Mourn with me ~ spectacular black sun coral death

[thrlride]

So sorry to hear that.

[melev]

Originally posted by Cakepro
I miss the sun corals. If I could, I'd have a tank full of them with the biggest skimmer and chaetomorpha-stuffed sump possible for nutrient exportation.

Sherri, it would seem to me that they would thrive in a normally skimmed tank, with goniopora and alveopora perhaps. They like nutrients, after all.

Mine turned a year old.

[WILDTHING]

Originally posted by Cakepro

I miss the sun corals. If I could, I'd have a tank full of them with the biggest skimmer and chaetomorpha-stuffed sump possible for nutrient exportation.

LOL I know what you mean,boy they love to eat. I had my orange spawn recently, here is a link if you would like to see them.
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...5&pagenumber=1
I am now the extremely proud grandmother.

I got my black yesterday(which is really a very dark brown with emerald green by the mouths). I put some cyclopeeze in the tank last night and the tentacles came out just enough to taste the water . I'm hoping that they will come out a bit more tonight. BTW the tentacles on mine are a greenish/brownish/yellowish color, what color were yours if you remember.

I'll try to get some pics tonight.

colleen

[melev]

Gotta have pictures!

[WILDTHING]

Originally posted by melev
Gotta have pictures!

You are so right Marc!

I had a terrible time trying to mount it I just can't get the knack of working with the epoxi, I'm sure I stressed it really badly because I had to take it out of the tank twice,once to do the epoxy and again when it fell out of the epoxy and I had to crazy glue the epoxy to the rock and the coral to the epoxi. Hopefully it will stay mounted now.

Here are a couple of pics before it was mounted, it had started to open in response to food in the tank
http://images8.fotki.com/v148/photos...SC02267-vi.jpg
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http://images8.fotki.com/v148/photos...SC02268-vi.jpg

[WILDTHING]

having trouble with second pic, trying againimages8.fotki.com/v148/photos/4/416046/2190440/DSC02268-vi.jpg

[Cakepro]

WOW COLLEEN! That's the coolest thing to see all those baby sun corals in your tank! All of those beautiful sun coral pictures have really made me miss mine!!! Maybe my sps wouldn't mind a small sun coral in the tank if I didn't overfeed it....

Congrats Colleen. That's awesome!


BTW, you might have better success mounting your big black sun coral with superglue gel...probably two tubes of it, but that's still under 3 bucks at Wal-Mart. The epoxy has always failed miserably for me.

~ Sherri

[Micki]

Wow, can't wait to see the full extension. Mine has a very small green tint to it, but not like what it seems yours has.

[WILDTHING]

well it has stayed mounted and opened last night and ATE! I'm using a gallon jug as a cone to feed it. The tentacles seem so short compared to the regular suncoral, but I guess as it gets fatter and happier it will extend them some more.images6.fotki.com/v86/photos/4/416046/2190440/DSC02273-vi.jpg

images6.fotki.com/v86/photos/4/416046/2190440/DSC02281-vi.jpg

It seems to really really like flow, I have it in the area of my tank that gets the convergent flow from 2 Seio 1500's and a PH with 1700gph.

colleen

[melev]

That would be tough to feed, I'm thinking. Nice structure to look at.

[chevegan]

I love these corals but really am not a fan of non photosynthetic bio-load taking corals however. would it be possible to feed them a pellet food such as Ocean Nutritions formulas 1 and 2?

[Cakepro]

Nope.

[WILDTHING]

Cakepro, a couple of questions if you don't mind my picking your brain a bit.

When yours settled in did the tentacles get longer than what I've pictured? I guess I'm trying to figure out if I should expect them to extend as much as a yellow or orange.

While doing a search you were the first person I saw using a feeding cone, did you invent it? If so my suns owe their "fat bellies" to you. I would never have been able to feed each polyp as well individually as I can using the cone.

One interesting thing I noticed yesterday after they ate really well, the "skin" along the trunk of the "branch" looked full and puffy. Kinda like the skin below the tentacles of my orange. I would not have thought it would plump out like that.

If you have any hints or tips that you could share I'd really appreciate any advice you might have.

thanks
colleen

[Cakepro]

LOL, I don't mind, but the pickins are slim.

To the best of my knowledge, I was the first to post pictures of my "feeding hats" in use, but the idea originally came from my husband. His description of his idea to use part of a 2-liter Coke bottle got lost in translation, and the version I created wasn't anything like that he was talking about, but oh well...it works.

The black sun coral whose recovery I documented in this thread did indeed get huge polyps, and when fully extended and engorged with Cyclop-Eeze, they were nearly translucent. Before feeding and after digesting, they went back to being a very dark olive green. It's hard to say whether yours naturally has tentacles as long as your yellow and orange sun corals, but I'd bet that if they aren't, they soon will be after all of your meticulous care.

I know what you mean about the tissue along the braches being puffy...the black one that was recovering so nicely had the same appearance in its healthiest parts.

Really, I don't have anything to tell you that you aren't already doing. I hope you keep taking good pictures so you can photodocument your sun corals' growth...it amazes me when I go back and look at mine how much they grew. Oh, and if you ever decide to chip off any baby sun corals and sell them, I'd love to be first on your list to own a Colleen Sun Coral.

[melev]

Cakepro, my sun coral turned a year old.

Here is the documentation, with updates.

http://www.melevsreef.com/suncoral.html

[WILDTHING]

here it is new to the tank (first day in):








here it is first time opening and eating:





and here it is today:

[Reefcherie]

Bravo!! You've obviously done a magnificent job with this coral and it is truly gorgeous!

[melev]

WOW!!!!!!!!!! I'm really impressed.

[WILDTHING]

Originally posted by Reefcherie
Bravo!! You've obviously done a magnificent job with this coral and it is truly gorgeous!

thanks, I love the way it's coming along. I think it's gorgeous too

Colleen

[WILDTHING]

Originally posted by melev
WOW!!!!!!!!!! I'm really impressed.

thanks Marc. I am so happy i discovered suns. my new favorite thing!

[melev]

I want one of those! hehehe

[Cakepro]

Marc and Colleen, your corals are just so beautiful. Obviously you take very good care of them. Marc, I can't believe it's been a whole year!

[melev]

Me either! I fed mine last night around 3:30 am I guess, and didn't put a dome over it. My big ol' Naso cruised over trying to steal the food in the dark, but couldn't see it. I even managed to get a mysis into the feeding tentacles of a baby plate coral.

[WILDTHING]

Originally posted by melev
I want one of those! hehehe

See, I knew you wouldn't be able to resist! In a month or so I'll be looking for a red one or a bright yellow like Cakepro's avatar. Imagine the bottom of your tank covered in a mosaic of these beauties. You know you want to Marc!

colleen

[melev]

I was at an LFS today, asking if they had a black tubastrea. You know, you are a horrible influence on me. Like I need yet one more demanding coral on my hands.

He did, but couldn't find it. He thought it was stuck under some eggcrate in his filtration, but maybe it will turn up soon. I asked if he feeds his suncorals, and he told me he pulls them out every two days, puts them in a container with tank water, and adds phytoplankton. An hour later the water is clear, and he puts the coral back in his system. That might not be ideal in my book, but at least he's trying compared to other LFS I've asked.