Heliofungia

[atavus]

I picked up a heliofungia a little over three weeks ago. I initially looked at liveaquaria.com for the care before purchase. However, a bit more reading has me confused. liveaquaria says it's a good beginner coral, however others say it's more like a goniopora and will eventually crash. I've seen comments saying they'll stay extended all the time, some say they'll retract at night.

I know pretty much everything in this hobby has multiple views, but what's the normal behavior and appearance of a healthy Heliofungia?

Mine is on sandy substrate, extends and inflates during the day and closes up at night. The tentacles get to be somewhere around 8" long during the day, I'd guess the skeleton is about 6". During the day it gets 2-3x the size it is at night, but never enough to start wondering. The mouth is rarely open. 2x a week I target feed a bit of frozen cyclops. There aren't any obvious signs of distress, all the tentacles extend and there's no bare skeleton. I don't really have anything that makes me concerned just yet, I'm mainly just curious what is normal for this guy.

My porcelain crab has decided that it's an anemone and taken up residence at the outskirts of the coral.

 

[Dr. Dee]

This is a good coral site mybe it will help you some

http://www.asira.org/fungiidae

 

[russellaqua]

I've never had a problem with Heliofungia. Just be careful not to let anything press down on it as they have very sharp skeletons that will cut their flesh. Once this happens they very commonly die. They can also get huge, up to 1.5-2 feet in the wild. I've never seen one so large in captivity though. They are mainly photosynthetic, so the mouth not being open doesn't really bother me. Sometimes I've given them krill right at their mouth and had it pop open, but in my experience they don't eat much solid food.

 

[returnofsid]

I'm not sure how Heliofungia compare to Fungia plate corals. Mine is very new to my tank, but appears very happy and eats A LOT!!! I suppose that's because I tend to enjoy spot feeding most of my LPS. As Russell mentioned, they do have sharp skeletons so it's critical that they're positioned correctly. Some are more able to rid themselves of detritus and sand than others. Those that are more able, should be placed on soft substrate. Those that aren't as able, should be placed in a more rubbly area, or area where they're less likely to get detritus or sand built up on them.

Interestingly, Fungia are actually able to move around the tank by inflating the tentacles on the underside of them. Some are actually also able to right themselves if turned over and many can also move "uphill" at a fairly steep incline. Not sure, but I believe this to be true of Heliofungia as well. Because of this ability to move, and because they can put out some pretty nasty stings, watch carefully if they get too close to other corals.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Agree with others - I've had both Heliofungia and fungia and they behaved the same. Your behavior sounds normal. They can, and will, move on you. Mine met their premature death because they moved themselves into a bad fall line off my rock and snails would drop onto them and damage the flesh. As russelaqua mentioned, once the flesh gets damaged, they go downhill fast. I think that's why they get the reputation of a goniopora type coral. When they're healthy, they're a good hardy beginner coral. But once they get the least bit damaged, they become very difficult to keep.

You also might try a meatier food like mysis, or small chopped up clam. Mine seemed to like mysis quite a bit!