Long Tentacle Green Plate Coral (Heliofungia actiniformis)
Copyright © 1999, Bill Esposito, All Rights Reserved.

I've been in this hobby for just about 3 months after a 10 year long sabbatical from keeping and raising the African Cichlids of Lake Malawi. I have decided that I am going to keep mostly soft or "swaying"corals since I find their movement in the aquarium very relaxing to watch. The long tentacle plate coral fits this bill perfectly. In appearance it resembles an anemone with it's long pinkish-brown tentacles which are capped with white bubble tips. In fact it is my hope that my Ocellaris clowns host with the plate coral so I wont have to keep an anemone. One feature that is striking about this coral is it's iridescent green body. Under the right combination of lighting it is just beautiful, and almost fake in appearance. The body forms a flat circular plate shape around it skeleton, hence the name. In the center of the plate you will find it's mouth.

When I brought it home from the LFS it was totally contracted as expected and was about 2.5 inches in diameter. I drip acclimated it and released it being careful not to damage it's flesh. The plate coral is extremely sensitive to all sorts of infection from wounds and will often die from a minor wound which would normally heal on any other coral. As long as I'm talking about it's susceptibility to infection, it is suggested that you slide your fingers under it and lift it up about once a week to insure that there are no trapped air bubbles under it. These bubbles will cause the flesh to recede and certainly result in the coral's premature demise. Also when selecting the coral for purchase, pick it up and make sure that the flesh has no wounds.

I placed the coral on the sand in a spot where it could receive a light changing current, which replicates the condition in which it lives in the wild, a calm lagoon. This causes the tentacles, which are slightly sticky to the touch, to expand to over six inches. Such expansion also means you will need to keep some room between it and it's closest tankmates. It is rumored that the plate coral will wander. I have not seen this behavior and I doubt that the movement is intentional on the corals part. If I had to hazard a guess I say that since the coral expands and contracts daily in my tank, it would be possible that the action of it's body either expanding or contracting, which in my coral's case is over 2 inches, could cause it to change location. If you are worried about it moving and stinging other tankmates, just surround it with some small rocks to keep it in place. I don't know how potent the sting is, but my yellow tang swims very close to it. The tang has found out that as he swims by it he can cause the tentacles to move out of the way by rapidly moving his fins to blow the tentacles away. It's quite comical to watch and you would think he had some clown fish in him.

Feeding it is easy. Some people don't feed it at all and let it rely on solely photosynthesis. For that reason make sure that the specimen you purchase has dark pinkish-brown tentacles. If the tentacles are light and iridescent it has probably expelled it's zooxanthellae and you should select a different one. I believe that since it has a mouth it must like to eat once in a while. The Reef Aquarium vol. 1 recommends feeding it a piece of shrimp once a month.

I think the only thing I haven't mentioned is lighting and like most corals it likes a lot of it. I have it sitting on the sand which is about 20 inches below my 384 watts of Power Compact lighting and it seems quite happy and thriving. I also noticed no "light shock" when I placed it in my tank.

So that's about it. I do know that there is another color variation which has a pink body with pink, tips which should also be beautiful but I haven't seen one yet. When I do I'll probably buy it!

by Bill Esposito