Plate Coral-Orange aka Cycloseris spp

Orange Plate Corals are interesting shaped colonies that begin life as small attached polyps and grow a hard skeleton and settle on the substrate as they grow. Orange Plate Coral need to be placed on sand and not rockwork as rocks can damage the tender underside of the corals polyp. Orange Plate Corals need to be able to shift and move themselves on the sand and do so by inflating their polyp. Because of this it is imperative that their placement be on the sand. If placed on rockwork the underside of the corals polyp will be damaged by rubbing against the sharp edges of live rock causing stress and possibly death within a few short weeks.

An interesting fact regarding Orange Plate Corals is that they are famous for a behavior called polyp bailout (producing offspring in the event of death). This can often happen three or four months after the coral dies and still sits in the aquarium as just a skeleton and is believed to be a last ditch effort at reproduction. Offspring will grow out of the skeleton from between the ‘flange’ like growths and eventually move to the sand bed. This coral can literally be fragged, or cut in half, to make two colonies.

Diet

Though these corals are mostly photosynthetic, they benefit from a small piece of raw table shrimp, frozen mysis shrimp or silverside once a week. After the lights turn out these corals will extend feeding tentacles and will quickly accept foods.