Description
The Orange Plate Coral is a lovely, cheerfully-colored variety of the relatively hard-to-find Plate Corals that originate from the Indo Pacific, including Norther Australia. Plate Corals are found free living within the rubble zones of the reef, and have the ability to inflate themselves to both maximize light exposure, and to keep from being covered in sand.
The Orange Plate Coral is a solitary, semi-aggressive coral with shorter tentacles than its cousin the Long Tentacle Plate Coral (Fungia sp.). However, even with short tentacles, the Orange Plate Coral can still damage other corals it comes into contact. For placement in the aquarium, keep in mind that the Orange Plate Coral will often inflate itself with water and expand to twice its size so take extra precaution to put ample space between neighboring corals. The Orange Plate Coral will do best placed on the bottom of a reef aquarium, preferably lying on a fine sandy substrate.
The Orange Plate Coral is easy to maintain in the reef aquarium and makes an excellent candidate for the beginner reef aquarist. Care should be taken in handling it however, to prevent damage. The Orange Plate Coral requires moderate lighting achieved by T-5s, powerful LEDs or the more intense metal halides combined with low to medium water movement within the aquarium. For continued good health, the Orange Plate Coral will benefit from the addition of calcium, strontium, iodine, magnesium and trace elements to the water column.
The Orange Plate Coral satisfies the majority of its nutritional requirements by means of photosynthetic, symbiotic zooxanthellae algae hosted within its body. However, it will benefit from supplemental feedings in the form of zooplankton and brine or mysis shrimp.
