Look what I caught!! (Moray Eel ID)

[litsoh]

Nut uh! You called potters wrasse. I was first to claim the angel.


Yours

Mines. You can be first after you catch mine lol

I know, so disappointing. I got a potters angel years ago, they were like 80$

Now if I want one it’s $1000

In all seriousness, I do hope you catch your wrasse/angel one day. If you catch a second angel and want some cash, hit me up

OK. If I catch a Potter's angel it's yours. I had plenty of opportunity to have one before the ban. Never did because I heard they were a bit finicky and also would eat coral so that was a no no for me. I met a guy today that dives and he says he sees them often. We were at Kokololio Beach Park. He caught a boxfish, toby and unknown fish (wrasse maybe) today but then put them all in a ziplock bag while he dove for more. The boxfish poisoned and killed the other two which was a real bummer. Even I know better than that. He caught a 2nd toby my neighbor wanted so I'm going to set up a saltwater tank for him for it. I didn't go in the water because I'm not a strong swimmer and it was to wavy. Hopefully I'll hang with him again and get some other fish. He's a friend of my neighbor.

I wish I took a picture of the wrasse before it died. I've never seen anything like it and I can't ID it and I've been looking on the internet for the last hour or so. It was about 4 inches and like a gun metal grey with cross striations that were very fine. It has an angularly split faint yellow line coming off the corner of it's mouth and a yellow dot behind the gills, with faintly yellow dorsal and anal fins. I thought it might be a type of parrotfish because the mouth looked a bit chompy and it had a parrotfish type pattern on it's belly but very faint and not colorful.

Introduce me to this guy pls, I got a Zippy’s plate with his name on it if he can get me some stuff LOL

 

[MauiAnglerReef]

Also, just curious, can you have anemones since they technically aren’t corals?

 

[VintageReefer]

Introduce me to this guy pls, I got a Zippy’s plate with his name on it if he can get me some stuff LOL

What is a zippy’s plate?

 

[MauiAnglerReef]

Introduce me to this guy pls, I got a Zippy’s plate with his name on it if he can get me some stuff LOL

What is a zippy’s plate?

You haven’t heard of Zippys?

 

[VintageReefer]

You haven’t heard of Zippys?

Nope lol

Thought it was some kind of plate coral I never heard of

 

[VintageReefer]

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

 

[bluemon]

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

That is a crazy looking piece.

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

 

[VintageReefer]

That is a crazy looking piece.

A few questions if you don’t mind; as I always have trouble with funghias.

Are these funghias or diaseris?

It’s Heliofungia fralinae

Do you have it just on flat acrylic? Are one of the babies glue to the frag plug?

I only grow them on plugs. Mama is on a plug on a frag shelf.

How did it propagate, did they bud off?

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 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

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

 

[bluemon]

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

Thank you so much for the detailed response.

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.

 

[VintageReefer]

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]

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.

 

[VintageReefer]

Thank you so much for the detailed response.

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.

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”

 

[bluemon]

Thank you so much for the detailed response.

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.

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 downfall

 

[VintageReefer]

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

 

[VintageReefer]

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 downfall

Did it have purple tips on the tentacles?

 

[bluemon]

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.

 

[VintageReefer]

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

 

[bluemon]

I am not an expert (he is) but I am pretty sure a trademark of cycloseris is purple tips. The plates themselves have different variations but I think they need to have purple tips for cycloseris.

He helped me learn about the background of mine

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

 

[MauiAnglerReef]

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.

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

 

[VintageReefer]

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

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