fishes... when they grow, there will be issues of inter-species
antagonism, as well as pollution from food, wastes for your cnidarians>
Another question, does the clownfish bother the plate coral?
<Can, yes... some Clowns are so aggressive in their pairing with non-anemones
that they do cause real damage>
He seems to like it a lot and is always swimming in it, and bumping it on the
sides and towards the bottom, just like he would an anemone. The plate coral
seems to be affected by it, but not too negatively, but I am still not sure. It
seems that the clownfish could injure some of the lower tentacles if he bumped
them against the "plate" of the plate coral. What do you think? The LFS said
it would be fine, but you know how that goes....
<I'd just keep an eye on these two>
Thanks so much for your time!
<Thank you for writing, your concern. Bob Fenner>
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