Will it open more Large? Sun Coral? - Page 4

Sangogo · #76 07/31/2006, 05:33 PM

I actually wasn't planning to buy any non-soft corals, but this was a pretty rare color and since the store was having its annual 20% holiday sale, so it seemed like a good time to try it out something new. I mean, it cost about as much as a CD does. It wasn't going to kill me to try it, especially if the store said it was a simple enough coral. I just had different expectations of what they meant. Also, you have to realize that I don't live in the US. This country has a MUCH more lax attitude regarding keeping this stuff, since its mostly from local sources.

As for feeding it, I think I'm going to stick with the earllier quoted advice of taking it outside the tank into a separate container. I have really heavy flow in my tank for the sake of my kenya trees and neptheas and it'd be pretty hard to get the food to stay in the same place even with a cover. Not to mention the risk of polluting the water without really efficiently feeding the sun corals would be pretty high considering how little space they take up in my entire tank.

Thanks for the additional advice.

NanoCube-boy · #77 07/31/2006, 06:40 PM

Cool, i'm just making sure that when you buy any kind of creature, please take care of it. I get really mad when buy it and let them die. I'm not a perfect guy myself, but i do fail on some creatures and i blame myself for being a failure. Do things right, take care your creature if you decide to willing, if not, give it away... Do what best for that creature, don't let it died.

Well i wish you luck on feeding them, it seem like you know what you're doing so far. Let us see how your SC doing later.

NanoCube-boy · #78 08/09/2006, 10:32 AM

When you feed in the bucket or bowl, do you have have to do a small water change in the tank? I mean your taking water out from the tank and you can not place the water from the feeding bowl back to the tank.

How does this process work anyway.

Sangogo · #79 08/09/2006, 10:59 AM

I put the coral back in the main tank and dump the water from the container into the sink. Truthfully, my system is so large compared to the amount of water I am taking out that I don't always have to pour new seawater in. (I use reef water that is shipped to me from the local reefs, so water changes are super fast and easy for me.)

NanoCube-boy · #80 08/09/2006, 12:52 PM

Local reefwater ship too you? What kind of cool service is that? That's cool... Now i have to use my Ro/di system to make synthetic water. I hate getting SW from LFS because i can't lift over 10lbs.

Do you scoop the tank water out to feed the sun coral? how did it react when you take them out to a bowl? how long it takes for them to open back in the bowl?

Sangogo · #81 08/09/2006, 11:32 PM

In Japan, a lot of people just buy seawater shipped from islands by reefs. Though most people make their own to save money. But I care more about saving time and not making a mess. I also pour in a little bacteria and zicra water with each water change. (Common practice here in Japan.)

I basically, take the small container, fill it with enough water to submerge the coral and put the coral in. It retracts a bit . . . but as soon as I put in food, it all comes back to life a few minutes later. I feed it until I notice that it's not really eating anymore. It's been eating more and more. It started off barely able to eat an entire cube. Now I put in four cubes, since it can polish three. I usually dedicate about 1-2 hours to this process, usually while checking work from home. (type, squeeze baster a few times, type.)

I prefer to waste some food than to put the coral back into the tank not full. Since I often work until past midnight on many nights (I'm a corporate attorney), I have to be able to make sure that it's plumped up enough to survive me being stuck at the office, unable to come home for 36 hours. Or so tired that I can't deal with spending 2 hours to feed it.

As long as I am home before 1 am, I generally do this process everyday. But this week after returning home at past 3 am one night, I tried feeding the sun coral in the tank to see if it could be done. What a disaster. I think I should probably do a large water change this weekend or pour in the Japanese equivalent of amquel. The corals are all kind of droopy today, except for the sun coral, which is still super full from me feeding it in the small container.

I am getting a favia this week (had a store credit for a bad shipment), but luckily that has fewer (and bigger) mouths to feed and I hope to be able to feed that in the main tank.

NanoCube-boy · #82 08/10/2006, 10:49 AM

Favia have to be spot fed like SC right, as well as Candy Cane.

NanoCube-boy · #83 08/11/2006, 12:16 AM

Damn 1-2 hours to feed them? wow... your Sun coral better be fat... can i see? do you have pics?

Sangogo · #84 08/11/2006, 12:28 AM

This is right after it has been fed and returned to the main tank. It has grown quite a few new polyps already.

I haven't uploaded the pics of it extended. It doesn't have long tentacles on it's polyps like yours does. (Most sun corals in the US seem to be what we call tabane iboyagi, whereas mine is just iboyagi) I will post more when I get some uploaded.

NanoCube-boy · #85 08/11/2006, 12:43 AM

I tried feeding my a container, but they barely open. I don't think they like it.

NanoCube-boy · #86 08/11/2006, 12:44 AM

OMG, they are so nice and fat... Mine just okay...

Sangogo · #87 08/11/2006, 12:51 AM

It's weird. It's two sections of corals that aren't connected. (There's bare rock between them.) After they eat, one section stays puffed and fat and the other extends into long tubes after it has digested. The side with the long tubes also has more obvious tentacles (though still of the short variety). They look like two different species, even though they are the same color and both sides eat healthily. The picture above is of the side that extends into long tubes.

NanoCube-boy · #88 08/11/2006, 12:58 AM

oh... Well, i'm having trouble feeding mine right now. I doesn't open much.

Sangogo · #89 08/11/2006, 01:28 AM

Have you tried red plankton? (I think they call it cyclops in the US?) I hear this works very well, and it helps me get them open, though I now use this in the main tank before taking them out.

I found a close-up pic I took early on after a feeding. My newer pics are nicer, but the colors look neat here.

NanoCube-boy · #90 08/11/2006, 02:46 AM

Oh cyclop-eeze? naw i don't have them. I think i'm just going to feed in the tank and stick a floss and change it. I think it helps in that method too right?

Your sun corals are red... thats nice.

koga57 · #91 08/12/2006, 11:43 AM

I took this sun coral from a LFS after watching it for 6 weeks. It started going down hill as they never feed them. I placed it on an over-hang and feed it 3 times per week. A mixture of rotifers, cyclop eeze, occasional mysis.

It has done very well.

It sits about 17 inches below 500W of MH lighting and comes out at about 5:00 p.m. each day and stays open all night. The MH lighting stays on until 8:20 p.m.

NanoCube-boy · #92 08/12/2006, 01:58 PM

Wow, it open like that during the lighting period? Well train. What time do you tank and SC?

NanoCube-boy · #93 10/07/2006, 06:26 PM

How cubes did you feed you sun corals Koga57?

I got some bad new about my SC and i need helpful tips saving it. I been out and in the hospital didn't have the energy to feed them. Now if you guys can tell me what is the best way for me to do to recover them? I lost several polyps already and I don't want to lose anymore.

NanoCube-boy · #94 10/09/2006, 12:08 AM

Darn one side of my sun coral doesn't want open, it only opens up a little and goes back down.