yveterinarian
Super Active Member
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2012
- Location
- Innerkip, Ontario
A few years ago, when I was first setting up in the reef hobby I bought a frag with some zoanthids on it. After a few months the zoanthids died but I was left with a tiny, pinhead size, neon green speck that I wasn't sure was good or bad. I let it grow a bit and managed to take a picture of it magnified through the little extra magnified bubble of a magnifying glass and zoomed in on the macro setting of my camera. To get an idea of perspective, the sand in this photo is the small aragonite sand.
I posted for an ID back then but we were never too sure... here is is back then in January 2013. We thought it could be a mushroom of some sort or a plate coral
I thought I would post some pictures of its progress over the years from this tiny speck
Here it is in March 2013
It decided to split into 3 distinct corals so I glued it onto a rock.
In September 2013 it began looking a little bigger but I still wasn't sure if it was a plate or a mushroom
Here it is beside my garden eel to give you some perspective of its size and now the sand looks quite small compared to it.
In December of 2015 it still hadn't grown much but was about the size of a loonie for each head. The skeleton was hard so my verdict was a plate.
This past year the head on the right began growing exponentially and soon overshadowed the one on the left. It became so heavy that it broke off of the main stem 2 weeks ago and suddenly the smaller one was able to get light and food. There are two more growing on that stem that I wasn't aware of.
Here is the large one on the sand. It now measures over 5 inches across when it is extended and has a purple mouth. This one was taken last week...
I put it down too close to the glass because it wasn't extended when I placed it. I thought it would have lots of room but now I will need to move it to give it more space.
Here is the one left behind when the main one broke off. The largest of them is still about the size of a loonie. The stem the main one broke off of is showing at the front with three other plates growing around it.
Yesterday, I looked at this cluster of plates and noticed that a new plate is forming on the broken stem so there are now 4 plates
Even though I can't grow zoanthids I must be doing something this plate likes. It has been almost 4 years since I first saw the little pinhead size speck and now it is a beautiful 5 inch plate. What an amazing hobby we have!
I posted for an ID back then but we were never too sure... here is is back then in January 2013. We thought it could be a mushroom of some sort or a plate coral
I thought I would post some pictures of its progress over the years from this tiny speck
Here it is in March 2013
It decided to split into 3 distinct corals so I glued it onto a rock.
In September 2013 it began looking a little bigger but I still wasn't sure if it was a plate or a mushroom
Here it is beside my garden eel to give you some perspective of its size and now the sand looks quite small compared to it.
In December of 2015 it still hadn't grown much but was about the size of a loonie for each head. The skeleton was hard so my verdict was a plate.
This past year the head on the right began growing exponentially and soon overshadowed the one on the left. It became so heavy that it broke off of the main stem 2 weeks ago and suddenly the smaller one was able to get light and food. There are two more growing on that stem that I wasn't aware of.
Here is the large one on the sand. It now measures over 5 inches across when it is extended and has a purple mouth. This one was taken last week...
I put it down too close to the glass because it wasn't extended when I placed it. I thought it would have lots of room but now I will need to move it to give it more space.
Here is the one left behind when the main one broke off. The largest of them is still about the size of a loonie. The stem the main one broke off of is showing at the front with three other plates growing around it.
Yesterday, I looked at this cluster of plates and noticed that a new plate is forming on the broken stem so there are now 4 plates
Even though I can't grow zoanthids I must be doing something this plate likes. It has been almost 4 years since I first saw the little pinhead size speck and now it is a beautiful 5 inch plate. What an amazing hobby we have!
