Trevor, How's the Plate Coral Doing?
 

I guess the subject line says it all. How IS the plate coral doing in your new reef? Is it puffing out every day a few hours after lights on? This is a good sign, BTW.

And how're the star polyps doing? Opening up and waving in the current, even though they've been elasticked to your Tonga branch?

Hope everything is going well in your new reef :smile:

Re: Trevor, How's the Plate Coral Doing?
 

all is going well, the green polyps are looking great I can't wait for them to start growing down and around my branch rock, I think that is going to look so cool :lol:
As far as the plate goes well it does look like it is coming around I have been slowly feeding it and it is plumping up a bit, the fingers (not knowing what they are really called but you all know what I am talking about) are still very stunded and dark brown but I am hoping that it will come to what I have seen on some other pictures on the net. The mouth does open very quickly when I feed the fish.
I am going to take some pictures on of these days so you can see how all is doing.

If anyone out there has tips on how to make a plate coral come back to life please let me know, but I do think that it will come around.

Re: Trevor, How's the Plate Coral Doing?
 

The brown fingers, as you describe them, don't get really long. When healthy and at the size the plate is now, about 2.5 - 3", the fingers will be less than a quarter of an inch long. It's these fingers that catch the food, then move the food toward the mouth.

If it's not plumping up very much, you may need more light. And, really, they don't plump up like, say, a bubble coral or anything, so you may be expecting something from the animal that it wouldn't do anyway.

I am going by this picture that I found on the web...
http://www.aquariumarts.com/fungiasp3.jpeg

has it ever looked like this?
Is it going to ever look like this?[/img]

The fingers were always dark brown and I don't think they will ever be any other colour. There were other coloured plates the same size when I bought the one you now have at AI. They were all rather drab in colour which is why I bought the bright green one.

The puffiness of the photo is what the plate was like when it was in our 7 gal. When it was moved to the 42, sand kept getting swept onto it and it was less puffed up.

Water movement should slightly sway the fingers, and not blow them too much, but there whould be some water movement around the coral.