Fungia budding?

[Sunhutch]

A while back my engineer goby covered part of my fungia with sand. By the time I got to it the edge had bleached. Now it appears to be budding new corals. Has anyone had this happen or have any tips? They are fixed to the mother and I wonder if I should attempt to detach them?

Heres a pic, sorry for the quality. Took it with a camera phone. There are 5 buds at the bottom, they have white centers.

[GaryP]

Fungia bud off daughters as a defense mechanism when the mother coral is dying or highly stressed.

Gary

[Sunhutch]

Well thats not what I was hoping to hear.

It looks fine, the tentacles are extending and no signs of distress that I can see. Maybe its the calm before the storm. I sure hope not. All my water parameters are all within normal limits. I'll keep an eye on it.

[GaryP]

My long tentacle plate just got buried and died, without budding. Good for you. I'd had it for years and it was huge.

[ratboy]

I had a pink fungia get cooked in my office tank when the ac was left off. It killed it but I threw it into my rock tank as "rubble" a few months later there were buds all over it! I left them alone until 1 got the size of a quarter when expanded. I broke it off and it did fine until the current blew it away. Now I have a skeleton w/ ~ 30 daughter colonies on it. I would leave the buds alone until they get much larger or you have a nano where you can keep an eye on them. I also have a green/orange that did the same thing.
-Erik

[Tim Marvin]

Erik, I'll take one if you have it broken up.