Fungia Factories?

[Greg Hiller]

A while back I aquired a Fungia still attached to a rock. When it broke off and became free living the original
attachment site soon formed a new Fungia. I've since generated several Fungia from this 'factory' (once about
every 6 months), but my greed exceeds this rate of reproduction. I took one of the babies and cut some
grooves in it using a Dremel tool, attempting to completely severe the tissue into some pie shaped sections.
After some time the thing just grew all back together again, but seems to have a few small 'extra' mouths. If I
cut the pieces completely apart with one mouth per piece, are they all likely to survive?

Also, I noticed in the new Veron series a photo of a Fungia that was upside down and a new colony was
growing from the center, still attached to the main colony. Can one just flip any Fungia over and thereby
generate a 'Fungia factory' as the new ones form and fall off one by one?

- Greg Hiller

 

[Mac1]

Hi Greg, I've had the same experience with a piece of LR I thought had a mushroom on it. My Friend was nice enough to point out to me that Mushroom's don't have Skeleton's... Sure enough, broke it off, placed it on the sandbed, it was a Fungia. I've got a little baby started at the point of attachment as well.

- Mac

 

[Chucker]

I'll take the credit for that Mac, thank you very much!

 

[bgdiving]

Greg, I fragged a Fungia and had one type do well while didn't do well with another. The pieces of the one healed over nicely and started to grow but lost it several months later to some other non related cause but don't remember what that was. That was a couple of years ago and have not tried one since. I was fairly new to reef keeping at that time so I would guess you'd do well with fragging one with your experience.

I'm under the impression that you can grow new babies from an upside down Fungia but are likely to sacrifice the parent in the process. I have no experience with growing them upside down just something I read.

Good luck with fragging your Fungia and please keep us posted on your out come.

 

[Clearblue303]

Can someone send some pics of it?
Thanks.FM.

 

[redneck]

IME, the 'Fungia factory' you described is a common phenomena. I have a friend with a similar attached/parent colony which has had several offspring in the last two years. One of which is doing quite well in my tank.

I think the risk is greater than the reward fragging the children, due to infection. You already have a good thing going, be patient!

 

[jamesw]

Greg,

I have seen how fungia asexually reproduce in the wild. It's pretty much how you described. Sometimes, part of the coral will get covered w/ sediment, and a bunch of little "buds" will pop up through the sand from the surface of the mother colony. This might be worth trying.

I don't think physically scoring the coral is really the best way to go about propagating it. Flipping it over is certainly an option.

Unfortunately, this coral usually creates buds when it is in distress...

HTH
James

 

[JeremyR]

FWIW, I was attempting to bust a 2" fungia off a piece of na moli live rock and accidentaly fragmented it into 3 pieces.. all of which survived and are growing. I think the risk is the possibility of infection setting in on the broken tissue.