Sun Coral Info

[Rolo]

Does anyone have any knowledge of the Sun Coral. I think it's really nice and I would like to get one, but I need to know more about it first of course.
Thank you.

[3_high_low]

Hi Rolo,
I agree it's beautiful stuff. I've never had any but from what I understand it can be challenging to keep. This coral is not photosynthetic. I'm pretty sure it needs frequent direct feeding to survive.

Sorry I can't be more helpful. Maybe someone else can chime in.

Good luck in the upcoming season, except against the Bruins

[tomocean]

3_high_low is correct about it needing to be fed directly in order to survive. It likes to eat filter feeding invert food, brine shrimp, or micro-plankton a few times per week. It has low light and current requirements, but is still considered to be a difficult coral to keep.

[Snailman]

A friend of ours had such good luck with one we decided to try one using his instructions. We have had one over a year and it has grow a lot since then. The whole secret is feed it, feed it, feed it. It does not need light but light does not bother it so put it somewhere where you can have easy access to it for feeding.

[Rolo]

Thanks for the info guys, and if there is more, I appreciate it.
I would assume that feeding it frozen brine shrimp or blood worms would be ok. Also, do I need to actually feed each polyp on the coral or is it ok to just feed a few? In other words, do they eventually help each other out by sharing the food somehow if I just feed a few?
Thanks again.

[tlc]

i am definately interested in learning what type of foods you are feeding and how you administer the food to the sun coral.

[Flamin`Angel]

I had one for 1 year,it needs to be directly feed,as mentioned above.I fed EVERY polyp I could reach,its not that hard:the tentacles are very sticky,just attach some food to them.Mine ate all kinds of frozen food.Imo it worth the x-tra effort,the tubastrea/sun coral is like no other corals.Xtremly beautiful when all the polyps are out.

BTW I placed it just under the surface out the light,it makes it easier to feed and fight of any hungry shrimps.Give them something to chew on first

[Planoi]

I have 2 small colony. In the beginning I only fed it once a week and after a while , it's tissue started receding rapidly. So I increase the feeding to twice a week, the tissue stop receding but did not grow back. Now I feed it 3 times a week, and it is growing back.

My second colony took a while (1 month) before it started to accept any food.

I feed them with brine shrimp, and other frozen sea food.

[KenJopus]

Ive had mine for over three years. What I do is everytime I feed the tank and fish, whether it be frozen, flake, algae paste, etc. I put the food in a platsic cup with some tank water and use a baster to blast the sun coral. The sun eats, and the rest of the tank uses the leftovers. This way the coral feeds at least 2 times a day, and the odds are in my favor I get every polyp.
HTH

Ken

[DonnaS3]

You should try to feed every polyp. Each polyp is seperate and individual. And although they don't need light, putting them in the open in a dimmer section of the tank makes it a lot easier to target feed.

If you have cleaner shrimp in the tank or an aggressive fish, you might want to devise a way to cover the coral until it closes up around the food. Cleaner shrimp love to steal the food from the polyps. And I have the added aggrevation of trying to keep an almost 9" naso tang from doing the same thing if I'm feeding it brine shrimp. For that reason I mostly feed the coral my mashed up my homemade fish food - which the naso won't eat.

[cruehead]

ive had a colony of sun polyps for about 4 months now and i keep mine midway in the tank hanging out of a cave. i dont direct feed each polyp and mine is doing great! the # of polyps have doubled since i got it. i make my own food thats got everything from sqipd to clam to golden pearls to coral heaven etc. i feed fairly heavy and i just leave the powerheads going when i feed so the food blows around. ive managed to train mine. i feed about the same time every evening and the begin to open around that time. i dump the food in and they catch it. its got to be one of my favorite corals

[keithm]

I picked up a sun coral about a week ago.

I have it in an area of the tank with low light. Unfortunately it has yet to open. Each individual poyp seems to have a small mouth exposed?

Is it having trouble acclimating? My parameters are all excellent and all other corals are flourishing.


Any advice?

[Mr Neutron]

I have this coral but it only opens polyps very very late. I offer food at other times but the polyps do not open. I would like to feed it but not at 3am. Can this coral be trained to open and feed when the lights are on?

[MAVrick]

I too got a sun coral a week ago, and I haven't seen it fully open yet.?

[Flamin`Angel]

Mine opened after to months.Try squeezing some of the water from the cup that you thaw the food in,over the polyps.Dont get discouraged if it don't work at once,it can be stubborn

[bigdogpaul]

I've only had mine a month or two, but I was also advised to start by using a baster to just blow some of the water from the feed cup. Do it a few times if you have to, and try to do it easy. I don't think you supposed to blast it. The polyps will come out. I drop some food on the opposite side of the tank to get the fish as far away as possible, then I repeat the process on the sun coral with a lot of shrimp and not just the water. The excess blows around and takes care of the other inhabitants for the time being. The distraction of food on the other side and the presence of the baster near the coral is usually enough to insure some privacy while feeding :-)

[Cakepro]

I've had my sun coral for about a month, and it is doing beautifully. The guy from whom I purchased it did not directly feed it. I don't know how it survived, but he gave up the hobby and I bought this lovely coral from him. I feed mine every day at about the same time, when the white lights go off and only the actinics are on. This coral learned within a few days when it was feeding time, and fully opens shortly before the white lights kick off. Because I have 3 cleaner shrimp and a voracious purple tang (the alpha-fish) in the tank, I had to devise a protected method of feeding the sun coral. I cut the top 1/3 off of a 2 liter Coke bottle and drilled holes in the bottom. I then place the inverted bottle over the sun coral and prepare its meal, either frozen adult brine, frozen mysis shrimp, or frozen Formula 1. I thaw the frozen food in a teaspoon or so of tank water and add 0.5 ml of Selcon. I then draw the food up into a 5 cc syringe and shoot the food down on top and toward the sides of the coral. I then take a turkey baster and gently blow water into one of the top holes of the bottle, which swirls the frozen food up from the sand and in a circular motion, thus allowing the bottom-most polyps to catch food. I then leave the bottle over the coral for half an hour or so to allow it to finish eating so the shrimp and tang don't molest it. Man, when it's done, it is a huge blazing beauty, and it stays out for hours! I have mine mounted on a piece of LR which is placed on the sand, and I leave my 4 x 96 watt PC's on for 14 hours a day (12 hours white & actinic, 2 hours actinic only). Since coming under my ownership, this coral is GROWING and GORGEOUS. Baby polyps are popping out everywhere and it is very, very happy. Although some advocate feeding only several times a week, I will continue to feed my sun coral daily. It is by far my most prized coral.

Worth noting is the additional benefit of providing the sun coral with its own little microenvironment within the Coke bottle...you can inject a little food and Selcon into the bottle and instead of just blowing away in the tank's currents, the liquid will be suspended around the coral for awhile, allowing it to detect the presence of food and open. When it is partially open, go ahead and feed it and within a few days of following this routine, I have no doubt yours will respond as wonderfully as mine. When it's "trained" to know when to eat (the cues being time of day and introduction of the Coke bottle), you can cut a couple of slits in the sides of the bottle to provide a little bit of circulation while its "feeding cap" is on.

~ Sherri ~

**One other note: when a friend or family member is coming to visit and I want to show the sun coral off, I feed it a little while before they arrive. The coral knows that when the Coke bottle is over it, it's time to eat, no matter what time of the day, and as long as I leave the bottle over it long enough for it to fully ingest the food it caught and thus not be disturbed by the tang or shrimp when the bottle is removed, it will stay out in full glory for many hours.

[KenJopus]

For all of you who are having trouble getting this coral to open for the first time, do the following. Get a container the coral will fit in,(a CoolWhip container is usually a good size) and preferably one which will float in your tank, or sump. Take the coral out of the tank and put it in this container with some water and food. Stir the food around every once and a while. It may take some time 45min to 1 hour, but thats OK. After the coral is open and had time to eat, put it back in the tank, and discard the container water. You might have to do it 2 or 3 times (once a day), but it definately works.
The reason to float the container is to keep the temp constant.

Ken

On another note, it is very deceiving when people say you have to feed EACH polyp. Its very true that each ployp needs to eat, but IMO, if you turkey baste the entire coral, and keep predators off until the polyps close, you will be OK. (Or the coke bottle mentioned above is even a better solution if you have the room)
You can see pics of my coral at
http://72gallonbf.homestead.com/

[3_high_low]

Sounds like more work than I'd honestly be willing to put forth. Maybe I'll get one when I retire (in 25 years) and have more time.

Cakepro, ya know what also works well sometimes? The plastic baskets that strawberries come in. You'll have to eat the berries first though

Have fun!

[dc]

I just love mine! I try to target feed mine, but I did put it right below where I dump the food in. It opens as soon as the food hits the water and stays open for quite awhile. Same thing at night.

[Old Yeller Tang]

If your tank is very established then you don't need to feed as often. Mine open up every night, so I know good things must be floating in the water and I do feed my tank with phytoplankton at night. When I do feed them, I like using the frozen invert food because it is a more fine matter that sprays nicely over the polyps and makes it more difficult for my cleaners and fire shrimp to pull out and trust me, they're waiting on the wayside.

[Cakepro]

Hee hee...I just had to show this off. I've had it for about a month or so and even though I do have to feed it every day, it is well worth the extra effort. After all, it takes all of a few minutes to feed it, and a few more minutes spent at the tank is just a few less minutes wasted doing something else.

Incidentally, in the reef rubble tank at a LFS they had a sun coral in very, very bad shape. I picked it up for a dollar and will document its amazing recovery from the brink of death. Hopefully.

~ Sherri ~

[bigdogpaul]

Decided to give the floating cup method a try (amidst a few grunts from the
wife for taking another container.)

Seems to be working much better.  Hopefully I'll have a picture as
beautiful as Cakepro's in the not too distant future.

click for a larger image

 

[TangHeaven]

WOW is all I can say to the pic's. That is the prettist coral! My question which I'm not sure has been answered...I got my coral today. Should I wait a few days to feed??? Or try to feed it?

[Cakepro]

Hey TangHeaven --

FEED IT FEED IT FEED IT!

It will love you.

Wow, bigdogpaul, you have quite a beauty there! What a bunch of polyps! I took the pic of mine about an hour after it had been fed...it was fat and happy.

~ Sherri ~