Fungia Plate Coral losing colour

[Tigermad]

I have what I believe to be a Fungia fungites plate coral. I have had it for about 3 months now. When i first got it, it was flourescent pink. I have noticed now that it is very pale compared to what it used to be. I have it quite low down in my tank under 3 x 250w lights. Do you think it should be higher up in the tank. I feed it direcly once or twice a week.

Also when I first bought it I put it on a piece of rock half way in the tank. Since having to do some rearranging of the rockwork I have now moved it onto the substrate.

All water parameters are fine.

[bongobrian]

There's a possibility you got a hold of a dyed coral, and now all the dye is finding it's way out. It's pretty lame that some businesses do this, but it does happen. When you say the coral is losing color, does it look like it is seperating from the skeleton and that's why it looks pale? or does the coral still look healthy, just without the original color? color bleaching can occur when the coral gets an infection or when the conditions are less than satisfactory. Tell us more about your tank.

[Anthony Calfo]

Tigermad,

This coral needs to be on the sand bottom for several reasons. Notably... it derives nutrition form the microclimate on the live sand around it AND the daily polyps cycles will usually cause an abrasion that can become infected if the animal is kept on rock.

This coral is also one of the least symbiotic of the photosynthetic corals. Estimates have shown that it is much less than 80% sustained by the products of photsynthesis. That means that this species is very hungry and must be fed several times weekly if not daily if it is going to live for more than just a year or two in captivity.

If the coral was a natural color it may simply have not been fed enough. If it was a dyed coral it surely need a lot of food to compensate for the imposition of the dye! I recently wrote an article on dyed coral posted on WetWebMedia and Reefkeeping (e-zine) if you care to read more on the topic.

Best regards,

Anthony

[dattack]

Anthony,

What products do you recommend to feed it and how often?

[Reefland]

Would you recommend feeding all LPS corals the same diet you would feed the Tongue Coral, just less often?

Scott Z.

[Anthony Calfo]

Hey, gang

The feeding regime for corals even in the same family
can be tough to generalize... still, like any good Amercian: I want an all-purpose answer and I want it now! :P

The following link is to an article that is a generalized primer with some specifics on feeding staples and frequencies for Reef Invertebrates:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fdreefinverts.htm

My advice would be to consider this advice (above article) and indeed the advice of another half dozen or so reputable (or at least believable...heehee) sources and make an intelligent consensus for what will best apply to your animals.

Then once you get the framework for a feeding regime in place... begin to tweak it species by species.

Case in point... we have the mention of Fungiids in this thread. Now within Fungiids we have animals that you'd expect to feed similarly yet are in fact measurably different. Fungia species are indeed very needy/hungry while Heliofungia (despite its large tentacles) is actually more successful symbiotically (translation: needs less food by far).

Aquarists have often reported Fungia eating whole 2" mushroom anemones (corallimorphs!) caught in the drift... while you'd be lucky if you could get a Heliofungia to accept even a 1/4" chunk of food.

Still... to proffer a "rule": the hungry zooplankton feeders like many of the LPS corals can/should be fed an array of meats of marine origin which shold be finely minced (1/4" or smaller). Mysids, gammurus, pacifica plankton, krill, etc. Very few corals should be fed larger chunks of prey... although many sting and draw it in... most will regurgitate it later and your animal will starve to your surprise.

Best regards, Anthony

[Mr Neutron]

My long tentacle plate takes 1/2" pieces of silversides on a regular basis. Seems to enjoy the meal.

[Anthony Calfo]

Mr Neutron...

For the sake of brevity, I did not go into detail regarding the danger of feeding oversized prey to cnidarians.

I'm not sure if you wanted advice on why it is bad/dangerous or just wanted to share an observation ("[mine] seems to enjoy the meal.")

1/2" is really not a far cry from 1/4" so debating the point would be picking bones (pardon the pun ) at this point.

Still... do verify that you actually see the production of dark stringy excrement after such large meals and never a white/grey mucousal regurgent (unfortunately this happens in the we dark hours of the night and is quickly scavenged by detritavores large and small).

The real danger is in feeding actual chunks of meat (pieces and whole shrimp, whole silversides, feeder fishes, etc).

With kind regards,

Anthony