Plate Coral Inflated

[carnophage]

i have 2 short tentecle plate corals. i just looked at the tank, it's 11:30pm. and the one plate looks like it is inflated. but it is inflated up, not out as if it were spreading out wide, but growing verticley. has anyone else seen this before, what is it doing?

 

[GoingPostal]

Like this?

Or just inflated up and not wide, my orange one inflates huge but my other two don't.

 

[carnophage]

No, more like this-

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/128240Upload1.JPG

 

[GoingPostal]

Weird. I really have no idea what your plate is doing there.

 

[m2434]

Does it seem to have moved at all? Sometime plate corals can puff up, to try to move around if they are unhappy where they are.

 

[carnophage]

no, it is in the same place, and it is still eating normally.

 

[jwavec]

My plate coral has been doing that same thing for the past few evenings. When the lights are on, it looks normal and then when the lights go out it swells up again. Not sure if this is good, bad or just part of what it does possibly increase its surface area to catch more food in the water column?

 

[erichatesmice]

Mines does that in the morning, right before the lights turn on. It was only after I added more flow to my tank. Not sure if there's a correlation.

 

[KEstep]

I see them doing it with the lights off a lot. Nothing to worry about.

 

[Sk8r]

Preparing to spawn?
Dunno---they're a lot like nems. They do cycle like nems.

 

[fussoverthis]

Hmm - is that from me by any chance? I know a ton of ATL reefers have gotten small green with purple mouth plates from me.

Some of my plates do that occasionally. It's usually at night and nothing to worry about as far as I can tell.

 

[fussoverthis]

They all come from my plate tree. There are probably thirty plates on it at any given time. I really need to take it out and count them.

 

[DetectiveTofu]

Plate corals are able to control the inflation in different regions of their body in order to "crawl" to an area that they feel is more suitable for their needs. Usually plate corals tends to seek more ideal conditions when there is too much (or little) flow or light. I would just let it doing it's thang
But as long as it is opening and eating, I don't think you've got too much to worry about

 

[roblack]

I had a brain coral inflate and bubble out, I believe from too much current. It is doing fine, but I moved it to less current.

 

[travdixon]

If you continue to watch it, you will see it expell waste. I believe they puff up to get rid of waste.