Tubastrea not opening

[reeferaddict]

I 've been thinking my 20gl fish only tank could use a little color so when I saw a sun coral at my lfs I figured this would be a good choice. The tank is over a year old and pretty stable, all params are in check. The only inhabitants are a small goby and a sixline wrasse. The tank only has a 20wt NO bulb but I really didn't think tubastrea would mind. It is also pretty low flow, with a turnover of only about 350gph

I've had the coral for a week now and it has not opened, except for the slightest bit during acclimation:confused: I have been checking nightly, even waking up to look at times. I've tried to entice it to open target feeding and even made a little feeding hood but it just never opened. Do they need high or moderate flow? I have it placed on the sandbed if that is relevant.

The coral looks healthy to me, but this is my first tubastrea. It is about the size of an orange and has no exposed skeleton. soory but I can't get a pic. I also have a reef tank that I'm considering moving the coral to as it is supporting numerous other corals pretty well, I have a cave it might fit nicely.

Should I move it or just wait a little bit longer? I don't really now what difference moving it would make as the parameters read about the same except the reef has higher ca. readings and higher flow and intense lighting

thanks for any input-

[smiller]

I had the same situation a couple of years ago. Try taking a piece of fresh shrimp and rubberbanding it to a rock close to the sun coral. Mine went nuts and I never had a problem getting it to open everyday after that.

[EricHugo]

I'm going to answer this, but not before a brief chastisement.

First, why would you buy something before you knew if and how to take care of it? What if you couldn't do it? Would it be a case of "oh well" and another coral dies after being taken from threatened wild communities?

Second, why do questions like this take up bandwidth and our time when the information is readily available with a bare minium of reading. Tubsastraea care is literally all over the internet, in magazines, books, even livestock websites. This exact same question has been asked at least a dozen times in this forum alone.

Third, the top of this forum clearly states the rules for this forum. This is a beginner question, and it, like many others lately, doesn't belong in an "expert" forum. This is a case of taking advantage of people for the "easy way out" so you do the minimal work and we do the majority of the work for you.

It doesn't need light, flow speed is also sort of irrelevent, and they need regular feedings. They can take some time to entice to feed, the technqiue provided by smiller is a good one. Also, brine shrimp placed on the colony or offered repeatedly will get them to open.

[reeferaddict]

Thank you very much for the idea smiller, that is the type of answer I was looking for and expected from my fellow reefers.

Eric-
Did you even read my post? I knew the coral didn't need light b/f I bought it or I would have put it in the main reef and not a FOWLR, don't ya think? I was unsure of flow needs but that is pretty simple thing to adjust. I knew the coral had to be target fed, hence the reason "I tried to entice it by target feeding and even made a little feeding hood" I have done numerous searches on the web, this board included and knew the basic husbandry of the coral already. My problem was clearly laid out in my three word title (Tubastrea not opening) which is all you would have had to read since your time is oh so precious. I've had it a week and it hasn't extended its polyps at all and I am worried about its health because I know they are heavy feeders. I was looking for some reassurance from an "expert" if this was fairly normal or if it was a sign of declining health. You wasted more bandwidth with undeserved criticism than the fairly useless answer you gave.

Sorry for wasting your precious time and your bandwidth, for some reason I thought you were here to help those who may not have as thorough a knowledge of coral husbandry as yourself. It will never happen again. I have always gotten more thorough and helpful answers from my fellow reef keepers than you anyway.

I always gave you the benefit of the doubt when reading your post that you didn't mean your ill chosen words as sarcastic and demeaning as they sounded, but you have now you have removed all doubt that you are just a pompous, pretentious egomaniac:rolleyes:

[Tactstat]

You know, I have to agree with Eric. To put a sun coral in a tank that small is a mistake.

I will agree with his response too, although I have a feeling you won't be looking at this post anymore.

I do think he was fully justified in his response as well.

-Tac

[Buff]

Reeferadict,

I wouldn't worry too much about it not opening yet, as long as you're not seeing the polyps die away.

Do you get any plumping of the polyps during target feeding? Mine would swell but not show their yellow tentacles, then they showed the tentacles, and then weeks later they finally spread their tentacles...


I have to disagree that a 20gallon is too small a tank...but yes it will be hard to control water quality as they'll require nightly feedings...I think the key is not missing in target feedings.

I tend to feed mine chopped peices of krill and shrimp in big enough peices that I can manually place them into each ployp.

I think mine are doing well...as they have recently propogated and spread throughout my tank...but I'm still no expert.

I do agree with Eric that some people need to research more before asking questions...but then again we are here to help each other and sometimes it's nice to get your own questions answered.


Hope this helps...and good luck with them. They're my favorite coral now!