I found these little Fungia polyps (~1/8 - 3/16") while viewing the tank under actinics only last week:
While it is not unusual for apparently dead Plate Corals to create 'babies' from the parent skeleton, this scenerio is a bit more extreme.
The back story is that these polpys were found on 15+ year old live rock that was covered by Pavona varians for years and only uncovered when a Ricordia killed off a good portion of the Pavona recently. I chipped off this 1" piece and super glued the outer exposed areas to kill off any remaining Pavona. Since I've never had any Plate Corals in any of my tanks, they can't be settled planulae (larvae).
This is the rock that shows the scar where I chiseled of the Fungia:
Amazing that these 'Zombie' or 'Resurrection' corals can pop up even when the parent skeleton is in tatters and part of the live rock matrix.
There are at least four polyps and I plan to grow them out to an inch or so and then move them on (my tank is too small to have larger Fungia roaming around).
While it is not unusual for apparently dead Plate Corals to create 'babies' from the parent skeleton, this scenerio is a bit more extreme.
The back story is that these polpys were found on 15+ year old live rock that was covered by Pavona varians for years and only uncovered when a Ricordia killed off a good portion of the Pavona recently. I chipped off this 1" piece and super glued the outer exposed areas to kill off any remaining Pavona. Since I've never had any Plate Corals in any of my tanks, they can't be settled planulae (larvae).
This is the rock that shows the scar where I chiseled of the Fungia:
Amazing that these 'Zombie' or 'Resurrection' corals can pop up even when the parent skeleton is in tatters and part of the live rock matrix.
There are at least four polyps and I plan to grow them out to an inch or so and then move them on (my tank is too small to have larger Fungia roaming around).