Plate coral “fragging”?

[RonS]

A while back I posted regarding a fungia I had that I thought was dead. It has since come back strong, along with many babies.

I’m looking for guidance on how to get the babies off of the rock and onto plugs. Some google searches lead me to comments on R2R that they “basically come off on their own”. Not very helpful...

Does anyone have experience with this? Can you shed light on them “coming off on their own”? Does this mean they are easy to remove when they are ready, or that I should be on the lookout for them to be randomly floating around the tank? : )

Thanks, all!

—Ron

 

[bigd]

I’ve had 2 plate “trees” over the years. Basically the same thing you’ve got, except mine had several stems on a rock that would generate the plates. They would form as softer tissue first, and then their skeleton disc would form. At that point, I could pop them off. They were normally around the size of a dime when they were ready. As far as putting them on a plug, I wouldn’t recommend it. They should be fine on the sand bed once they’ve developed.

 

[RonS]

I’ve had 2 plate “trees” over the years. Basically the same thing you’ve got, except mine had several stems on a rock that would generate the plates. They would form as softer tissue first, and then their skeleton disc would form. At that point, I could pop them off. They were normally around the size of a dime when they were ready. As far as putting them on a plug, I wouldn’t recommend it. They should be fine on the sand bed once they’ve developed.

Ah!! NOW I get it!!! It's been so long since I saw the parent's disc that I forgot about it. D'oh!

Thank you!!!!

--Ron