Little fungiid factory--back in business?

[c est ma]

My little guy, out for a jar cleaning (yes, there's water in that glass!) tonight:

 

 

Still straining to reach 9mm!

 

--Diane

[arwndsh]

Ok so I was in the fish store today just to look around.  I wan't planning on buying anything because I have to move my tank in a week, but.............you know how that goes.  Well I was looking around and what do I spy but a piece of rock with a plate generating site on it.  And here is the best part it appears to either be blue or a really dark purple.  score.  So for 25 bucks I got a quarter size plate, the site its growing on, some more xenia, and about a quarter pound of rock. My only complaint is the stupid pet store guy tried to break off the plate.   You'll have to wait for pics as well my camera sucks.  I should be able to borrow Daniel's sister's camera sometime after next week.

[c est ma]

Wow, Amber, what a coup!!!! I have been staring hard at rock in lfs's ever since I learned about these plate-sites, to no avail. Do you happen to know what kind of rock it was, or where it was from? I can't WAIT for pics!!

 

Meanwhile, you have reminded me to do my own updating to this thread. I'm going to copy the posts I made in my tank thread, so apologies to those who read both.

 

--Diane

[c est ma]

Preface: One reason I let this thread lapse, after the long-awaited detachment of the 2nd baby plate, was because it disappeared March 7--not even a month after its 2/11/08 detachment! After fruitless searching, I resigned myself to the idea that it was gone for good. Only to be thrilled to have it reappear April 4th, after nearly a month long absence!

 

At that time I posted the following notes & pics in my tank thread:

 

 

Woot! Woot! Woot!

 

OK. So I was a lot more depressed about losing my baby plate coral than I let on. I mean, I had waited so long for the second baby plate--after the first one was killed--only to lose it, as well...I tend to go into winter funks, and this didn't help...

 

Well, as if you hadn't guessed--it resurfaced this evening!! (Well, Friday evening.)

 

Setting the stage:

 

Maybe some of you will remember that I keep the baby plates in little glass specimen dishes. This is for several reasons: because they're so tiny, because I'm not sure if they're really happy on my crushed coral (as opposed to sand--the cc is pretty large in particle size compared to the baby plates), and because my tank is so jammed with other things I'm afraid they'd end up wedged under something that might sting them to death if they were "loose." This system worked fine for the first baby plate--it stayed "happily" in the dish...until the emerald killed it.

 

The latest (2nd) baby, however, was found more than once on the substrate outside the glass when I'd turn the lights on in the morning. Even tho fungiids are capable of motion, I didn't really think this little guy would be able to crawl up the glass dish sides and over the top by itself. Nor, tho, did I think I had anything that would be likely to carry it out...a puzzlement.

 

Here's a shot of it on 2/26/08 when I found it outside its dish. (Naturally, everything BUT the plate is in focus...):

 

 

I took advantage of the moment to try to get some shots of its underside:

 

 

And then returned it to the dish, of course.

 

On 3/6/08, I caught my scarlet hermit (with a Trochus on his back) in the plate's dish, picking around as they always do. Even tho I was wary of having anything happen to the plate, and even tho I'd just fed the plate a sinking pellet, I watched the crab for some time, and it did not seem to be harming the plate.

 

 

One reason I felt that way was because the plate was remaining rather fleshy and puffed out, altho, like all fungiids I know of, it is perfectly capable of withdrawing its flesh so that it looks scarily skeletal.

 

 

I even took some of my classically poor vids of it. Please have a look, despite the quality. They're only 40 seconds long each!

 

Towards the end of this one, you can see the crab start to really pick at the edge of the plate with its claws. While it looks rough, it also doesn't look like the plate is too unhappy, and it seems to me that maybe the crab is finding diatoms or something along the plate edge. (Remember there's a fool Trochus on top of the crab--the more, the merrier!):

 

 

Towards the end of this vid the crab actually picks up the plate, briefly:

 

 

More crab/plate action:

 

 

In this last vid, the Trochus hops off ( ), and the HC appears to be trying to leave the dish. Towards the end, you can really see his pointy little walking legs poking dents into the plate's flesh. This always amazes me--how corals can look so fleshy and vulnerable and still not only survive but seem completely unfazed by having all manner of prickly, pointy, armored creatures crawl all over them!:

 

 

Well, so...I got those pics and those vids; made sure the HC got out of the dish, and called it a night. The next morning the specimen dish was empty and there was absolutely no trace of the plate. I poked around the tank thoroughly, several times, throughout the next few days. I lifted up rics and searched beneath them, moved whatever rocks/frags I could, etc. Absolutely not a trace. Of course, I felt like an absolute fool. I thought that maybe the crab had come back after all, and somehow carried off the plate. Or maybe some other critter--tho the list gets even more unlikely...the other hc's even smaller, and the brittle stars, while most opportunistic, still don't seem likely to pick on something like a baby plate...

 

At any rate, time passed and the plate stayed missing. I figured that if I ever saw it again it would only be as a completely dead skeleton, encountered if I ever tore the tank down. And even that was unlikely, considering how tiny this thing had been...

 

Eureka!

 

So tonight I'm glancing at the tank (which I've been largely ignoring, except for water changes, due to the combined loss of the plate & limpet, for both of which I felt horribly guilty, and the ongoing diatom battle, which is mostly cosmetic but still a PITA)...and I notice a strange, bluish-&-pinkish disk-shaped object in the center hollow of the live rock. My first thought was that it was one of my several drifting Discosoma; but on closer inspection, it didn't seem to be a shroom...OMG! Could it be?! No!! Yes!! It is the baby plate!!

 

It was in a hard place to get good pictures. See the spoked disk just above the green ric (and below the goby, which always likes to be the center of attention):

 

 

It was impossible to get a zoomed macro shot. This is the best I could do, sharpened w/ my software so that the rest of the things in the pic look really weird:

 

 

LOL, it actually shows up the sharpest in this pic of the whole right side of the tank...if you know what to look for! See the sort of ship's wheel-like disk over the green ric to the far left:

 

 

Well, even tho it looked to be in pretty good shape, I thought I'd better get it out of the hollow, as that part of the 'scape is full of pits and niches that couldn't be especially fitting for a baby plate. Not to mention the fact that I didn't want to have it disappear again!

 

However, that part of the 'scape is also pretty inaccessible. I quickly realized that my chances of retrieving the plate were probably smaller than those of knocking it back into some crevice where it would vanish, unless I planned carefully. In addition to the hard-to-reach location, I was also very mindful of just how delicate (hermit crabs notwithstanding) these little things are. I didn't want to lacerate the poor thing whilst trying to save it...

 

My hand was way too big for the job, and I didn't find an implement in the house that appeared to hold any promise. I finally sacrificed a couple of measuring spoons--the 1/2 tsp one turned out to be too big, but the 1/4 tsp--finally!--was successful:

 

 

Next post: the plate recaptured!

 

--Diane

[c est ma]

The recovery of the little plate, part 2:

 

Woot! Woot! cont'd

 

Success!

 

After too many tense moments of realizing just how huge and unsuited my hominid hands were for the delicate recapturing process--it turned out I managed to slip the bent spoon under the plate, delicately coax the animal into the spoon's concavity, raise it up through suddenly most annoying outcrops of rock, and transfer it to the specimen dish in my other hand...

 

Backtracking. This was the baby plate on 3/6, the day before it disappeared. I'd just happened to have it out of the tank for a measurement:

 

 

And here it is the day it reappeared, 4/4, nearly a month later:

 

 

As you can see, it's grown from ~9mm in diameter to ~11.5mm--in its longest dimension. Great job, baby plate!

 

Several more pics of the plate at this time, with different white balances & exposures. I can never get the colors to show up when it's out of the tank, but I just love the geometry. Some of these show the tentacles esp. well, some the radial patterns, some the mouth--from slit-wise to slightly open...:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, I eventually returned it to the tank! To do so, I had to move the frag with the plate-generating site and the Porites to the back of the tank, which displaced the B. merleti a bit--Oh, I need a new tank SO BADLY!!

 

But the plate itself seems none the worse for wear:

 

 

 

In fact, it's grown so much it's impossible to get it all in focus in one shot with the loupe:

 

 

 

 

Happy days.

 

--Diane

[GoingPostal]

I have a baby plate on the back of a trachy. I bought it off a reefer breaking down their tank and didn't really notice it for a while, I've had it about 7 months now and it's pretty decent sized when puffed up but hasn't dropped off. Mine looks a lot like michelle2's pic but with a purple rim. I also got an orange plate from the same reefer for free in bad shape which died a few months later and now has little plate babies all over it. These are tiny though. I'll try to get a pic up of the larger one, I'm not sure how big it truly is as it almost never closes up and is in a bad spot for viewing.

[c est ma]

That is very, very cool! I wish you could get pictures of both of them!

 

--Diane

[GoingPostal]

Ok took some pics

 

This is little plate all inflated up

 

After a brutal poking with the baster this was all the farther it would close up

 

Dead orange plate with babies, it's covered in snail poop and spaghetti worm, maybe I should have cleaned it off before it's big photo shoot, whoops!

 

 

The orange plate seemed to be doing alright, not great when I got it but it must have been too far gone, once it died I moved it into this tank and about a month later noticed some flesh which is now the biggest live part of it, then the tiny babies starting popping up all over, there's actually a lot on there but my camera kinda sucks.

[chuckfullservice]

A small sugestion , find a lid for that jar !

[arwndsh]

Wow, Amber, what a coup!!!! I have been staring hard at rock in lfs's ever since I learned about these plate-sites, to no avail. Do you happen to know what kind of rock it was, or where it was from? I can't WAIT for pics!!

 

Meanwhile, you have reminded me to do my own updating to this thread. I'm going to copy the posts I made in my tank thread, so apologies to those who read both.

 

--Diane

 

No I don'tknow where the rocks are from . I asked the guy that was helping me and all he would do was ask me a question back. I think I might stop in there again Friday before I leave to see if someone else will tell me and also if there are any others. I might be able to get some pics in about a week.

[c est ma]

GoingPostal,

 

Wow, those first plates are beautiful corals! If I couldn't see those tents throughout the disks I'd think they were some sort of carpet nem or something! And of course the orange will be stunning as well. I hope you'll continue to post updates here!

 

A small sugestion , find a lid for that jar !

 

LOL! Actually, when I found it outside the dish YET ANOTHER TIME I decided to just leave it out. It's doing OK so far--at least it hasn't wandered off or into another coral yet...fool thing.

 

Amber--Don't know how you have time for anything but wedding stuff right now! But if you get pics I wanna be the first to see them.

 

--Diane

[arwndsh]

GoingPostal,

 

Wow, those first plates are beautiful corals! If I couldn't see those tents throughout the disks I'd think they were some sort of carpet nem or something! And of course the orange will be stunning as well. I hope you'll continue to post updates here!

 

 

 

LOL! Actually, when I found it outside the dish YET ANOTHER TIME I decided to just leave it out. It's doing OK so far--at least it hasn't wandered off or into another coral yet...fool thing.

 

Amber--Don't know how you have time for anything but wedding stuff right now! But if you get pics I wanna be the first to see them.

 

--Diane

 

I have time for other things because I planned all the wedding stuff months ago. Its the one thing I didn't procrastinate on. And besides I am to the point now that if I haven't thought of it then we don't need it.

[arwndsh]

Well I went back by the LFS and they couldn't remember where they got the rock from.  They got it in probably 2 years ago.  And I found another plate site but the rock it was on was so big there is no way it would fit in my little tank.  

[c est ma]

Bummer. But I'd be glad to find any more at all, let alone all the ones you've found!

 

--Diane

[GoingPostal]

AHH! My b/f rearranged his tank and bumped baby plate off the rock, it has an open looking attachment scar, here's hoping it makes it, I'm going to put it on a little flat rock for now I think and try not to lose it.

[c est ma]

When they dislodge easily, I think they're ready to come off! You're right, the hardest part now will be not losing it...Remember that it can move around a little bit by itself, and certain inverts can pick it up and drop it some place--i.e., hermits. Snails can bulldoze it somewhere else...

 

It will appreciate feeding and grow faster if you do so.

 

Do watch the old attachment site--I predict you'll see new flesh there shortly. Good luck!

 

 

Leaning towards an ID...

 

Way back when my first plate detached, and I was paging through every fungiid page of CoralSearch, I was leaning towards Cycloseris hexagonalis as an ID for my particular species...But of course I was afraid to make a guess even as to genus back then...

 

This time, with the added benefit of having bought myself the 3 volume Veron set Corals of the World, I really feel about 80-90% sure that that's what I have. The slightly polygonal shape of the young C. hexagonalis, and especially the 6 radiating spokes they have seem most distinctive. It was seeing the pic of the live one on the printed page, however, that really made me as certain as it's possible to be. Somehow the colors, texture, etc., just seem more vibrant in the book, AND--they really remind me of the baby plate I have. (BTW, this is one coral I just can't get good color on with my usual camera settings, or even by trying others...I'm hoping that when I move the baby into my new, bigger tank, with different substrate and different light, I'll get better results...)

 

Anyway, here's the CoralSearch page on C. hexagonalis:

 

http://www2.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/html/4...20pages/488.htm

 

(In addition, I do have the skeleton of the baby that died----and it looks like the one in the book/webpage too...)

 

And here are a couple of top-down shots I took of the plate just before my last major tank cleaning. Its corner always gets especially dirty as I don't like to mess around next to it at all. But the dark substrate did serve to show off the "spokes" better. (These pics have funky coloring all around!):

 

 

 

And here are a couple of shots when I pulled it out of the tank and put it in a little dish of water while I cleaned up its corner. It's only grown a mm or 2 in diameter, but is much more substantial, even when all closed up like this:

 

 

 

And some pics from today. Its corner is getting dirty again! The tank is still leaking, and I haven't changed it out yet...but the plate is happy. Since its last "escape" from the specimen dish I had been keeping it in, I've just let it loose in the left front tank corner. It moves around a bit, but never contacts the other corals...I suspect it's run into them and then moved away again!:

 

 

 

 

That's the update for now.

 

--Diane

[GoingPostal]

Awesome pics! I'm going to take mine out and get a size comparision so I can watch it grow, it's so tiny and adorable. I hadn't realized how small it really was because it's usually expanded so much.

[greeneyes]

Great pic's.

[irishtexan]

Wow! What a cute little plate!

 

Great shots too. So how many babies do you have now? Two?

 

 

-texx

[c est ma]

Awesome pics! I'm going to take mine out and get a size comparision so I can watch it grow, it's so tiny and adorable. I hadn't realized how small it really was because it's usually expanded so much.

 

I hope you get some pics and post them here! (Remember to let it retract before you try to move it...which it will do if you gently nudge it...I transfer mine with a plastic spoon, from substrate to specimen dish held underwater...)

 

Yeah, when mine's expanded it's probably half again as big...and the edges are pretty transparent, so you can see the skeleton right through it:

 

 

(A really ugly pic when its corner was really dirty, but you can see the skelton as a smaller disc within the expanded tissue.) Of course, when it's retracted, it's only ~ 1.2 cm in diameter! So the expanded state isn't exactly huge...

 

 

Great pic's.

 

Thank you!

 

 

Wow! What a cute little plate!

 

Great shots too. So how many babies do you have now? Two?

 

 

-texx

 

Thank you, too! I just have this one and the newly developing one that's still attached to the generating site, and which I can't get a good pic of since it's been moved to the back of the tank. When my 15's ready to go, I'll transfer it over and hope to get some more pics then.

 

I think it's cute, too, and I sure hope I can pull this one through to a decent size and have it for a long time.

 

--Diane

[GoingPostal]

Ok I got a pic of it on it's own today, I had taken a nice one of it on my fingernail but my camera messed it up somehow

 

 

Here it is in the tank, it's a 12 gallon Aquapod for size reference (right corner)

 

[c est ma]

Very cute, and what a lovely tank as well!! You're really making me wish I'd gone with the black sand for my new tank. I'll have to find your tank thread.

 

It looks like your baby will be nice and safe in that corner as well.

 

Also interesting is that those radiating bars are evident in your distant shot, tho the close up looks nothing like mine. Hmmmm.

 

Thanks for posting and please keep adding any more pics you get.

 

--Diane

[GoingPostal]

Don't bother searching for the tank thread, I've never started one I guess I could. I just usually suck at pics. How long does your plate rock take to start making new babies? I'm really hoping more appear from that spot, it's pretty cool. I feel like I raised it.

[greeneyes]

GP nice tank.

[c est ma]

Don't bother searching for the tank thread, I've never started one I guess I could. I just usually suck at pics. How long does your plate rock take to start making new babies? I'm really hoping more appear from that spot, it's pretty cool. I feel like I raised it.

 

Oh, I think this is the coolest phenomenon ever! Esp. since mine was a hitchhiker. To think I almost killed it on purpose when I first got it--I thought those fat little tentacles meant Majano!

 

Mine starts regenerating right away. In fact, it's almost as if new growth below the "old" plate helped cause it to detach. Even though the attachment scar looks totally bare and skeletal, within a day or three I can usually see some little points of tissue sticking out (it helps if you can see it in profile). Many times it retracts and looks skeletal again, and I'm sure it's died, but it just keeps reappearing and getting bigger!

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the quality of your pics--they're not bad, and practice will only improve things! That fts is a wonderful shot, and you get nice color in all your pics.

 

--Diane