A reader requested a Fungia rescue story, so here you go! I received this essentially dead Fungia coral on 12 January 2019, and I wanted to see if I could see Fungia coral reproduction in the form of anthocauli.
Anthocauli are essentially tiny clones from the parent coral that may form when the parent is stressed or dying in a final attempt to reproduce. Extremely small amounts of Fungia tissue appear capable of re-growing into full-sized corals. When the anthocauli are removed from the parent skeleton, new anthocauli may even regrow from that spot! One parent skeleton can act as a Fungia farm, constantly regrowing babies. How cool is that?
A good way to search for anthocauli is with a UV-light, as the babies may fluoresce.
Unfortunately, months went by with no sign of life. Eventually I placed it into an unused dark corner of my tank as a sad reminder of a failure – and encouragement to learn and try again.
Fungia Coral Anthocauli:
The skeleton was covered in various forms of algae and had no sign of tissue whatsoever for months. I had lost all hope, but I still happened to check on the coral occasionally. Eventually I saw this (the red circles) on 24 October 2019. There were new anthocauli – baby Fungia plate corals! It had reproduced after all!
As of 19 June 2020, three anthocauli remain. Unfortunately a bout with Lyngbia killed the others. Hopefully these three will continue to grow!
The timeline for this one example was 10 months, from decay to anthocauli presence. Had I not had the Lyngbia, I imagine the babies would be larger (and more would remain). I’d love to hear your experience with dying Fungia coral reproduction with anthocauli down in the comments – how long did it take yours to appear?
Check out another Fungia coral rehabilitation here!
