Sun Coral Not Opening For Feeding.......

[Loren]

I purchased this sun coral 2 months ago and it has been doing great. I've been feeding it every 3 days with frozen brine shrimp. When I feed the fish, its' tenacles open and it awaits food.

Last week, I was gone for 6 days and had a neighbor feed the fish once a day. Unfortunately, the sun coral requires special feeding and felt it was too much of a problem to have the neighbor try to feed it. Since my return on Monday, it has not opened its' tenacles for feeding and looks somewhat shrunkened. I have tried to entice its' feeding habits by squirting brine shrimp/marine cusine juice over it but with no luck.

Tank parameters look fine and other inhabitants are also ok. Any ideas on what I can try to entice feeding?

Thanks

Loren

[Loren]

^^^^^

[ThinkTank]

Loren,

If you can take the tubastraea out of the tank, try giving it a food bath.

Take a bowl large enough to hold the coral and submerge it into the tank water. Place the coral into the bowl and bring the bowl with the coral in it out of the water. Put a good amount of fresh seafood or frozen brine in the bowl and keep the food suspended (an air pump will do the job). Let the coral soak in this food bath for 10-15 minutes and return it to the tank. You may have to repeat this process a couple times. Soon the tubastraea will relearn to open when food is introduced to the tank.

[smiller]

Loren,

When I got my Sun Polyps a month ago I'm sure they hadn't been fed at the LFS. After three or four days of squirting juice on them a few started to open. Then a few more daily.

Let us know as I am getting ready to be gone for a week. In the last two days mine have looked fantastic both in the early a.m. and p.m. I hate to start all over with them.

[Teri]

Hey Loren,
I would just keep trying:) I have had my Tubastrea for over a year...and sometimes it just dosen't want to open up. Maybe check the tank an hour or two after lights out. Mine has gone up to a week not opening...then all is well. They are very hardy IME if they are fed...so I wouldn't worry unless you see some tissue loss. HTH...

[johnny]

I agree with Teri. They are VERY hardy... 6 days without food isn't enough to starve them. I haven't head mine much in the last 6 WEEKS due to an algae outbreak I'm trying to control.

Nick

[Loren]

Thanks for all the input.

Last evening, I gave the sun coral a food bath. I placed a large plastic glass that I had drilled several holes in over the coral and squirted marine cusine and frozen brine in from the top. A few of the polyps extended their tenacles, but most remained closed. This morning when I fed the fish, I noticed that these same polyps had their tenacles extended again. So it seems that this guy needs to go back to eating school. This evening, I'll try the food bath again and see what happens.

I hadn't realized that I had this coral trained! I feed the tank twice daily and it opened immediately after the first food hit the water. What is/was great is that the coral remained fully extended for the remainder of the lighting period. These corals are somewhat of a pain due to their feeding requirements but are an outstanding addition to a reef tank.

Once again, thanks much for all the info. I'll let you know the outcome over the next couple of days.

Loren