Fungia plate polyp extension

jgvergo · Mar 31, 2019

I acquired a green and purple fungia plate a couple of months ago. Any time I've looked at it, I can see the tiny green polyp tips that are barely visible below the skeleton. I happened to be up very late a couple of nights ago and looked at my tank with my flashlight. Lo and behold, the coral was fully extended with nice green tips and a fleshy body.

Sooooo, any opinions on what is going on here? Is this normal behavior? Do your fungias have good extension when the lights are on? Could it be that my lights are too bright of I have the wrong spectrum?

Reefer40b · Mar 31, 2019

My Plates seem to like lower light and flow, or they just dont extend their polyps. How is the flow around this coral?

Duffer · Mar 31, 2019

Very normal as they feed at night,extension of polyps means they are trying to catch the food

jgvergo · Mar 31, 2019

Reefer40b said:
My Plates seem to like lower light and flow, or they just dont extend their polyps. How is the flow around this coral?

I'd say the flow is medium. I guess I could try moving it to a lower flow area.

Reefer40b · Mar 31, 2019

jgvergo said:
I'd say the flow is medium. I guess I could try moving it to a lower flow area.

Yea I would test out a lower flow and light spot and see what happens..

DSC reef · Mar 31, 2019

Can you post a pic. Different species of plate corals can have different looks to them with some having no extension

sandswhitson · Mar 31, 2019

Both of mine are fully extended all the time. They receive pretty high flow as well. Have you spot fed it? I have an orange one that started receding and not extending polyps until I started spot feeding it again.

jgvergo · Mar 31, 2019

sandswhitson said:
Both of mine are fully extended all the time. They receive pretty high flow as well. Have you spot fed it? I have an orange one that started receding and not extending polyps until I started spot feeding it again.

I spot feed it every night.

ca1ore · Mar 31, 2019

Heliofungia or fungia? I find most people use the terms interchangeably. They look very different; the former with long polyps the latter not. Absent obvious tissue recession, it’s normal for fungia to not extend their polyps except for feeders at night.

jgvergo · Apr 1, 2019

ca1ore said:
Heliofungia or fungia? I find most people use the terms interchangeably. They look very different; the former with long polyps the latter not. Absent obvious tissue recession, it’s normal for fungia to not extend their polyps except for feeders at night.

DSC reef said:
Can you post a pic. Different species of plate corals can have different looks to them with some having no extension

I'm not sure if it's a Helio, but here are two pics, one taken during the day and the second at night...

Reefer40b · Apr 1, 2019

Thats a fungia and I'm gunna say lighting maybe a little intense for it kinda looks a little bleachy.

jgvergo · Apr 1, 2019

Come to think of it, it almost certainly has to be a lighting issue. My flow is the same at night as during the day. The only real difference is the lights.