My fungia is eating all of my fish!

Mikey Donuts

Premium Member
I have a 6" Fungia (plate coral) that ate my Green Clown Goby a few months ago. I woke up this morning and pulled the remnants of my $50 ORA naked ocellaris clown out of it's mouth. I thought clowns were supposed to be immune to stinging corals. Has anyone else had their plate corals consume their fish? I guess the clown may have died from other causes and the coral ingested it after it died but I seriously doubt it.
It's a beautiful specimen, but I can't keep it if it will eat all of my fish (mostly gobies & other small fish). I'm seriously considering dremeling it to bits this weekend. Not much chance of it eating anything if it's got no mouth (at least for a little while). Any info is appreciated.
Mike
 
My clowns were hosted by my massive (over 9") heliofungia, click my red house for pics. There's now an electric orange fungia sp. in there and no troubles. The clowns' didn't choose it, (they took to a toadstool), but they still investage it w/o any problems.

I fed both silversides as well. I don't think thier 'grab' is strong enough to hold an alive fish. I've also had nassurius snails run across w/o issue. I suspect something else is killing the fish and the plate is trying for a free lunch. I had a dispar anthias die (intestinal worms) and the helio was well on his way reeling him in when I find it.
 
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I had a clown goby who laid on the my plate and irritated it to the point of recession, I had to take out the goby. Do you feed the plate at all? I didn't ever see the goby having any difficulties laying on the plate.
 
Wow! Thanks for all of the responses you guys!
First off I have two Sun corals that I feed almost every day, so the plate grabs a bunch of leftover mysis from those guys. I also purposely kill my pumps prior to feeding my (now) two fish and I drop mysis in directly over the plate. The fish dart around eating shrimp, and whatever they don't grab usually land on the plate, so he gets probably 10-15 mysis per day. I don't think underfeeding is the issue as it's growing like crazy.
I have seen the plate sting my yellow watchman goby though. As soon as it contacts the plate, the tentacles go crazy trying to sting it and wrap around the fish. I've never seen the Ocellaris attempt to host in the fungia and I was surprised that it could possibly have a sting stronger than an anemone's.
The clown goby disappeared one day. I couldn't find a body, so I assumed that it laid on the plate and was stung to death and eaten. Maybe it's been a series of unfortunate incidents and not the plate's fault at all.
I was going to get a flasher wrasse and tailspot blenny this month, but I've been holding off because of the plate. So do you guys think they will be OK?
Does anyone know if a Fungia sting is enough to damage a fish enough to eventually cause it's death or weaken it to the point where disease can take hold of it? I'm still worried about my last two fish (YWG and a Yashia goby) since their shared cave is very close to the plate.
Thanks for all of your advice!
Mike
 
Wow, Ive heard some great assumptions in this hobby about murder in the tank, but this one is new to me. No way your fungia is killing off your fish, in a lineup of murderous animals, a disc with stubby tentacles does not stick out.
I see youve been slaying FW fish since 1980, how long have you been slaying salties?
 
I never thought of fungiids as being particularly aggressive towards larger fish. I didn't even think their sting would potent enough, especially not having very long tentacles. I own two Fungia repandas, a green and an orange, and have had no fish losses.
 
I thought that plates were supposed to be non-agressive as well, but I have seen it sting some of my fish. I guess I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and spare it from the dremel for now. I'm glad that it's sting isn't that potent. I've got no idea why the clown died as the water parameters are excellent.

Jamokie-FWIW the tentacles on this thing are 1"-1.5"long and the body is 6" in diameter. It looks like an anemone when it's fully open. "A disc with stubby tentacles" -not so much. It really looks like it could easily take out small fish (the clown was only about an inch long).
 
Something else is definitely killing or weakening your fish. There's no way a fungia should be able to kill and eat a clownfish.
 
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