Look what I caught!! (Moray Eel ID)
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Also, just curious, can you have anemones since they technically aren’t corals?
What is a zippy’s plate?
Nope lolYou haven’t heard of Zippys?
Thought it was some kind of plate coral I never heard of
Speaking of plate coral
If a potters angel comes to me I’ll send a coral collectors insanity plate in return
I have a mama
And mama has 3 frags
They start pink and become orange as they grow
If a potters angel comes to me I’ll send a coral collectors insanity plate in return
I have a mama
And mama has 3 frags
They start pink and become orange as they grow
That is a crazy looking piece.Speaking of plate coral
If a potters angel comes to me I’ll send a coral collectors insanity plate in return
I have a mama
And mama has 3 frags
They start pink and become orange as they grow
A few questions if you don’t mind; as I always have trouble with funghias.
Are these funghias or diaseris?
Do you have it just on flat acrylic? Are one of the babies glue to the frag plug?
How did it propagate, did they bud off?
I leave mine on fine sand and they all wither away from the bottom up it seems like, so I feel like they really don’t like sand ironically. I did hear they like bigger coral chunks as substrate
It’s Heliofungia fralinae
I only grow them on plugs. Mama is on a plug on a frag shelf.
It’s very risky. This isn’t like other plates. I don’t want to post methods because i can’t be accountable if others lose theirs following my advice. What I will say is…
1) Don’t try it unless very experienced or willing to risk a tremendous loss
2) they only reproduce by budding
3) this plate only produces buds as a survival tactic if it die’s, or becomes physically damaged to the point where it is near dying.
I believe the difficulty propagating combined with the crazy and stunning appearance, are why the price is so high. It’s not an easy thing to get to propagate…you risk losing it. There’s no documentation on how to do it. if yours dies…keep it. There is a chance it will make buds approx 1-6 months after “death”
I have a lot of experience with plates. And for the first few years I had the same experience as you.
What I’ve learned is - don’t put them in sand. Most lps and corals don’t like to touch sand. It’s like microscopic shards of glass which doesn’t go well with soft fleshy tissue.
Plates will expand and contract as shown with my mama pics, and if they rub on sand, they get erosion, tiny cuts, infections. It just happens in time
I avoid it completely, no sand. Keep on a rack, shelf, or my fav, a eco rock frag mount which will grow it in a dome shape like a volcano, and buy you 2 years to figure something out (grow out tile / disk)
Plate corals grow larger by making a skeletal base that grows along the surface they sit on. Most put them on the ground and grow flat plates. Not me. I put on a plug to elevate and find they encrust and grow over the plug and then down along towards the ground. Leave it on eco rock stand and you will have a volcano shaped plate instead of a flat one ;). If you want a flat one, leave it on a frag shelf or tile
They also love to eat. 2-3x a week. If fed mysis or pellets this schedule, it will be double size in approx 6-8 months.
Mine doesn’t seem to mind flow, low-high I’ve grown them in all. Par should be low to medium - 50-125ish. I grow them on sandbed level and mama is mid level on a shelf
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Thank you so much for the detailed response.Neither. It’s cycloseris
I only grow them on plugs. Mama is on a plug on a frag shelf.
It’s very risky. This isn’t like other plates. I don’t want to post methods because i can’t be accountable if others lose theirs following my advice. What I will say is…
1) Don’t try it unless very experienced or willing to risk a tremendous loss
2) they only reproduce by budding
3) this plate only produces buds as a survival tactic if it die’s, or becomes physically damaged to the point where it is near dying.
I believe the difficulty propagating combined with the crazy and stunning appearance, are why the price is so high. It’s not an easy thing to get to propagate…you risk losing it. There’s no documentation on how to do it. if yours dies…keep it. There is a chance it will make buds approx 1-6 months after “death”
I have a lot of experience with plates. And for the first few years I had the same experience as you.
What I’ve learned is - don’t put them in sand. Most lps and corals don’t like to touch sand. It’s like microscopic shards of glass which doesn’t go well with soft fleshy tissue.
Plates will expand and contract as shown with my mama pics, and if they rub on sand, they get erosion, tiny cuts, infections. It just happens in time
I avoid it completely, no sand. Keep on a rack, shelf, or my fav, a eco rock frag mount which will grow it in a dome shape like a volcano, and buy you 2 years to figure something out (grow out tile / disk)
Plate corals grow larger by making a skeletal base that grows along the surface they sit on. Most put them on the ground and grow flat plates. Not me. I put on a plug to elevate and find they encrust and grow over the plug and then down along towards the ground. Leave it on eco rock stand and you will have a volcano shaped plate instead of a flat one ;). If you want a flat one, leave it on a frag shelf or tile
They also love to eat. 2-3x a week. If fed mysis or pellets this schedule, it will be double size in approx 6-8 months.
Mine doesn’t seem to mind flow, low-high I’ve grown them in all. Par should be low to medium - 50-125ish. I grow them on sandbed level and mama is mid level on a shelf
Definitely super helpful.
My plates I got had flesh underneath the plate as welll; if I were to mount it on a frag, are you supposed to tear the flesh to glue
Or do you just have it lying on the plug with gravity? Thanks again.
The sand thing definitely resonates with me since the tears started from the bottom where it makes contact with the sand, and progressed.
All the babies are approx same size. 1” minimum. Close to 1.25”One of them is on a bigger diameter frag plug than the others. It’s not a smaller frag, it’s just a bigger plug
Seansea
Valuable Member
Man you can take fish and soft corals for your home aquarium with a permit? I was just in hawaii last year. I would have left my clothes in hawaii and filled up my suitcase with goodies.
They are glued to the plug and as they grow they follow the shape. They don’t “encrust” and attach like other corals. They just grow along it. There is only flesh under the outer perimeter. The underside remains bare skeleton
Plates don’t need sand. They grow fine on plugs on racks
The flesh only extends under the plate edge by about 1/4 to 1/2”
Weird, the latest fungia (which might have been a cycloseris as it seems actual fungias are rare in the hobby and are actually cycloseris) had its thin flesh covered all the way underneath; it was kinda loose around the underside; it slowly lost its skin underneath and soon began its downfallThey are glued to the plug and as they grow they follow the shape. They don’t “encrust” and attach like other corals. They just grow along it. There is only flesh under the outer perimeter. The underside remains bare skeleton
Plates don’t need sand. They grow fine on plugs on racks
The flesh only extends under the plate edge by about 1/4 to 1/2”
I have been feeding 24 years. I went from zero percent long term success with plates, to 100% by using the methods I described. I thought they were impossible to keep. I swore them off and didn’t try for almost a decade. Then I got the insanity plate and had to give it a shot. I used my technique and have been successful over and over and not just with this one, but other plates also. Never lost one again
Did it have purple tips on the tentacles?
It did not, it was one of those common neon orange fungias.
I just saw @thamnasteroid mention true fungias are rare in the hobby so I am assuming what was sold as a fungia is actually a different species of cycloseris.
He is correct. Most fungai are cycloseris.
I am not an expert (he is) but I am pretty sure a trademark of Heliofungia fralinae is purple tips. The plates themselves have different variations but I think they need to have purple tips for Heliofungia fralinae.
He helped me learn about the background of mine
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Post in thread 'Plate Coral (Fungia) and Cycloseris - What is the Difference?'
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/p...s-what-is-the-difference.152585/post-12477668
Here is where I saw the classification.
Nevertheless, thanks for the advice, maybe I’ll try another plate in the future
No need for permit if you are a Hawaii resident. But I’m pretty sure you need a permit if you are an outsider, which I believe are not being handed out at the moment
My memory! I botched this up I can’t believe myself. I mixed up my plates info
Thamnasteroid did ID my plate. It’s not cycloseris. That’s what you probably had. This is his quote on my insanity plate, I got the info right but not the name :
“You can tell it is H. fralinae because of the purple acrospheres; no other Fungiid has those.”
It’s heliofungai fralinae
Edit: I’m going to correct my other posts
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