baby coral?

[ileolai]

Looks like a baby plate coral. Only time will tell. Nice hitchiker!

that must be it!!! it pretty much looks like a tiny version of this. that's crazy. that piece of liverock has been buried in sand for like 2 years.

 

[Michael71]

any plate corals in the tank? cud have dropped a bud

In my old 30 gal i had actual real live rock. Never had plate corals and one day i noticed something that looked like this and turned out to be a hitch hiker on the live rock. It can happen.

 

[ileolai]

Baby plate corals is what it looks like to me!

@AstroMelly what do you think?


https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/raising-baby-plate-corals-from-the-dead.903110/post-14105415

thanks for the link! now i wonder if there is a dead fungia skeleton hidden in my liverock somewhere that is sprouting babies. ive never had lps in this tank besides the elegance coral and a duncan.

 

[rayadog]

But if you spend money on the coral alone it’d probably be all dramatic and make dark jokes about bleaching itself. Funny how lasting they really are. I have a hitchhiker coral growing for months now and it’s still too small to tell what it is lol. It was technically the first SPS in the tank. Survived shipping, dark cycling, etc.

Your little coral looks awesome! I’ll wait to see what it looks like in a year!

 

[AstroMelly]

Baby plate corals is what it looks like to me!

@AstroMelly what do you think?


https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/raising-baby-plate-corals-from-the-dead.903110/post-14105415

I think you got it!

But there are some things that give me some doubt. The polyp seems to stand on a foot. I wonder if the foot would retract or if maybe this is part of the skeletal base. Fungia would usually develop a near flat skeletal base then detach and mostly stay separated from any rock work - but I guess there are always exceptions.

The polyp itself does look a lot like fungia to me. I wonder if it is more likely a duncan polyp developing since the OP had one in the tank,l. I’ve never seen a juvenile duncan polyp although we have an adult duncan coral.

Good luck with your new baby and keep us updated!

 

[ileolai]

I think you got it!

But there are some things that give me some doubt. The polyp seems to stand on a foot. I wonder if the foot would retract or if maybe this is part of the skeletal base. Fungia would usually develop a near flat skeletal base then detach and mostly stay separated from any rock work - but I guess there are always exceptions.

The polyp itself does look a lot like fungia to me. I wonder if it is more likely a duncan polyp developing since the OP had one in the tank,l. I’ve never seen a juvenile duncan polyp although we have an adult duncan coral.

Good luck with your new baby and keep us updated!

i don't think it's a duncan. i wondered if it might be. but its tentacles are purple and it doesn't shrink at night like a duncan. it stays flat

eta: it also doesn't feed the way a duncan does

 

[ileolai]

update: this thing had completely died, i could literally only see white skeleton covered in algae for a while, i think it starved bc my nitrates fell to near zero for too long.

it's started growing back once i got the nitrates up, lil bro is struggling but refusing to die. i hope i can save it.

 

[StartingATank]

So it seems like it had been agreed upon being a plate coral, which I agree with, but it also does kinda look like a joker blasto

 

[Gumbies R Us]

update: this thing had completely died, i could literally only see white skeleton covered in algae for a while, i think it starved bc my nitrates fell to near zero for too long.

it's started growing back once i got the nitrates up, lil bro is struggling but refusing to die. i hope i can save it.

That's awesome, it is still pulling through!