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FAQs about Fungiid Coral Compatibility
Related Articles: Fungiid Corals,
Related FAQs: Fungiid Corals 1, Fungiid
Corals 2, Fungiid Identification,
Fungiid Behavior, Fungiid Selection,
Fungiid Systems, Fungiid Feeding,
Fungiid Disease, Fungiid
Reproduction, Stony/True Coral,
Coral System Set-Up, Coral System
Lighting, Stony Coral Identification,
Stony Coral Selection, Coral Placement,
Foods/Feeding/Nutrition,
Disease/Health, Propagation,
Growing Reef Corals, Stony
Coral Behavior,
A Ctenactis species, family Fungiidae... and a bonus Allen's Damsel
to boot! N. Sulawesi image. | 
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Sick Fungia -02/25/08
Hi. I hope you can help me.
<me too>
I picked up a small orange plate coral (Fungia) about three days
ago. I drip acclimated as I normally do any coral I get. The first
night, he seemed as happy as a clam. Mouth was visible and his tiny
little tentacles were extended. Sometime in the night, something
horrible happened. Something in my tank seems to have snacked on
him.
<Hmm... no, looks like tissue recession to me.>
It is
missing tissue that was fine when the lights went off. My GUESS is
a peppermint shrimp.
<not likely>
I also have some blue leg
hermits and snails. As far as fish, I only have a couple bar gobies,
a canary wrasse and a Firefish.
After I found him the next day, I
quarantined it in the tank so nothing can get to it. It's now in a
slotted breeder box (with sand in the bottom) held in the middle of
the tank by a magnet scraper (feel free to laugh, but its working).
It's little tentacles still extend, except for the part where the
flesh is injured. I have given it a small piece of Mysis to see if
it would still react to it, and it grabbed hold and pulled it slowly
towards its mouth. However, his mouth is not visible. By that I
mean, it's wide open. Maybe looking at a picture of it would help
(see attached jpeg). That is actually a piece of Mysis he has in the
'mouth' (the black dot is a Mysis eye I believe).
<It looks like,
maybe, the mouth is just very, very retracted.>
Should I keep
spot feeding this guy every couple days to see if he comes back
around?
<Yes>
Do you think there is a snowballs chance he'll
make it??
<Oh yeah, sure there is. Though these corals are not
necessarily easy to keep, they are capable of some remarkable
recoveries. And your coral is not in all that bad a shape. It's
struggling for sure, but it's far from doomed.>
(in the photo,
the missing tissue is towards the edge of the top left)
:-(
-wuf
<Good luck,
Sara M.>
Re: sick Fungia... shrimp bothering 3/2/08
Thank you
for your response on my stressed out/damaged Fungia. However, after
several days of it recouping in a segregated box, I have to
respectfully disagree with your conclusion. Here is why (if you are
interested):
After keeping the plate coral in a separate
container in the tank and spot feeding it, it came back to it's
'normal self'. It was polyping out fully and the mouth was no longer
gaping. Not 2 hours after I placed it back in the bottom of the
tank, I found TWO peppermint shrimp sitting on top of it picking at
it. Of course, all tentacles were pulled back in and the mouth was
starting to gape. I immediately pulled it out and put it back into
it's separate area. I also found the peppermints harassing my tongue
coral.
That being said, I believe that peppermints can be more of
a nuisance to these LPS's than some would like to believe.
<Hmmm,
I must not have been very articulate with what I was saying before.
I didn't mean to say that these shrimp can't be a nuisance to these
corals. Rather, I mean to say that it's unlikely that they are
actually *eating* the coral. However, there are plenty of other ways
they can be a nuisance. They can steal food (even from out of the
mouths of the corals). They might also be picking at the coral's
mucus. Even just their "standing" on the coral can cause the coral
to retract and be stressed (as you've seen).>
Just my 2
cents......
<Thank you for the update. Great to hear your coral
is doing better!
Best,
Sara M.> | 
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Plate Coral placement and feather duster 3/21/07
Hope
you are doing well!
<Quite! And wish you the same!>
I have a
question about my plate coral. I have had this coral in my 55gal. tank
for well over 6 months, and it seems to be doing great. It has grown
some, eats like crazy, and inflates greatly during the day, almost
doubling in size with tentacles extending to an inch or so. Inflated, I
would say that this coral is about 5-6in. in diameter and looks most
like the Fungia fungites specimen pictured on the following link, with
the pink outer rim and maybe a little more greenish tint:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fungiidae.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fungiidae.htm
Mine also seems a
little "meatier" during the day, with longer tentacles. My first
question is about how big do these corals generally get in an aquarium?
<Depends, can get pretty big.>
I try to do plenty of research before
buying my corals, but I haven't been able to find their maximum size.
Secondly, when my coral is fully inflated, it is somewhat scrunched up
against a rock and also pressed against the side of the glass. So I am
curious if I should manually move the coral, when it is deflated of
course? I know that these corals often move themselves, so I am
reluctant to move it due to the fact that if they can move and it is
unhappy, wouldn't it just move itself? To me it appears "happy" just a
little scrunched during the day.
<Yes, leave it be.>
Finally, I
have a couple places I can move this coral, one being next to my giant
feather duster and a candy cane coral. Can the tentacles of my plate
coral damage the FD or the stalk of the candy cane?
<I would not
place here... irritants>
Any suggestions and guidance is greatly
appreciated as always!
<I wouldn't disturb, is happy, don't mess up
a good thing.>
Thank you in advance for your help and a wonderful
website!!!
<Welcome and thank you for your kind words. -Mich>
Nick Nips on Crocea Clam and Plate Coral 7/25/06
I have a small crocea clam and a short tentacle plate coral (Fungia
fungites) that recently have been getting half-circle shaped nips, about
2mm wide. They occur at night, and usually there are just 2-3 nips on
each. The nips are on the edges of the clam mantle, and on the tops of
the ridges on the plate coral. Both the clam and the plate coral have
been in the tank for about 9 months, and have been healthy and growing,
and thus far, regrow the nipped areas very quickly. I have not added
any new live rock or coral in at least 6 months, so I doubt I have a new
hitch-hiker.
<Perhaps an old, getting-larger, hungrier one...>
Fish - Ocellaris Clown, Chalk Basslet, Longnose Hawkfish, Horned Blenny
(Parablennius spp.), and a Hawaiian Fourline Wrasse (Pseudocheilinus
tetrataenia).
<These last two might be the culprit here>
Invertebrates - Sally Lightfoot Crab (Percnon gibbesi), (2) small
blue-legged hermits (Clibanarius tricolor) and a larger zebra hermit
(Calcinus laevimanus), Margarite snails (Margarites pupillus), Nassarius
snails.
<Mmm, note, genera are capitalized... I'll do this for you
before posting>
I never see any of these animals on, or hanging
around the clam or plate coral. All of the fish & invertebrates have
been in the tank for 1 year+, except the blenny and the basslet. The
crab & the blenny are at the tops of my suspect list, but I don't know
how to verify this. Any suggestions?
<Well... the Percnon is
"nippy", but doesn't leave crescent bite marks... I suspect one of the
mentioned fishes... number one suspect the blenny... Could remove to
elsewhere and see if the bite marks cease... Bob Fenner>
Steve
Re: Nips on Crocea Clam and Plate Coral 7/25/06
Would it be normal for any of these suspects to show absolutely no
interest in the clam or plate coral during the day, and then munch on
them at night?
<<Lisa here. Yes, that is quite possible.>>
Coral placement (Plate Anemone Coral)
Hello, I have a Heliofungia
actiniformis placed about 8 inches below a Euphyllia ancora. Both
apparently healthy with skeletal growth and extension.
<hmmm... is
the Helio on the sand bottom... must be to survive long term. They are
free-living corals and will suffer if kept on rock and likely die within
a year or so>
Lately the Helio. Has extended its tentacles towards
the Euphyllia (only towards this coral, all other tentacles remain
similar previous length). Is it "targeting" the Euphyllia?
<indeed...
quite possibly modified sweeper tentacles in defense of the very
aggressive (tentacles and allelopathic secretions) ancora Hammer coral>
If so, do you have any personal experience with placement of these
species you could share? Best, Michael
<popular thinking is 6-10" for
non-aggressive species, 10"+ for aggressive. Be sure to feed both
(especially the Euphyllia) very very fine minced meaty foods 3-5 times
weekly for long term success. Best regards, Anthony> - Plate
Coral Squirtin' Out Stuff -
Hello,
This is my 10th day with a
plate coral. It was doing fine in the pet shop. After the third day in
my house it has excreted out a white substance. <Maybe just poo?> The
tentacles are often retracted, which I understand to be either
unhappiness or a sign of sickness. Can you please help me understand
what is going on? I have gone on the Internet, read referenced several
books, consulted with various pet representatives. We do not have a
good answer.
<Well, a "plate coral" is usually one of two things; a
Heliofungia or a Fungia. Heliofungia sp. have long tentacles and do very
poorly in captivity, usually due to damage and subsequent infection.
Fungia have short tentacles and are pretty bullet proof. Please identify
this critter so I can give you a better answer; Aquarium Corals by
Borneman or Corals: a quick reference guide by sprung are quick and easy
references for an easy ID such as this. -Kevin>
Thanks for your help.
Jim Re: water change, Clown-Coral
interaction
Thanks for the response, I appreciate you taking the
time to answer my question. Unfortunately, the precipitate made me
nervous so I dumped the water and started over. I did the same
procedure as before, but added 1/2 tsp buffer and the prescribed amount
of pro buffer to bring pH to 8.4 and alk to 3.2meq/L. I don't currently
have a calcium test (mine expired) so I don't have a reading there. One
is on the way....
<Okay... very likely whichever brand synthetic mix
you are using, the calcium will be fine.>
You mentioned that it
seemed a lot for my 65 gal tank, what about it seems like too much. Too
many fish, or too many coral or both. What would you suggest, I really
thought it was the right amount, but your advice would be appreciated.
<Too many fishes... when they grow, there will be issues of
inter-species antagonism, as well as pollution from food, wastes for
your cnidarians>
Another question, does the clownfish bother the
plate coral?
<Can, yes... some Clowns are so aggressive in their
pairing with non-anemones that they do cause real damage>
He seems
to like it a lot and is always swimming in it, and bumping it on the
sides and towards the bottom, just like he would an anemone. The plate
coral seems to be affected by it, but not too negatively, but I am still
not sure. It seems that the clownfish could injure some of the lower
tentacles if he bumped them against the "plate" of the plate
coral. What do you think? The LFS said it would be fine, but you know
how that goes....
<I'd just keep an eye on these two>
Thanks so
much for your time!
<Thank you for writing, your concern. Bob
Fenner>
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