AQSstudent
Community Member
Hello everyone, I'm curious about potential ectoparasites that may be known to inhabit corals of the genus Fungia.
Every night, the orange plate coral appears to have a darker orange/brown spot appear on it - looking at it close up it almost looks like a flatworm of some sort, except the spot overall is about 1.5'' long and .75'' wide, which seems far too large to be any type of flatworm to be found on a coral.
This "spot" or "raised patch" completely disappears during the day, and upon inspection of the coral, it doesn't appear that it (whatever it is) moves underneath the coral, although my relatively untrained eyes may not be searching for the right clues.
Does anybody have any potential insight? I have not dipped the coral in any sort of "coral dip" chemical, aside from a somewhat heavy iodine dose when I first purchased the animal three months ago. I have not tried to dip the coral again, or physically tamper with this "patch" for fear of damaging the relatively delicate tissue.
Coral during the day:
Coral at night, with the "patch" present:
Every night, the orange plate coral appears to have a darker orange/brown spot appear on it - looking at it close up it almost looks like a flatworm of some sort, except the spot overall is about 1.5'' long and .75'' wide, which seems far too large to be any type of flatworm to be found on a coral.
This "spot" or "raised patch" completely disappears during the day, and upon inspection of the coral, it doesn't appear that it (whatever it is) moves underneath the coral, although my relatively untrained eyes may not be searching for the right clues.
Does anybody have any potential insight? I have not dipped the coral in any sort of "coral dip" chemical, aside from a somewhat heavy iodine dose when I first purchased the animal three months ago. I have not tried to dip the coral again, or physically tamper with this "patch" for fear of damaging the relatively delicate tissue.
Coral during the day:
Coral at night, with the "patch" present:
