My plate coral had babies

[Min]

I had a large (7") plate coral die on me about 4 months ago after it got pushed into another coral overnight, I'm guessing by a large snail. I kept the skeleton since I heard they could grow new polyps from the desk skeleton. I completely forgot about it until a few weeks ago when I saw some little green polyps all over it.

Has anyone had this happen to them? How do you remove them once they grow a little bigger? Some of them are very close together, almost touching and the biggest ones are about 3 to 4mm across, I counted about 50 to 60 them.

I'll try to take some more pictures, they seem to be concentrated in the center.

 

[DonTavo27]

Nice! Welcome to the club lol. Glad you didn’t toss
The skeleton .

 

[reef lover]

When they get large enough they will detach on their own. Congratulations.

 

[Min]

Thanks, I was hoping it'd be something easy like that

 

[Min]

Some closer up pics

 

[35ppt]

Redacted

 

[Min]

Just wanted to post a update, they've gotten much bigger but still haven't detached. Seems like a few of them are growing into each other.

 

[G Santana]

Just wanted to post a update, they've gotten much bigger but still haven't detached. Seems like a few of them are growing into each other.

That is pretty cool!!!

 

[Timfish]

Congratulations! What you have are a bunch of anthocauli (singular is anthocaulus). Each one will grow a single polyp, when the polyp gets large enough it will drop off and a new polyp will form in a week or so. Right now they are pretty small but each anthocaulus can grow, keep producing more polyps and can also bud off new anthocauli. The problem you'll have realizing maximum survival is smaller anthocauli will be shaded by larger polyps and trying to separate them when they are so small and close together is pretty difficult. But if you can separate the anthocauli so they have room to grow polyps you can grow quite a large number. They also will bud off more anthocaul if there is plenty of space around them. Attached are a couple pics of a clump of anthocauli in one of my tanks. The original one died 14 or 15 years ago but new anthocauli have kept budding off each other. On average I'd say I get about 3 or 4 baby plate polyps from each anthocauli and occasionally 8 or 10. At the bottom of the 2nd pic you can see the skeleton of an anthocauli that died after making several polyps

 

[Min]

Nice, a few of mine look like the smaller ones in the second pic, there are a few that look like they're shading smaller ones. Any tips/advice on removing them? I've tried twisting/pulling one of the larger ones off with tweezers but just ended up breaking the skeleton.

 

[Timfish]

At the size they are it's going to be very difficult. And gluing them to a frag plug or rock is going to be difficult also. Waiting a few months to let them grow more will make it a little bit easier. Getting a pair of magnifying glasses probably is a good idea.

Also, the new polyps usually don't drop off untill the skeleton is around an 3/4" to 1" in diameter.

 

[jeffrey750750]

those are amazing, the ocean is just magical

 

[Min]

Just wanted to post another update, I've been picking the bigger ones off and glueing them to plugs, new ones seem to keep popping up on the dead skeleton also.

 

[fnlyreefready]

Just wanted to post another update, I've been picking the bigger ones off and glueing them to plugs, new ones seem to keep popping up on the dead skeleton also.

I’d love to have one of those

 

[Timfish]

I would like some hopefully to increase my divirsity. But for long term survival of the anthocauli it's probably best to leave them where they are at until they drop off the polyp and start a new baby plate coral.

 

[Timfish]

Here's a current picture of the anthocauli and baby plates in my first post. The tiny polyp barely visible in the first pic above is getting shaded by it's neighbors. Likely it wiil start growing when it gets more light after one of the polyps drop off. However I've lost few anthocauli because they were shaded too long. There's also one in the middle visible that can't be seen well in the first picture.

 

[anthonygf]

Just wanted to post another update, I've been picking the bigger ones off and glueing them to plugs, new ones seem to keep popping up on the dead skeleton also.

I want some!

 

[Min]

If you guys lived closer I'd give you some for free lol.

 

[Min]

I would like some hopefully to increase my divirsity. But for long term survival of the anthocauli it's probably best to leave them where they are at until they drop off the polyp and start a new baby plate coral.

I was afraid the ones that were too close to each other, one would end up getting smothered and die. You just let them go until they fall off by themselves? The bigger ones dont end up shading/killing the smaller ones under/near it?

 

[Timfish]

I was afraid the ones that were too close to each other, one would end up getting smothered and die. You just let them go until they fall off by themselves? The bigger ones dont end up shading/killing the smaller ones under/near it?

Mostly yes.

With the ones in the pictures I've posted above I don't try to seperate the anthocaulus. It seems to have been originally an anthocaulus that started from a sexually produced larva since it budded off a piece of live rock in 2004. There wasn't any reason initially to try to remove the original one and it was only after it produced a couple of babies that a 2nd then 3rd anthocaulus budded off the original one and started producing babies. They are attached very firmly to the rock they are on and early on I decided to just watch to see what would happen over time. I was also hesitant with the 2nd, 3rd and subsiquent anthocaulus to remove them since there was tissue connecting them together, it can be seen in the first set of pictures I posted and I wanted to avoit damaging it. With this initiall set of anthocauli over the years the number fluctuates as new anthocaulus bud off and others die. Currently there's seven on this rock, three of them are about a year old and the tiny one is maybe 4 months. The largest one is probably 7 or 8 years old and might be older but I would have to dig back through lots of old pictures to determine it's actual age.

I've had this budding process start on a couple of rocks now also with transplanted anthocaulus. Sometimes a small one will be shaded long enough it dies without ever releasing a baby plate. Sometimes the largest anthocauli die after releasing a baby plate and failing grow a new one. If I was to guess, on average an anthocaulus makes 5 or 6 baby plates in my tanks and I don't think I've seen one make more than 8 or 9. As the anthocaulus grows it will get larger and the new babies will be larger and seem to grow faster but I don't take the time to monitor growth outside of taking pictures.

Now one of the frustrations I've had is randomly having a unattached plate coral that's been in a group of other unattached plates die. Usually there is some indication as the stripping starts to shift to brown a week or two or three before tissue starts sloughing off. From what I've read, with corals melanin an important part of their immune system and it increased production could be an indicator of a bacterial infection. I've not tried getting a prescription for antibiotics to try to see if this could be cured however.

Over the years the plate corals that been produced in my tanks and have died roughly one in ten that are over 2" diameter will start producing new anthocauli. With these anthocauli I do try to save as many as is practical by sepperating the ones that are too close together. This is just anecdotal as I've never tracked survival with distance from neighbor but if there are several with in an inch of each other the smaller ones likely will be shaded too much to survive. These I will try to seperate and attach to other rocks. But it's also been frustrating to work with tiny anthocauli, <1/4", so if they are very small I won't bother anymore.