Hello,


This piece came with the live rock we picked out at the LFS. Any idea if it is growing. needs care, etc?
Thanks

it looks like a dead plate coral.

Dont look dead to me. It still has color to it. It looks to still be attached to the rock, so for that reason i would say its a juvenile fungia. Look up care for fungia sp

I have one, and it doesn't attach to anything.

Yeah it is just sitting on the rock not attached to anything. It is hard like a rock and was not the same color when I got it a few months ago. I'll look up Fungia. Thanks,

It has that color because of the bacteria/algae growing on the skeleton.

if it is attached to the rock then you have come across a lucky piece of live rock. There are a few members on here with such a piece, i think one is Diane. In this case you would want to somehow get that 3/4 dead fungia off that rock and let it produce a new fresh one. I'm guessing that one died because it was in a low light live rock tank for quite a while.

If you just placed that plate coral on that peice of rock then you need to try and feed it and give it good light and/or iodine dip.

edit: i see it is not attached to the rock, disregard my rambling.

So it is a dead piece of artwork?

Put it on your sand. Maybe some babies will grow on it.

It looks dead to me. You said it was "hard like a rock"?

Seriously?


It does look like it is flaking? Kind of had some stuff hanging from it last week. I think it is dead.

Grab it and see if it has any soft tissue on it. If all you feel is brittle calcium that you can crack off, then it is dead.

Teeeen Four!


Should I get it out is it hurting anything? I have kinda grown to liking it.

What i meant by being attached is juvenile plates are attached then break off and become free living (not attached)


did you place it on that rock or can it be taken off?
EDIT: Never mind on being attached^^

i could have sworn the top left of the picture looks like orange tissue to me. I would just leave it on the sandbed and try to feed that colored part with any meaty fish food to see if it brings the food to the mouth. If it doesnt do anything, maybe an iodine dip to heal any tissue that remains and then give it some time.

So based on you guys suggestions I put it on the sand and it seems to be growing some sort of tissue/ baby??? I hope it regrows that would be the sheezy! What do you think? Bottom part with the small hole has some color and looks like it is alive now.

Looks dead.

coraline growing on it...

It is dead, and now growing algae and coraline on it.

I was given this for free by the pet store because they said it was dead. I just thought the rock kind of looked cool. There was still a little flesh on it, but everyone told me it was dead. I just set it in the corner under a my powerhead.


looked like this 2 months later

and six months later

Sometimes you get lucky. Im pretty sure his cycle will kill whatever might be alive.

Tank has been running for 5 months now.

That thing is awesome!

When you say tissue, your referring to that greenish bloblike mass in the center of the pic right? Looks like it might be something actually, who knows..lol.

The two pinkish things in the middle of the visible side of the skeleton look like flesh to me. Are they attached? Pinkish/greenish down by the sand.

Yes the stuff at the bottom of it with the small holes in the middle. It is kind of flesh like and soft.

Looks like you will get lucky and get some babies out of the deal, they will grow and look like little plates in a while. Can you see tentacles on them? It looks like flesh in the pics but hard to tell.
This was mine right after it started popping up babies


A couple months ago, they are quite a bit larger than this now but none popping off yet

cool tank. i like it

+1 to GoingPostal. Congrats, nice freebie.

So to bring up a dead thread here is what I have now. I asked in the ID forum a few weeks ago and got confirmation they were sprouting babies. I put this in the sand about a year ago and now i have three growing. Pretty cool!

You can kind of still see some of the old plate under the sand.



Here they are eating some mysis!



So I hear they will break away from the old plate once a little bigger will they blow around the tank or be heavy enough to stay in the sand? Thanks,

I have seen numerous times what looked like a dead plate all the sudden start developing sm. plates even after being buried in the sand with no light. So if it were mine I would keep it for awhile and see what happens.

i love how everybody jumped your bones about it being dead and to take it out. good for you to take a chance. congrats on the new born!

Still growin'!

Eatin' dinner!

Full and happy!

That is just awesome. Congrats on the babies!

Another month and a fourth one has sprouted up. Hard to see in the pic but it's there. No idea what I am going to do with four plates?

Nice!!! Corals are not as fragile as they seem eh'... Thanks for the update!

very interesting. Its amazing how much stress can be put on a coral, to the point of what we thought was death, but how well it can regrow.

So here we are a few more months down the road and one of them seperated from the dead plate about three weeks ago. The other three are very large at times and are on the verge of detaching soon it appears.

My problem is they are not growing their skeleton at all. The one that detached is really giving me a hard time staying in place and tends to blow around the tank a little. I try to tuck him in a little spot in the rocks but a snail or hermit will bump into it and get it moving along again. It reall did a number on my blue ric when it blew into it one day and am afraid it is going to blow into more of my mushrooms and wipe them all out. Anyone have any suggestions on what I can do or how to keep them until they get heavy enough to stay in the sand. I always see these frag racks and stuff in others tanks and wonder if anyone has rigged up some type of rack to keep plates on?


Thanks for the help!

You could try keeping them under a strawberry basket or something so they dont blow around as much and the CuC cant get at them.

Breeder net.

this thread is full of win

+1 to that, tho a strawberry basket could work too. How many did you end up with?

Thanks for the info! The breeder basket looks like a good idea just not sure if I have a big enough free spot to put it?

I currently have 4 growing, 3 are about 2" across when fully spread out and one started a little late so it is still really small about the size of a dime right now.

that is nice that you recieved 4 plates from one "almost" dead skeleton!! Good for you to keep it in your tank after a few people said it was a goner. Now you can keep one and give the rest to your friends or sell them. WIN WIN for you.....Congrats.

So it has been a while and these things just aren't forming a skeleton. They are still completely soft, blow up during the day about 2 inches across and at night shrink back down to about the size of a quarter. One has detached and the other three are still stuck to the old plate. I took the detached one out a month ago and put it in my 5 gallon and it is not forming a skeleton either.

Any ideas to why they are not forming? Someone mentioned calcium and although I have not checked it in a while it shouldn't be too far off. I do check alk and it stays around 9 pretty consistently.

So I have lost another from the dead skeleton and have another free floating plate coral luckily he did not touch anything this time the last one wiped out some rics I had growing for almost a year! I moved it to my 5 gallon with the other one but what I once thought was going to be a cool gift has become a big PITA!

Anyone else have an idea or advice as to what is happening here and why no skeleton is forming? Thanks!!

needs more Cal im sure

I check it weekly and it stays right at 400 on the reg?