Plate Coral Babies

kjord97

Premium Member
So, yesterday while i was performing about a 40 gal water change on the 125 gal reef I noticed something strange with my Plate Coral. Just so everyone knows, it is about 9 inches across and is a beautiful green with a purple mouth. It is a short tentacle plate neon green (Fungia sp.) and as some have personally seen it, they have said that it is the largest plate they have ever seen. I have had this plate coral since I started saltwater in a 20 gal 3 years ago. So on to the good part. When I was cleaning the tank I noticed something funny with the plate. I picked it up and turned it around. I was kind of disappointed to see that about 1/3 of the plate had disappeared and there was kind of a white skeleton. I was sad. But then after better examination of the plate, I counted 14 baby plate corals: shock: attached to the area where the plate had receded. So now i have lots of baby plates. I will be taking a picture tonight, I am also going to be sending the picture to Steven Pro and Anthony Calfo to see what they say about it. I know last year at MACNA Anthony said plates tend to create bulges and split, or you can take a saw and cut them like a pizza. I don’t know if anyone has seen babies growing on top of the area where the plate died.
 
yup, it's the typical way of fungia reproduction in aquaculture. people should never toss out a 'dead' fungia or even bubble corals and euphyllias, as all can come back months later.
 
Yeah I've heard of that before. Mine receded and slowly died after some live rock tumbled onto it. I havn't taken it out of the tank in hopes that I will get something out of it after all.
 
I have had similar experience in the past. Cut it with the dremel when they grew out some, sold 3 quarters to my friends and kept 1/4 for myself. The one quarter made 27 babies. Everyone friend I have that has saltqwater tank has at least one of these.

<a href="http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2782181890091293566fTcDfu"><img src="http://inlinethumb37.webshots.com/1252/2782181890091293566S600x600Q85.jpg" alt="Plate"></a><br><a href=http://community.webshots.com/user/wantsalotta> wantsalotta</a>
 
here are some pics that I wanted to show yall.

wantsalotta nice pic of your plates.

the first is a pic of my 3 plates back in Nov 2005 the 2nd and 3rd pics are of the babies and me feeding them cyclopeeze

103593Nov05PlateCorals.JPG


103593Jan07PlateCoralBabies.JPG


103593Jan07PlateCoralBabies2.JPG
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9107104#post9107104 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by violet21chewy
Can the same thing happen with the dome shaped short tentacle plates?


in my pic of the 3 plates, the small green one on the left started to create 3 babies in which they have been growing out of the top of the plate. It is weird looking, looks like 1 big plate with 3 buldges on top.
 
WOOHOO hey Steven, got my tickets and room see you in September.

Thank you for the comment and thank you for the name of the babies, i can continue to do some more research.
 
Congratulations it's a fungi! Are you planning on selling any of the babies? PM me if you are.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9117126#post9117126 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by oxkisses12ox
can my plate coral reproduce without having another plate in the tank??
This is a form of asexual reproduction, only one specimen required.
 
I just read through the posts of this topic.
I have a plate that is developing a wedge shape similar to one of the pictures in this post. It still has flesh and is puffed up with tentacles out. I did not see any mention of the survival of the parent plate coral.
I really like this coral and would love to keep it as long as possible. Babies would be nice too, but I haven't noticed any bumps on the plate. I haven't turned it over to look though.
Any info on the survival of the parent plate would be much appreciated.
Thank you.

Ted
 
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