Fungia has daughter colonies...help!!!!

[Timothy McCandless]

I have a fungia skeleton that has several daughter colonies popping up on it.
If anyone has any experience with fungiia's reproducing in this manner I would appreciate any advice that you might have.
My main concern is whether the daughter colonies will drop off of the skeleton and when I might be able to expect that to happen if so.

Thanks for your help in advance,
Tim McCandless

[scubadude]

Hey Tim :)
You going to the meeting tommorow? Russell is well versed in propagating these I believe and Im sure he will tell you anything you want to know. Congratulations, how bout some pics?

Rocky

[Carlos]

They are not fungias. Actually, there is another coral that lives in the fungia skeleton and grows a few months after a fungia has died. Anthony presented this at MACNA but I cannot remember the name of the coral. He said, for some unexplained reason, a few months after a fungia died, these polyps will start growing out of the skeleton. You might want to post this question in his forum to get the right name.

Carlos

[smpolyp]

GOAWDZUKS!!!! Another coral??? As far as the Fungia that I have done and seen I have seen relative trates on mushroom fields and after. I fully respect Anthony and am not bashing him in any way I would like to discuss this further.

[smpolyp]

Ok I looked at the two dead skeletons I have. They look like they are similar. It may be hard to say one may be from another clutch since I have been working on two. But I am willing to sumit any offspring from the original at any stage of growth to see the results. Rocky the small skeleton I showed you may or may not be the same as the one that has had all the offspring. I have the original one that grew out of the rock that I showed you in the pics. Other than that the little one is the only one that died that I have to look for compar.

[scubadude]

Russel I am more intrigued by this since last nite when I saw your system and your cultured fungias (or whatever they are) I will try and drag Mr. Calfo into here and see what he says....You have some pics you can post by any chance? Man I wish I would have brought my dig cam last nite.....You have the sweetest fungias (here again whatever they are) that I have seen, and the best part about it is your culturing them! I do vaguely remember Anthony mentioning something to this nature (what carlos said) now that he has brought it up. Remember when we were talking about how the baby skeletons looked concaved, and the adult skeleton looked convexed?

[Anthony Calfo]

Rocky (Scubadude!) thanks for alerting me to this thread to help/input. A pleasure to do so.

Tim... very cool coral and event going on there in your tank. :)

Carlos... you are close, my friend, but a bit mistaken. I trust that after three days at MACNA, your brain was full like the rest of us and didn't get all of the information :p I might have been chatting too fast too... a high speed presentation!

The fungia is producing daughter colonies of called anthocauli. These "baby" Fungia are formed by the fascinating decalcification of the parent and will continue to be formed for many months (even years!). In time they break off and become proper free-living colonies like the parent is/was. The parent will continue to produce these clones from either side of its corallum. They will break off on their own in time (months) but most aquariums have poor water flow and as such, growth and liberation take longer.

I wrote an article for FAMA with Steve Pro on possible anthocauli production in Trachyphyllia (open brain coral). This article is also on wetwebmedia.com here:

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

INCIDENTALLY... as an author that makes his living as a content provider... let me take this opportunity to mention that I have not been paid for this article despite the fact that it was accepted early 2002 and printed last Fall! Hmmm... I guess I should not complain as so many of the familair authors that we were used to seeing in FAMA do not write for them anymore as they too were owed compensation long overdue. Its unfortunate really. Someone should say something about it :D

Best regards to all

[smpolyp]

Thanks Anthony. I was so amazed when I heard this. Mainly because I have seen the same traits from the original mother coral down to 3,4,5 generation.

[Timothy McCandless]

Anthony,

Thank you for your reply and thanks you for writing a great book.

Thanks again,
Tim McCandless

[Anthony Calfo]

Thanks kindly fellas! And I will look forward to visiting the Floridians very soon... just after the dust settles bringing the new book to press here this month wityh Fenner.

I've been chatting with that nut Rocky Herman to come down for a spell :D

Please don't hesitate to call on me if anyone ever wants a shared opinion. Like you, aquaristics is my passion :)

Best regards,

Anthony

[jnb]

I am sort of new with specific corals - I have an orange fungia - a recent adoption - and became really surprised that it is sending out one or two long clear looking - I'll call them tentacles - they let them out and reel them in - over and over - all of this at night and I never expected this -

so is this common to this guy - and are the tentacles (correct my term if you can) stingers so that I have to manage their path with a current - they are more than a foot long

none of the others mentioned are doing this



Originally posted by Timothy McCandless
I have a fungia skeleton that has several daughter colonies popping up on it.
If anyone has any experience with fungiia's reproducing in this manner I would appreciate any advice that you might have.
My main concern is whether the daughter colonies will drop off of the skeleton and when I might be able to expect that to happen if so.

Thanks for your help in advance,
Tim McCandless

[Linkia]

jnick
I had a similar looking creature on my orange cycloceris (fungia). If you look closely at where the tentacles are coming from I think you will find a small translucent flat worm looking creature. Mine lived on the bottom of the coral most of the time. I just resently identified it a little better as a coeloplana ctenophore. There is not much literature out on them, but they seem to be harmless from what I have read. Just watch the coral closely for signs of deteriorating health and make sure it is getting fed regularly.

[jnb]

thanks - I have not fed mine at all - what do you feed yours? I assumked he was pulling things from the waterc column and getting whatever comes of have the right lighting. ;. He does have a big mouth I've noticed so I need to know what works for you. thanks again

Originally posted by Linkia
jnick
I had a similar looking creature on my orange cycloceris (fungia). If you look closely at where the tentacles are coming from I think you will find a small translucent flat worm looking creature. Mine lived on the bottom of the coral most of the time. I just resently identified it a little better as a coeloplana ctenophore. There is not much literature out on them, but they seem to be harmless from what I have read. Just watch the coral closely for signs of deteriorating health and make sure it is getting fed regularly.

[Linkia]

I just feed him the same foods as fish, small meaty foods like mysis, chopped shrimp or pieces of the cubed formulas.

[ratboy]

I have 2 fungia skeltons that started putting out buds after spending a year or so in my live rock culture tank. I have some that got as big as a quarter when inflated but if I break them off the skeleton is still too small to keep the coral form blowing away. They got slightly damaged in my tank move but have been recovering and both are putting out new daughter colonies. I have 1 other fungia skeleton that I aquaired over the years but that one has not put out any buds. Is this type of reproduction common in other coral species??

[DanielT]

I have a friends who's funghia started popping out little funghias too.....it's been like that for over the year and he already has over 80 funghias. As soon as the little funghias start to pop out e brakes them apart and puts them in the sand. Once thay start to get bigger he just breaks the the central foot under the funghia and another funghia comes out of that. I'll post some pictures soon.

[eameres]

Hey, where are those pictures? My recently deceased fungia's skeleton just started doing, this and I've been fretting over what to do next!

And to think, I almost removed the skeleton from the tank!

Eric.

[biomekanic]

Originally posted by Anthony Calfo
I wrote an article for FAMA with Steve Pro on possible anthocauli production in Trachyphyllia (open brain coral). This article is also on wetwebmedia.com here:

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


No maybies about it, I have one in my tank right now.


INCIDENTALLY... as an author that makes his living as a content provider... let me take this opportunity to mention that I have not been paid for this article despite the fact that it was accepted early 2002 and printed last Fall! Hmmm... I guess I should not complain as so many of the familair authors that we were used to seeing in FAMA do not write for them anymore as they too were owed compensation long overdue. Its unfortunate really. Someone should say something about it :D

Best regards to all [/B]

That sucks!