Feel Confident in Caring for Plate Corals!

Top Shelf Aquatics’ Coral Care Series - Plate Coral For more content: Be our friend: @topshelfaquatics Want to purchase this coral or interested in our other products? These large polyp stony corals belong to the family fungiidae. You’ll most likely encounter three gorgeous varieties. The Cycloseris plate or short tentacle plate coral are most commonly seen in orange and the green but you will be amazed when you lay your eyes upon the bicolor, striped and rainbow color combinations. Their tissue is delicate and can be easily torn. If the plate coral takes a turn for the worse, don’t toss the skeleton just yet because some individuals have the uncanny ability to produce babies, miniature replicas that sprout from the dead skeleton. Plate corals typically are not suitable to be fragged but the diaseris plate can frag itself. This plate coral produces thin breakable ridges within its skeleton. Allowing it to be easily snapped into smaller pieces. The third most common plate coral is the heliofungia or long tentacle plate coral. These corals tend to be more sensitive to changes in water parameters. Making them more suitable to mature reef systems. It is best to keep your plate on the sand bed. The low light environment will have more suitable par, ranging between 50-100. Provide low water flow, just enough to allow the tentacles to sway in the current. If the plate coral happens to get sand on its tissue. They have the ability to inflate and undulate their tissue in order to remove any sediment. Plate corals will happily accept most foods offered. Their mouths can consume a variety of meaty foods. Here at Top Shelf Aquatics we feed PE mysis, Benepets and Fauna Marin LPS Pellets. It is best to turn off the flow while the coral is being fed, because it can take up to 15-20 minutes to consume its entire meal. Watch out for fellow tank inhabitants, as they will happily steal a meal from your plate coral. Music: Sarah Jansen - Moments -