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Related FAQs: Fungiids, Fungiid
Corals 2, Fungiid Identification,
Fungiid Behavior,
Fungiid Compatibility,
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,
Related Articles: Large
Polyp Stony Corals, Stony
or True Corals, Order Scleractinia, Dyed
Corals,
/The Best Livestock For Your Reef Aquarium:
Plate Corals, Family Fungiidae, Pt. 2
To: Part 1
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Beautiful, but touchy
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By Bob Fenner |
Heliofungia actiniformis
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Genus Halomitra Dana 1846. Thinner walled than genus Sandalolitha, but
similar with outward facing corallites.
| Halomitra pileus (Linnaeus 1758). Dome shaped
colonies, no axial furrow, corallites get larger toward the edge. Maldives
images at right, N. Sulawesi below. Grows to about "helmet
size". |
 
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Genus Heliofungia Wells 1966. One species. Flat, free-living, with
large lobed teeth. Unusual for its tentacles looking like a giant anemones,
being out most all the time day and night (in the wild most Fungiids are closed
up during light hours).
| Heliofungia actiniformis (Quoy & Gaimard 1833).
Vying for single largest polyp amongst corals. Colors of tentacles from
off-white to brown, blue, gray... with pink or white tips. Maldives
specimen at right and an image of a symbiotic Periclimenes holthuisi.
First row below aquarium images. N. Sulawesi pix second row. The last
very stressed. |
 
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| Genus Herpetolitha Eschscholtz 1825. Irregularly elongate colonies
(not just individual polyps) with an raised central area and axial furrow containing many expansive
mouths. |
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| Herpetolitha limax (Houtthyn 1772). Colonies
become elongate with age, with rounded ends. Numerous mouths inside and
outside the axial furrow. Below, colonies in Fiji. |
Genus Lithophyllon Rehberg 1892. Colonies flat, attached with one to many
mouths.
| Lithophyllon mokai Hoeksema 1989. Up to three inches
in diameter. Central corallite obvious. |
 
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Genus Podabachia: Colonial. Leafy colonies, attached to substrate;
look like encrusting bowls with lines encrusting plate like pieces. Undersides
costate.
Genus Polyphyllia Quoy & Gaimard 1833: Mobile colonies whose form
is a high arch. Septa look like small petals on close inspection. Mouth, axial
furrow not easily detected.
| Polyphyllia novaehiberniae (Lesson 1831). Fused
septa-costae that look like oblong depressions, in rows with some running
perpendiculat to others. Numerous small tentacles look like hair. Colonies
below in Fiji. |
| Polyphyllia talpina (Lamarck 1801). Tapered septa
appearance. Long, numerous tentacles. Below, two aquarium specimens and
one in Pulau Redang, Malaysia. |
Genus Sandalolitha Quelch 1884. Large, mobile roughly circular
colonies of heavy dome-shaped construction. Exsert, heavy corallites face
directly outward.
| Sandalolitha robusta Quelch 1886. Characteristic
staggered arrangement of corallites. Gilis/Lombok, Aquarium and N.
Sulawesi pix. |
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Bibliography/Further Reading:
Coral Search
Borneman, Eric H. 2001. Aquarium Corals; Selection, Husbandry and Natural
History. Microcosm-TFH NJ, USA. 464 pp.
Fossa, Svein A. & Alf Jacob Nilsen. 1998 (1st ed.). The Modern Coral Reef
Aquarium, v.2 (Cnidarians). Bergit Schmettkamp Verlag, Bornheim, Germany. 479pp.
Hoover, John. 1998. Hawai'i's Sea Creatures. A Guide to Hawai'i's Marine
Invertebrates. Mutual Publishing, Honolulu HI. 366pp.
Humann, Paul. 1993. Reef Coral Identification; Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas.
New World Publications, Inc. Jacksonville, FL. 239pp.
Vargas, Tony. 1997. Feature Coral: Fungia. FAMA 10/97.
Veron, J.E.N. 1986. Corals of Australia and the Indo-Pacific. U. of HI press,
Honolulu. 644 pp.
Veron, J.E.N. 2000. Corals of the World. Australian Institute of Marine
Science. Queensland, Australia. three volumes.
To: Pt. 1
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