coral ID please..

[juice28]

ok ive looked around and have not found out what this is..multiple forums, WWM, etc i got this zoa frag covered in pretty orange red and blue zoas and then this..thing popped up. i noticed it after about 4 mths but it was tiny so i assumed it was a zoa..after about 6 mths all the zoas turned green and yellow and they they starting to disappear from around it as it grew and eventually killed every zoa on the rock, this lil guy has quite a sting! mushrooms, bubble coral, even a small galaxia frag backed up, good thing is it doesnt have the long sweepers. at first i thing it was a manjano when it was small but i noticed it appeared to have a skeleton...so i decided to keep it.. after bout 2 years it is about the size of half dollar maybe a bit bigger..and it is most deff not a manjano.. it actually has a hard skeleton sorry the pics arent the greatest.. its awkward to photograph

 

[teresaq]

look up fungia or plate coral

 

[juice28]

its not a fungi, the skeleton is completely different and its branchy..looks kinda like a trumpet coral skeleton but with taller thinner skeletal ridges. If you look at pic 1 you cant see the rock its growing out of, but in the second pic you can see the acro skeleton that im holding. the polyp actually expands like 3-4 times the size of the skeleton. if you look at the last pic which a perfect profile shot, you can see the skeleton..as it curves down and to the right and attaches down at the base of the rock. its the yellowish part thats running down the center of the rock..

 

[spanko]

It is a fungia plate coral propagation site. Leave it alone. It will eventually fall off of there and another will grow in its place.

 

[teresaq]

Spanko, thats what i was thinking, but could not remember what it was called. I have seen these before, in other posts. The babies grow from there, get bigger, and fall off, then another baby grows.

 

[spanko]

Yup.

 

[juice28]

well its been growing for over a year and has not gotten any bigger..

 

[spanko]

Here is a picture from another poster of her plate site.

Here is when one of them detached.

And what the propagation site looks like after detachment.

These pictures are from Diane (c est ma) at NR in her thread here. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=127089
here is another earlier one.

 

[kiefers]

so.... when the coral detaches do they continue to live and grow again or do they die once detached? (i know Henry.....I should look it up.) I'm on it. Lol...

 

[spanko]

No it lives and grows is how they propagate. The OP is very lucky to have a site like this. Depending on his environment it could become a source of some revenue for him selling fungia plates.