anyone frag Heliofungia aka plate coral

[jessp]

I saw a nice colonial plate coral piece that has lots of new plates popping up off an old skeletal base ranging from 1 1/2" to 1/2" in size. when these grow larger can you pop them off the base and raise them as single plate coral pieces? are these two seperate species? i posted in coral propagation coral section as well, wanted to see if anyone here knew as well.

thanks,
jess

 

[Flamehawk]

Yes, if you pop off the babies or rather, let them fall, the stub remaining behind will form a new plate. Pretty cool, huh? JOHNNY

 

[jessp]

will the piece that falls off live and move around the sand?

 

[Flamehawk]

By the way, the baby plates are called, anthocauli. Some can produce baby plates for ever! Well, a pretty long time. You can feed them. JOHNNY

 

[jessp]

and the babies will be fine?

 

[Flamehawk]

No, it wont move by itself although ive read that some inflate and deflate which can make them move somewhat. I would keep the babies from being covered in sand although in nature, plates are found upside down quite often and doing fine.

 

[jessp]

so once the baby plates pop off they don't do well on the sand? like a typical plate coral does

 

[jessp]

this is my next frag project, hoping that these little babies will pop off easily and produce new plates.

<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t258/jesspalumbo_album/heliofungia005.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

perhaps i will have a few at the next swap

 

[CiroFuentes22]

those are hot!

 

[chrisaggie]

Jess, pletty cool huh? I think this is a regular fungia, not heliofungia. You can also cut many plate corals just like we did with the other corals at the meeting.

 

[jessp]

yeah it is just fungia, i got the names mixed up. definately cool though either way. i'm hoping not to have to cut these, prefer for them to pop off or if need be to be pried off

 

[chrisaggie]

you should be able to pop them off fairly easily. A big fungia can be sliced up though to start new corals.

 

[jessp]

yeah there was a good article on that in last months reefkeeping mag.

 

[jeffbrig]

That's amazing. When did it start making child colonies? Was the parent colony already on its way out before it started?

It's great to see one reproduce like that. I don't think I could ever bring myself to cut up my fungias.

Interestingly, my purple one may be starting a natural divide. He already has two mouths, one on this side, one on the other.

 

[jessp]

actually i really liked the piece and bought it from a lfs this way. I was tempted to cut it so it would fit better in my display, but i am hoping that some more plates may just start popping out of the large bare area.

 

[jessp]

btw those pics are w/ flash so the actinics have no influence. they are a green w/ orange mouth.

 

[tiger_eyed1]

Glad to see

Glad to see

I've read that the plate's will bud many babys but have never seen it. Thanks for the pic jess! How long did it take for it to start growing babies after the parent died?

My white long tentacle plate didn't make it. I left the skeletin in the tank with hopes that it'll bud out. Calfo said it may take 3-4 months. I'll let it be for at least 6. It's been one month.

I fragged my orange due to a big dead spot. It has healed over and is starting to grow. These pics are from when i first fragged it. The mouth is now enclosed and it is inflating and feeding like normal. I used the table edge frag method.

It'll probably take a year for it to grow all the way around.

 

[jessp]

i can't really say how long because i bought it like this. now that it looks like i may have some to experiment w/ i'll try to keep everyone updated.

 

[FishAffair]

plates

plates

That looks familiar! hehe Several of them came in the other day. They're actually pretty rare, I've never seen them in person before. I hope my hubby's right about them growing new ones if you pop them off. He convinced me to keep one. ;]
I know you can split the fungias, but I haven't had the heart to try yet.

It sure was nice seeing everyone the other day. Definately the best swap yet, all of our new sps frags look great!

Cheers,
Morgan

n

 

[loyalrogue]

I foresee many baby plates come August swap meet time... and I call dibs on one!