New Fungia - any tips?

[The Escaped Ape]

I went to one of my regular LFS today to pick up a couple of peppermint shrimp. Thought I might also pick up a few fish and maybe some zoas, but they didn't have anything I wanted under either of those headings, so I was umming and ahhing about whether I should leave with the two shrimp when I saw this. Questioned the guy about conditions etc for a bit before taking the plunge, but would like to hear pointers from those used to keeping them as well.

It's already looking reasonably happy (caught a few pellets and feeding time very easily - great fun watching it pass them to its mouth). I love the color and would like to have a couple more - maybe a green and an orange to sit alongside.

 

[nova65ss]

That is a great looking plate! I have an orange one and it is one of the easiest corals to care for. Just feed it occasionally make sure it gets some flow and it should be fine.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[Int Dboy]

Wow...that is a very nice plate!! nice pickup

 

[furfeet26]

+1 very nice fungia.
I used to feed mine whole silversides. Lol

 

[Jarred1]

They are easy to care for and very nice corals, you don't even have to feed it.

 

[coralreefdoc]

I believe that is a Cycloseris tenuis. However, the two genuses, cycloseris and fungia, are very closely related and the care requirements are identical.

Also, you should feed it meaty foods, such as mysis shrimp and chopped silversides, periodically (i.e. weekly) in order to have this species thrive

 

[arturlopez]

I have been looking for this pink plate since I saw one in a friends house. Where did you buy it??

 

[The Escaped Ape]

Thanks everyone for the tips and suggestions, much appreciated! Apparently the color is particularly rare in Japan, so it was just my good fortune that I happened to visit the shop when they had it. The guy at the shop even seemed a bit disappointed to be selling it - he said that they'd been hoping to have it in the tank for a bit longer! It cost me quite a bit more than the standard type (which run to about $45 each here) at around $85, but I think it was worth it.

He seemed a bit surprised when I asked if I should feed it, but when I clarified that I meant once every couple of weeks, he cottoned on. They do that with some LPS here, but clearly he hadn't considered it for Fungia. Here in Japan, some of the thinking is quite different on keeping some coral. Their methods are usually pretty successful nonetheless, but it's fun sometimes to let them know how it's done elsewhere.

Coralreefdoc, thanks for the ID. Always good to know exactly what you've got in the tank as far as possible!

arturlopez - I'm in Japan, so unlikely that you'll be able to pick one up at the same place! Also, as I said, from what the shop guy said, this color is very rare here. I was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time. Nonetheless, for what it's worth, here's a link to the shop's hard coral page.

http://kazika.reef-k.com/item.php?no=002

 

[arturlopez]

Now I became curious how different is the thinking of keeping corals in Japan! Could explain more?

The store seems to be very nice!

 

[The Escaped Ape]

Well, the basics are very similar, but thinking on keeping different livestock does vary. To be honest, I'm not an expert in the various schools of thought over here, but you do come across striking differences from time to time. Few people have refugia and those that do tend to put Caulerpa in there (I've only recently started seeing chaeto begin to become available). Lighting is generally achieved with a whole raft of different MH pendant style clip on lighting attached to a large rack for SPS tanks. Zoas and softies are generally dismissed as coral for learners. There are loads of examples, not all I can call to mind right now.

 

[CarlDelain]

That does look awesome!
I have a neon green one that is about 7" or 8" now.
I spot feed my corals a variety of meaty foods every other night.

 

[The Escaped Ape]

Mine appears to be in a good position to catch pellets as they go by in the flow, so I probably won't target feed that often. Very fun to watch as the mouth slowly opens as the pellets get slowly moved by the tentacles screaming into the abyss...

(OK, so I have a bit of an imagination on me)

 

[coralreefdoc]

No worries. I strongly encourage you to feed it a mix of meaty foods at least once a week for ideal conditions and best results. Those pellets will be helpful in between feedings but wont provide all the necessary nutrients over the long term

 

[lgull1]

cost between 350 and 600.00 in the U.S for that plate. Have one here in my area, they want 600.00 for it. 85.00 that is a steal even for that color and where you are located. I would feed it by the way.

 

[The Escaped Ape]

$600 is serious money for something 2" across! I'll try and feed it tonight.

 

[Runfrumu]

Make sure that it isn't around any corals that could kick it's butt. The first time I'm not sure if a sweeper got him from a Acan echinata, but my plate was at least 4 inches away and got stung, took about 1/4 of him out. The next friggin day even further away I think the plate floated himself over and got popped again, and took out half of him.

He's since grown a new mouth but he's nowhere near his former glory. He is bright orange with green tips.

 

[The Escaped Ape]

Bright orange with green tips sounds great. I need to look out for these now. I kind of half had it in mind to buy one, but hadn't really been looking.

Thanks for the warning about sweepers. The only corals nearby at the moment are a micromussa, a non-echinata Acan (not sure what type, but small no sweepers that I've seen) and a caulastrea.