Long-tentacle plate coral

Care at a glance

Overview

The long-tentacle plate coral is a genuinely aggressive coral, despite its soft, anemone-like look. It lies loose on the sand and needs a keeper with some reef experience.

Caring for the long-tentacle plate coral

Set a long-tentacle plate coral on open sand, not rock, where its thick tissue and long tentacles will not tear. Give it moderate to fairly bright light, roughly 80 to 150 PAR. Keep the flow moderate and indirect, since strong current can flip or shift a free-living disc more than is good for it. An unhappy specimen will slowly shuffle itself to a new spot, so leave it wherever it settles.

Keep it in a tank of at least 11 gal (40 L). Hold the water at 75 to 81°F (24 to 27°C) with a pH of 8.1 to 8.4.

It is photosynthetic and hosts zooxanthellae, and it is also an eager feeder. Offer brine shrimp, mysis and other small meaty foods, ideally at night when the tentacles are fully out. Regular feeding on top of what its zooxanthellae provide keeps it looking full and healthy.

Its long tentacles carry a real sting and can kill tissue on any coral they can reach. Keep at least 6 inches of open space around it. As a single free-living polyp, it is not fragged like branching or plating corals, and deliberate propagation is essentially unheard of in the hobby.

Good to know

Heliofungia actiniformis is a solitary large polyp stony coral in the family Fungiidae, the same family as Fungia. Its long, thick, anemone-like tentacles stay extended even in daylight, the main visual difference between the two. It can inflate its tissue with water until it looks almost twice its resting size.

In the wild

Heliofungia actiniformis lives on shallow reef slopes and flats across the Indo-Pacific, usually less than 25 m down. Its range runs from the eastern Indian Ocean across Indonesia and the Philippines to northern Australia, Japan and the West Pacific island groups. There it rests loose on sand or rubble.

Common questions

Related species

• 

  Plate coral

  Fungia

  7.9 in (20 cm) · 11 gal (40 L)

  7.9 in (20 cm)11 gal (40 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Slipper coral

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  15.7 in (40 cm) · 40 gal (150 L)

  15.7 in (40 cm)40 gal (150 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Mobile plate coral

  Cycloseris

  3.1 in (8 cm) · 20 gal (75 L)

  3.1 in (8 cm)20 gal (75 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  War coral

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  9.8 in (25 cm) · 20 gal (75 L)

  9.8 in (25 cm)20 gal (75 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Galaxy coral

  Galaxea

  11.8 in (30 cm) · 20 gal (75 L)

  11.8 in (30 cm)20 gal (75 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Brain coral (Favia)

  Favia

  7.9 in (20 cm) · 20 gal (75 L)

  7.9 in (20 cm)20 gal (75 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)