Black Sun Coral!

[Freed]

Also what you can do is cut yourself a 1"-2" piece of soft air line and attach that to the end of the syringe. May not go on very easy but push it onto the end about half way. Take yourself a piece of rigid 1/4" air line tubing about a foot long or however long you need it to reach down to the polyps and push that into the piece of the soft air line on the end of the syringe. Makes it much easier to reach them so you don't have to keep putting your arms/hands in the tank.

[Dannyboy17]

Thanks mate, that'll help a ton

[Dannyboy17]

Tank params:

Salinity- .022-.023

Temp- 78

Nitrates- 10ppm

[Dannyboy17]

One of my black corals is alone in the feeding bucket He wasnt eating, and the tips of his polpys are looking rough (light colour, look brittle) so I hope this will help revive it. I put a shot of mysis shrimp and 3 shots of live phytoplankton along with a Rio 90. Hopefully I dont lose this guy. Im goin to leave him in there for a few hours.

BTW, the other black coral looks AMAZING these days. Each polyp is always wanting more food, it is a very dark colour of green, and each head looks like it ready to extend.

[Freed]

Gotta have more pics

[Dannyboy17]

Will get more tonight.

[Freed]

I don't know if using a powerhead in the bucket will really help the polyps get the food they need. You might want to rethink that. Seems to me the PH would just blow the food all over the place and not let it settle onto the polyps like it needs to.

[Dannyboy17]

Oh, I tohught I read to put one in there earlier in the thread?

[tigerarmy40]

you gotta watch for heat issues when you put a powerhead in that little water!! just a heads up!!!

[Freed]

Yes, I read it too but I still don't see how the polyps can catch the food and hold on to it to feed. You'd be better off feeding as before or with a 2 liter bottle cut in half and placed over top so the food will stay in the bottle area and around the coral.

[Dannyboy17]

Alright, it didnt seem like any food was caught, but I saw a few mouths. I ended up feeding it inside the main tank again.

Im getting these guys a 20g soon, just made the deal with a guy I know (20g long). The orange ones are getting HUGE, like tall...but still only tiny little feelers

The other black coral, the healthier one, ate fairly well today. No big news on it. Hopefully he comes around with time.

[tigerarmy40]

any updates?

[Dannyboy17]

The One Black Coral is gone I tried so hard to keep him alive, but he seemed like a lost cause.

The Orange ones still havent fully extended, but they seem to get larger and bolder everyday. The other Black frag is eating well and looks to be ready to let extend fairly soon (the polyps are "bulbing").

I might be buying another frag once I get my 20gl set up. Got ti reserved, its about twice the size of my frags right now

[tigerarmy40]

well it sounds like you did everything you could so it may have been disease or tissue damage from shipping? good luck with the next one!!!

[21Reefman]

Dannyboy, I read through the thread and had a few tips. The black suncoral was 1/2 dead when you bought it, notice how there is white at the base of each polyp, and the polyp end sunken in showing skeletel tissue? That should always be covered with the tissue color, tissue from one polyp to the next without any white receeding means it is healthy. When we get these from the LFS usually they have not eaten in 2-3 weeks so sunken polyps and receeding tissue should be avoided. I think that there is a point when so much of the tissue has receeded that the coral really has no way of catching food anymore, stubby polyp tenticles is a sign of malnutrition too. I had a black one and it never fed like the orange, it wasted away and clogged my nano with organics as it did, red algea... I have had good luck with the orange and it even spawned all over the tank! As far as any warning signs, check the skimmate. I have a neon pink one now that is acting like the black, I have pink skimmate! I had green when the black/green was dying, they dissolve the color into your tank. If you buy another use the first one as an indicator for health, don't get one that looks like that. It was bone and skin on the polyp end, this should be puffy and unable to retract fully. There should be color between every polyp, no white! That just means you are buying something 1/2 dead and will need 5x the amount of care to rebound. I have some pictures in my photobucket, ryhosk

[21Reefman]

here is the link
http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e42/ryhosk/

On page 5 there are full tank shots and th suncorals ar closed.

Here is another health tip.

Notice how the pink ones have a smaller polyp than the polyp skeleton; this is an early sign of starvation. The polyps tissue has shrunk from its former size and the tentacles are not as long either, this is a critical stage they must be fed consistently.

[21Reefman]

note the polyp in the background in the upper left corner.

[Dannyboy17]

I think mine were all half dead when I bought them Thanks for that info!

[Dani Arnanz]

Without any doubt the most beautiful tubastrea I´ve ever seen Reefman, congratulations.

Have you identified it??

[Dannyboy17]

And how do you keep them all fed?

[carpus]

hey i have a question... dont sunflowers die eventually in captivity?

I had mine for almost a year now, but ppl tell me that they'll slowly recede from the base.... which is true. not all my poylps are connected. I've been feeding them more lately. like 3 times a day. put a cut soda bottle on top and squirt mysis.

I dunno. just wondering if it is true that they WILL die eventually

[CKreef]

reefman where did you get that sun coral? it is awesome!!!

[21Reefman]

Thanks to all for the kind words! I purchased the pink one at the LFS, before it was even out of the shipping bag Turbastrea gets no nutrition from the light, so for most people they will eventually die. It is an easy coral to keep if you are ready to make a big fuss over it. I find that it is a tough balance between feeding it, and polluting my reef with extra nutrients=red algae. Right now it is receding because I had a red algae issue and stopped feeding for the past 2 weeks. I would say a dedicated system would be the best for these. Or a monster skimmer , mine is junk! I feed with an oversized syringe(actually a bar promo for a shot), this has a hole the size of a turkey baster but, unlike the turkey baster the syringe has a vacuum so the food stays in when you stop. get it?? I use frozen zooplankton and cyclopeeze, mostly zooplankton cubes from san Francisco baybrand They will eat several times a day and I give mine several sessions of food, like a 2nd helping. After the first round of food is taken in, the polyps will extend back out and will sometimes take more food, other times they let the food fall off them. I feel like the success of this coral is directly related to the amount of time spent feeding it. I had a clown fish mistake it for an anemone and after a few weeks of the fish rubbing against it, the polyps began to eject! After the fish was removed, the coral began to rebound and baby polyps sprouted around the larger ones. It also released little orange caviar looking (maguro for you who know sushi) balls and now I have turbastrea growing all over my live rock! If you saw a hermit crab in the photobucket acct, there was an aqua cultured sun coral polyp on the shell. I will take some pictures of the growth soon. I also use frozen cyclopeeze and think this is a big factor in keeping the little ones alive.
Good luck !

[Freed]

Do I see tentacles coming out of the top side of the starfish legs?

[21Reefman]

YES