plate coral looking sad...

[nobby]

hi all
sorry if this is a same old type of post, but i did a search and couldnt find anything that matched.

my plate coral is looking a bit sad, its a short tenticled green plate
(Fungia dahni) which has been looking a bit sad for a while.
now its retracted right into its skeleton which is showing all around, it does come out again sometimes during the day, and extends a few tenticles, but not for long.
how do you know when a plate is too far gone?
any ideas on what i can do to help it?
tank readings are 80gals( with sump)100lbs approx l/r, ph 8.2, ammo 0, nitrite 0, nitrate >5, temp 26c,
calcium 400ppm via reactor.
lighting is 1 40w blue vho, 1 40w 10k vho, 1 40w 20k vho, 1 10k 150w halide.
tank is skimmed by a prism, and a carlupra algae bed in sump lit 24/7.

i think thats everything.
cheers

[MontanaRocknReefer]

Hi nobby! The following link has alot of info on the care of Fungia species.
http://www.aquarium.net/0897/0897_1.shtml

[carolina98]

Hi Nobby,

I'm no expert, but can share our experience with a long tentacle plate. He thrived in our system for over a year before we reaquascaped our tank, and added some sand.

Soon after the change, I noticed the plate not coming out like before, or blowing up with water to exchange like in the past. What we discovered was that the tissue on the plate corals is very thin, and tears easily. Once lacerated, the tissue rapidly recedes, and the plate almost never makes it (sorry to give you that bad news). Evidently, we had bumped him against a piece of live rock during the move... and, from that point he just went South. We were told that once placed in the tank, the plate should be left in his original "home," or at the very least handled very, very gently.

I'm not sure if this is what happened to your plate coral, but very likely, as your tank parameters all look good. Maybe you could try a dip with some diluted Lugols (very stong iodine), and hope for the best. But, by the time we discovered what had actually happened to ours, it was too late. Just a note, but he was eating targeted food right up until the end. Do you feed your plate?

[toms]

Hi Nobby,

I feel your pain. I am going through the exact same situation with my year old plate coral. Everything that carolina98 wrote describes exactly what is happening to me. It still eats like it always has but never really extends it tentacles like before.

Currently I am proceding with the hope and wait treatment.

Tom

[carolina98]

Gosh you guys, I'm sorry for you. I know just how you feel. But on the bright side, thanks to these Reef Forums maybe someone else with a plate coral will read about this, and try to prevent the same thing happening to them. Don't give up. Try the dip, it could be that you catch it in time. I'm crossing my fingers for you!

Do what you can, and hope for the best. One of my favorite sayings is: "If you think you can, you can... if you think you can't, you can't. Either way, you're right." (Henry Ford (?), I think. :santa: )

Good luck, and Happy Holidays Everybody!
Connie

[nobby]

hi guys
thanks for the link, ill give that a good read right now.
i have tried feeding the plate recently, but it didnt take anything, now i can see right down the hole that made the mouth.
it used to love prawn and silversides, but refuses everything now.
ill try the iodine dip, i have a lot of iodine in dry pure powder how much would you add to a litre of ro water to produce a strong mixture??
i just hope its not too late for it.....
thanks for your time
andy

[dotel]

found a few people talking about dip.
how do you go about this? Obviously not in the tank right?

[Buddha]

My plate coral did that for awhile. I helped him get better by stopping feeding him solid foods. Every day I blew phyto into the mouth hole. Slowly he got better.