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Related FAQs: Fungiids, Fungiid Corals 2Fungiid 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 PlacementFoods/Feeding/Nutrition, Disease/Health, Propagation, Growing Reef CoralsStony Coral Behavior,

Related Articles: Large Polyp Stony CoralsStony or True Corals, Order Scleractinia, Dyed Corals

/The Best Livestock For Your Reef Aquarium:

Plate Corals, Family Fungiidae, Pt. 2

To: Part 1

Beautiful, but touchy

By Bob Fenner

Heliofungia actiniformis  

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".

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.

Beware of artificially dyed specimens... Fungiids are not exempt from this nefarious practice. Read here: The Tragedy of Artificially Colored Live Corals by Anthony Calfo & FAQs on: Artificially Dyed Live Corals

 

Genus Herpetolitha Eschscholtz 1825. Irregularly elongate colonies (not just individual polyps) with an raised central area and axial furrow containing many expansive mouths. 

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. 

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. 

 

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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