Plate coral spliting?

[tanner86]

Can anyone tell me if my plate coral is hungry, spliting, or dying? The mouth on it is getting wider and wider over the past couple of days. I have seen it eat flake and mysis. I tried to feed it silverside the other day but didn't take to it.
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[drnecropolis]

As far as I know plates dont split...They drop small frags, usually before they reciede(sp) back all the way..Kinda a surivival mechanism I suppose..

 

[tanner86]

What do you mean by drop small frags? How would I know one way or the other? Is there something I should be looking for on the plate specifically?

 

[linda lee]

Recommend sending a PM to either Melissa or Big D ... both have plates that have dropped frags.

 

[drnecropolis]

I suppose like shrooms do, mine have never done it, like small replicas of itself, small little plates. In the morning I will post pics of my orange short tenticle. Do you guys frown upon build threads? I am starting to convert my 180 aggresive tank back into a reef, I thought it would be intresting to show my progress. Just don't want to step on any toes since I am new. Planning on joining ARC soon as I get my paypal fixed!

 

[piznac]

Personally I love build threads,...

 

[cgill311]

My plate is in the process of dropping 4 little ones. I'll get a pick when I'm home.

 

[lorenk]

The mouth is what would concern me...I'd call that 'gaping'. Did you check on wetwebmedia?

 

[tanner86]

LorenK;94184 wrote: The mouth is what would concern me...I'd call that 'gaping'. Did you check on wetwebmedia?

I'll check that now. The mouth concerned me b/c the white part is skeleton.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

To me, that looks bad. It looks like the live tissue is sloughing off the skeleton. What type of flow do you have this thing under? What type of light?

 

[linda lee]

Could the plate be trying to expel or dislodge something?

I have a huge plate like that which will *gape* when it eats something large. Occasionally, it will open its mouth back up and spit something out. Refusing food (silverside) might indicate that it wants something *out* and not *in*.

Wonder if it would help to use a turkey baster directed at the open mouth to gently flush it a bit?

 

[darren24]

I have the same plate / same size. Never seen the mouth like that. Could something in the tank be trying to salvage food from it?

 

[tanner86]

jmaneyapanda;94219 wrote: To me, that looks bad. It looks like the live tissue is sloughing off the skeleton. What type of flow do you have this thing under? What type of light?

The plate is under the Solaris H4 and the flow is medium. I have another plate right next to it doing great.

 

[tanner86]

Linda Lee;94222 wrote: Could the plate be trying to expel or dislodge something?

I have a huge plate like that which will *gape* when it eats something large. Occasionally, it will open its mouth back up and spit something out. Refusing food (silverside) might indicate that it wants something *out* and not *in*.

Wonder if it would help to use a turkey baster directed at the open mouth to gently flush it a bit?

I can try a turkey baster and flush out the mouth and see what happens. Today it looks like one side of the plate is receeded and showing skeleton. The mouth is still wide open. I guess time will tell if it is dying or multiplying.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

I have seen plates (especially deeper water ones like cycloseris sp.) do that as a response to too much light. Try putting it in a more shaded area.