Are these baby corals

[cci[RR]us]

Hi,

I noticed that some funny greyish stuff collected on my sandbed as well as on my LRs. At first I thought they were fish shit, but upon closer examination, they are alive!

The way some of them move, resemble the tentacles of my plate anemone.

Below are pictures of the collection of weird stuff:

Notice the purple spots? I don't think fish shit would have those.

Here's one that fluorescent under the presence of my 9W actinic lamp:

I suspect that these are baby plate corals because I have a big plate coral that is doing very, very well. It fluorescent the same way as my plate coral too.

Can anyone confirm this?

[sunny03]

just keep it maybe you will have mini plates in no time

[mabro]

Good luck......

[flubberina13]

Those are unique.

Anyway, have you observed any peculiar 'behaviour' of your plate coral prior to the appearance of this?

If it has been releasing some 'egg-like' stuff akin to spawning and if your water is nutrient-rich, then most probably.

But usually at first sight, they shouldn't be so big.

And you have not mentioned abt your tank parameters and lighting, so we can only do guesstimation.

[cci[RR]us]

My plate coral seems very healthy. Its tentacles are always fully extended during the photo period. I feed it with mysid shrimps everyday, and it will eat them all. In the morning, there will be brown shit coming out of the coral. Healthy digestive system?

I'm running 1 x 55W PL 10,000K and 1 x 9W Actinic. The light is good as my anemone and plate corals are happy, and my rocks are infested with green and red leafy algae.

I do have multiple patches of purple coraline algae growing on my tank walls and my newly acquired powerhead. Another sign of a healthy tank?

The tank is cooled with a 80mm fan running at 5V, 24/7. It is skimmed with a Jebo 180 skimmer. There is a pack of biohome at the corner of my tank. I have a deep sand bed of at least 3 inch.

I have 2 maroon clowns, 2 firefish 2 turbo snails only.

No nutrient supplements. Bi-weekly natural seawater changes.

Heh, any clues?

[FuEl]

Plate corals don't reproduce by dropping their tentacles. My guess would be your maroon clowns have been nipping off the tentacles. They do that to anemones too, not suprised if they do it on plate corals.

[damienkee]

IMO, juz keep it 1st lor, c e result later lor! coz now every1 can guess only!

i heard some reefer oso got the plate coral reproduce in their tank! then they sell it pretty cheap!

[barnacle]

those are tentacles of your plate coral,

believed your fish nip at it...

[RAV-65]

Bro... thet moved? how you know they are alive??

[giantbicycle]

Plate corals don't reproduce by dropping their tentacles. My guess would be your maroon clowns have been nipping off the tentacles. They do that to anemones too, not suprised if they do it on plate corals.

Agree..

[angmoh]

tentacles dropping off ? and how big is ur tank ?

[Lester]

cool man

[cci[RR]us]

tentacles dropping off ? and how big is ur tank ?

Mine's a 2 feet tank (60cm x 30cm x 30cm).

I don't know what are all these weird stuff, but they do appear to be decomposing. Previously when I had said "they were alive", I meant the mini tentacles were seen "curling". This is not due to the water current. In particular, 3 mini tentacles were curling downwards, then side ways, then uncurl, then curl back... if it was due to the currents, then the movements shouldn't be that unpredictable. I don't have fancy wave makers that generate chaotic currents, thus my anemone and plate coral all sway in 1 uniform direction. None of them curl downwards.

But anyway, I don't think those stuff are baby plate corals. I noticed that the spots on the weird stuff are PURPLE while my plate coral is green with white tips; there is not a spot of purple on my plate coral. Next, my anemone is a white sebae anemone with purple tips. So, it makes more sense to guess that the weird stuff are the nipped tentacles of my white, purple-tipped anemone, even though nobody has caught my clowns in the act!

[Dazza]

flatworms?

[thecoralscove]

think its unlikely that these are baby corals.