Fungia Rehabilitation

Here is part II of the Fungia rehabilitation story request! The previous post focused on Fungia reproduction (anthocauli) that formed after the coral died. This one will focus on coral recovery.

This Fungia was stung, and I took it home on 29 December 2012.

By 26 January 2012, the coral was regrowing over its old skeleton. At this point, I decided to trim the remaining skeleton.

This coral loved to ingest sand – I assume this was to filter out food. Notice the sand particles along the body of the coral. The coral would move the sand particles onto its body, use its tentacles and inflate its body to move the particles to its mouth, and then dump the sand onto the other side. (30 June 2012)

Even after a year later (6 January 2013), the coral had not regrown its circular shape. In fact, it had not done much of anything.

Here it is on 16 June 2013. Notice how the mouth appears to be moving outward (the sides are now becoming more acute than obtuse). This is opposite behavior from what I expected.

I can’t say that I’m thrilled with this recovery, especially after a year and a half. Maybe next time I’ll leave the skeleton alone to see what happens. But, a lop-sided coral is better than a dead coral any day!