feeding FUNGIA PLATE coral

[AMW]

Do fungia plate corals need to be fed? (beyond MH/actinic lighting and phytoplankton).

[sportzfish]

I feed mine mysis and flying fish roe about twice a week. It is pretty neat to see it catch the food with its tentacles and then transfer them from the outermost tentacles to the tentacles closer to the mouth and then into the mouth.

[seafansar]

I feed mine a little. Hardly ever spot feed it, but it sometimes catches the frozen I feed my fish. I did feed it a pellet today. I was surprised at how fast it moved it to it's mouth!

[AMW]

OK, I just tried feeding my fungia plate a large piece of krill...it completely sucked it up and shoved it into its mouth within less than a minute. Rather impressive for an LPS and definitely entertaining as well!

[The Escaped Ape]

Interesting stuff. I had a fungia in my last tank that just faded away, but whether that was from lack of feeding or not, I'm not sure. What sort of flow/lighting do people have these in?

[CA2OR]

I feed mine the DIY food I have been making....problem is it grows to fast, and it seems to be producing new heads...

I have a 36g with 1 250w 15k MH and 2 96w PC actinics. Also 8 LED's at night. I would say the fungia is in high flow.

[The Escaped Ape]

Interesting. So it wasn't my lighting or my flow I'm guessing (last tank was 2 x 250w MH and 2 x Tunze streams). Something else I did then. :(

[yuzaki]

I saw my fungia eat my cleaner shrimp's skin

[kev apsley]

Just a FYI...another key point in maintaining Fungia is to keep them up off the sand bed, sand is very irritating to them and can cause tissue necrosis. Keep them up on some rocks or pvc to keep them happy, also spot feeding is quite healthy for them

[The Escaped Ape]

Hmm. Useful tip, I didn't know that, thanks. That may well have been it.

[goofyreefer]

Are we just talking about the long tentacle variety?

[CA2OR]

I didn't know that either. mine has been sitting in the sand since I first saw it. Someone told me that they will let go of the rock they are on at some point and move so I should move it to somewhere that I can find it when it does and mount it somewhere.

[cloak]

Here's a good article.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/april2003/invert.htm

I'd much rather keep them on the sand since they are mobile. Don't want them taking a nasty fall.

[laurarca]

I was at a conference over the summer and Anthony Calfo expressed to never purchase a heliofungia as their survival rate is zero in captivity...I did have 2 die myself and will never get one again...anyone have the same experince?

[goofyreefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15698017#post15698017 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by laurarca
I was at a conference over the summer and Anthony Calfo expressed to never purchase a heliofungia as their survival rate is zero in captivity...I did have 2 die myself and will never get one again...anyone have the same experince?

Not sure how true that is. I've seen several "mother" fungia plates with babies all over them at LFS.

[CA2OR]

so what kind of fungia is this and should I move it from the sand?

http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww21/ca2or/72%20Bowfront/vlcsnap-2009-09-13-19h21m51s134.png

[The Escaped Ape]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15698797#post15698797 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by goofyreefer
Not sure how true that is. I've seen several "mother" fungia plates with babies all over them at LFS.

Fungia sometimes produce babies like that when they're going through stress, IIRC, so it's not a good guide to whether they're doing well or not.

[goofyreefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15710345#post15710345 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Escaped Ape
Fungia sometimes produce babies like that when they're going through stress, IIRC, so it's not a good guide to whether they're doing well or not.

So they reproduce if their happy or stressed.... that could be said about many corals...no?

Not to mention that any coral in captivity would have a zero survival rate when it's all said and done.

[The Escaped Ape]

I couldn't claim to be an expert on these, as you can see from my lack of success I mention above! Just reporting what I've read, which is that fungia often produce babies at times of stress. Though to be honest, thinking about it, I'm not sure if I'm remembering something about babies emerging from the skeleton of fungia that look like they've had it. Whichever way, you're right, there no doubt are a range of reasons babies are produced.

[CA2OR]

so it is a bad sign that mine produces babies?

[The Escaped Ape]

Pass. As I said, I'm no expert, only relaying a fragment of information that I thought I was sure in my memory of, but am progressively less sure of as you ask questions!

However, it doesn't sound like it, if you're not getting tissue recession. If you're worried, I guess you could post pics in the forum and see what people think. :)

[CA2OR]

ah....well I probably know just about as much as you do, maybe less.

[The Escaped Ape]

I'm betting quite a lot more! Been a while since I've had one.

[R33fLover]

When a Fungia dies leave the skeleton in the tank because there is a chance that new babies will appear. From what I have read this can take up to 6 months. I had one die and left in the tank but all I got was a feather duster and Coraline algae.

[Shawnbeaulieu]

i had a itty bity tiny one on some ive rock i got now its the size of my fist and its only been in my tank 7 months. i feed it all sorts of things ive noticed if it doesent like what i feed it it dont eat it and lets it go. pellets krill squid flakes formula 2 scallops eats it all up yum

[E.intheC]

I've heard the long tentacle plates were extremely hard to keep alive. Also, I thought plates were supposed to be on the sandbed and not the rocks.

[Haddonisreef]

http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss163/HaddonisReef/FungiaRock2.jpg
I bought this skeleton of a fungia w/ 7 babys growing on it. There was 6 the same a 1 that was different. They went on to produce about a totla of 20 plate sence i have had it and 3 spores are still producing. I dont spot feed just alot of phyto!

[scapes]

i had spent $50 on a long tentacle variety a couple years back. killed it. never got another one. then one day last year, at the end of the year, i acquired these two--

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j57/chargedtuna/my%20tank/IMG_4072.jpg

the fellow reefer who i bought them from said that his mother colony died and produced babies, and more babies keep being produced, so he has a ton of them now. these pics were taken a couple months back and after looking at them today, they have gotten bigger than this. they're draping all through the egg crate. i have these about 3" below the water surface directly under t5's. look pretty good to me ;) i spot feed just a couple times a week.

[cody6766]

I've gathered that the heliofungia (long tentacle) are very hard to keep and are hit and miss. Fungia (short tentacle plates) are much easier and have a higher survival rate

[lovetoreef]

I have had good luck with my fungias if i spot feed them - usually one or two mysis a couple times a week - i keep mine on the sandbed and it is doing very well

[jmoaks]

My fungia will target and attack stomatilla snails if they venture too close.

[Dkuhlmann]

I just watched this fungia eating pellets. Very cool to watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq3G43x1oxM

[lpsfan]

I've had mine for two years now, never target fed it and it lives on the sand bed. http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/11/358b912850723947f1971faa88b795eb.jpg

[Tweaked]

Whoa... looks to be heliofungia ? for two years.. impressive

[Zalick]

Just adding my 2 cents here. I've had a Heliofungia actiniformis for a couple weeks now. The first week I did not spot feed it and it shrunk a little every day. Once I spot fed it, it perked back up. I then went out of town for 5 days and had someone else feeding the tank, with no spot feeding. Got home and it was shrunk up again. I didn't think it would make it. Lots of exposed skeleton at night. I've been spot feeding it daily the last 3 days and its completely come back. I'm going to keep spot feeding it daily and report back to this thread every 6 months. Seems to be a lot of different information out there and the general consensus is these don't last long.