Plate coral help

[Ewatson249]

My plate coral has been doing great but after adding two peppermint shrimp it was half eaten overnight. They ate all the centre where the mouth is and now that area is completely missing. This was 4 days ago. I left it in the tank as I know it can sometimes reproduce after a few months after dying. However I have noticed that the tentacles have started to inflate and it's colour us coming back. Surely it can't survive such a trauma can it?! The photos show it just after lights on so it looks at it's worst. What do people think?

 

[mr_X]

it's possible that it can survive. i have seen a guy wrap a plate in a towel and drop it on the floor to break it into pieces. of course all the pieces survived, but it takes so long for those pie shaped pieces to become round again and form a mouth.

 

[Ewatson249]

Yes I suppose your right with the fragging idea. You cut straight through the mouth several times and it survives so I don't see why this won't. Only problem is them pesky shrimp are not out my tank! I haven't seen them go near it since the fateful night tho.

 

[Ewatson249]

Just thought I'd update. Plate coral is coming back better than ever now. Only problem is a bit of hair algae that grew on the skeleton when it was at it's worse. It looks like it's stoping the flesh from growing back in that area. The mouth of the coral has grown back completely and it actually fed for the first time today. Amazing recovery!

 

[Unicorn]

Wow, mother nature is just amazing! Glad it survived!
Didn't know peppermint shrimp do that, I thought they were peaceful fellas