Fungia Plate coral placement

[Julius]

I know most people will recommend putting fungia plate coral on a sand substrate but I have seen them in the wild and they are never on a sand bottom but just wedged in between other corals.
Why do they do better on sand bottoms?

 

[CG1]

Put it where you please - it can and will move if he doesn't like the location. I have a green plate that I placed rather high on my reef and within a week he was on the sand. Just be careful not to place it near other corals as he will sting them -- also, keep in mind that he will puff himself up with water and have a further reach than you may think.

I think they migrate to the sand because they do not like strong currents nor strong lighting.

 

[Len]

I've seen photos of wild Fungia sp. on both loose and rocky substrate. Per my experiences, they seem to do fine on anything stable. I'm not sure they do better on sandy bottoms; I think people prefer putting them there as it's one of the few and best coral choices to put directly on top of sandbeds.

 

[Julius]

When I lived in hawaii, I always seen them among the branches of porites compressata. Len, I think oyur explanation makes the most sense of why we are putting them on sand bottoms.

 

[Len]

FWIW, I saw a HUGE gathering of Fungia (at least 50 polyps) on the sandbed when I was in Palau, but I've seen many photos of them on rocky substrates too.

 

[bleedingthought]

This is a little off topic, but I'm wondering what makes fungia plates display longer tentacles. I've seen some that go as much as 5-6" long tentacles (definitely fungia) while mine only displays up to 1/2" or so. Sometimes I've asked the LFS owners about the "longer tentacle" fungia that are in their display and they'll tell me "they're just very happy in there" which doesn't explain to me why they're displaying this behavior. Anyone? :?

P.S. I like my fungia on the sandbed.

 

[pscheel]

Heliofungia are the ones with longer tentacles

 

[SnowManSnow]

there r long and short 1s

 

[SnowManSnow]

there r long and short 1s

 

[SnowManSnow]

there r long and short 1s

 

[bleedingthought]

I'm not talking about heliofungias. I thought I mentioned that. I might have been a little too vague with the naming. :?