Sun Coral Help.

[hdspringer]

My wife went to my LFS and would not leave without a certain sun coral in hand. All my books say the same thing, shaded, feed meaty foods, test water often. Anybody have any pointers that will keep me out of the DOG HOUSE!!!! :notsure:
Thanks for the help.

 

[n_sarno]

It is a myth that the sun coral must be kept in shade.. They are not photosynthetic (SP?) at all so they dont care about the lighting because they get no energy from it like other corals do and because of this you have to feed EACH POLYP DAILY or at least a couple times weekly for the coral to survive. Take a photo of it so we can see how it looks.. Hopefully it doesnt have any recession of the skin over the skeleton.. No skeleton should be exposed it should be all covered w/ the skin.. This IMO is not worth the time/trouble but hey if your willing to put the time into it, they can thrive in your tank!
NEXT TIME RESEARCH PRIOR TO BUYING SOMTHING!! I CANT STRESS THAT ENOUGH!

 

[mrdsmack]

I feed mine at least twice a week mysis shrimp. Sometimes a piece of silverside falls on it and it seams to like that as well. It is under 3 250 watt halide 14 k, and 2 VHO atincs not realy shadded. Ive had mine for 4 months or so and its doing great.

 

[sharkbait9]

Mine doesn’t like bright lights, shrivels up if in direct light, just my personal experience. If you have food thieves like I do, to feed them take a plastic soda bottle that fit over the coral and cut it high enough to allow room over the coral and make a feeding dome.
Why?
Sun coral are not photosynthetic so they need to be feed meaty foods like mrDsmack said.
If the food has a hard time staying in/on the polyps the feeding dome will keep food in/on them, will keep others from stealing the food.
So any way, take a soda bottle clean it out good taking off all wrappers and cut in half keeping the lid.
Poke a few holes around the dome for water circulation place the dome over the coral with the lid off.
Once the dome is over the coral shoot/place some meaty foods in the dome and place/screw cap on and wait and hour. Sit back and watch it eat.
For a long time mine would was not able to or wanted to hold onto food. I made the dome and know he big and eats all by its self when I give a little warning shot on it to let it know foods on the way.

 

[martinc909]

I can't wait to get my nano reef to get my future sun coral.

 

[emmitt2]

heres a pic of me feeding mine and a pic of it open and looking good. Dont listen to Sarno, they are work but DEFINITELY worth it! I feed a mix of shrimp, clam, mussels, squidd and cyclopeeze every other day.

 

[mark_d]

is there more than one kind of yellow/orange sun coral? i got mine less than 10 days ago... it does open up and it does eat.. but it never opens nearly as much as thatone!!
Also, %&^&%(* at my LFS had it in sand, and so half of it (the bottom half) is skeleton.. with a few surviving polyps... if i put the skeletal part into the sand... would it kill the polyps close to the sand or would it be ok?
Also, do these guys have any way of spreading or growing at all? doesnt seem like itd spread to my rocks if i keep it on a rock...
Last question... for the first few days after i bought it... every so often it released small orange balls from the polyps after lights out (i check stuff with a flashlight at night.. im obsessed...)... any idea what they could be? they are round, bright orange (same color as the color) and roughly... id say 2-3 mm in diameter...4mm max size

 

[mark_d]

on top of that.. when you say shrimp and clam. etc.. this means u buy at the supermarket and grind em to a paste or something? ive been feeding mostly mysis.. but i feel i need something.. better...
and... isnt yours on sand?

 

[emmitt2]

Yes, there are different colors.
I'd keep the whole skeleton out of the sand
They dont spread, they spawn
The orange balls sounds like it spawning but ive never seen it so not sure :notsure:
Yeah, i bought a few ounces of each and ground it to paste, mixed in some frozen cyclopeeze, selcon, and zoecon, froze it and just break off a small piece every other day, works great.

 

[mark_d]

ah... well i tried to make some of the little.. balls or whatever fall on the rocks.. a few did.. i dont know if that means ill get lucky.. more than likely my coral eating emerald crab *shakes fist* will take care of em...
what i meant is, once fully out, do they all look like ur sun coral?

 

[emmitt2]

Originally Posted by mark_D
ah... well i tried to make some of the little.. balls or whatever fall on the rocks.. a few did.. i dont know if that means ill get lucky.. more than likely my coral eating emerald crab *shakes fist* will take care of em...
what i meant is, once fully out, do they all look like ur sun coral?
You wish!!!

Lol, seriously though not to brag but i'd say mine looks better than most but when healthy and happy, the polyps should look very similar to mine. Unless you mean color, there are alot of color variations that i have seen and alot aren't the same color as mine.

 

[n_sarno]

Originally Posted by emmitt2
heres a pic of me feeding mine and a pic of it open and looking good. Dont listen to Sarno, they are work but DEFINITELY worth it! I feed a mix of shrimp, clam, mussels, squidd and cyclopeeze every other day.

Not to start any trouble or anything but I don’t think your comment was necessary, I think that I presented some valuable information which was all 100% true and I think that you would agree with me on everything I said besides my opinion on them not being worth it would you not? I had one and it was a very healthy one as well so I am speaking from experience just like you... We in fact shared pictures with eachother of ours... I just didn’t like how they only looks amazing like yours at night, and after you feed it... and how much work I had to put into them.. Thats my 2 cents!

 

[emmitt2]

I'm not trying to start trouble but when someone posts that they bought a coral and want a little help, I don't think they should be told that the coral isn't worth the trouble of owning. Is that what someone wants to hear when they make a new purchase? I agree with everything else you said and specifically said not to listen to you regarding if they are worth owning. Wasn't telling him that the other info you gave wasn't correct.
I may be biased but i think the sun is the nicest looking coral in the trade in terms of color and definitely worth the trouble they require for feeding.
p.s.- my sun looks like that about 10 hours a day since i feed it so often. If they are fed every day to start, IME they will be trained to open every day and stay open after feedings

 

[hdspringer]

Well I appriciate all the help, hopefully I can handle it. By the way I did tell you my wife purchased the coral.

 

[hdspringer]

Thanks for the help, going to move coral to the middle of tank kinda like a centerpiece, or focal point. It's the coolest looking piece in my tank so I'll take care of it like it needs to be. Would you mind sharing your feeding secrets with me. All that I have now is some mysis frozen clam, and some frozen ghosts.
Thanks.

 

[emmitt2]

Do you have any frozen cyclopeeze?
I started feeding just frozen cyclo with some selcon and zoecon in it. Then i switched to krill and cyclo or mysis and cyclo, both mashed really fine.
Now i feed the seafood mix that i made. I put the bowl over it, thaw a little food in a shot glass of tankwater, add a few drops of selcon and zoecon, then feed with a syringe thru holes in the tupperware.

 

[beth]

Keep the coral in a well shaded area, meaning under the overhang of a rock. I fed mine using a turkey baster, feeding each polyp individually every day. This seemed to work very well, resulting in good growth.

 

[milomlo]

Well not to argue with anyone on here but there is the myth about the sun coral needing to be in shade. They do not. They do very well out in the open. I have one and it is under 2x175w 14K Mh and is great.
Also the coral does BEST when each polyp is fed however on a thread on another forum Eric Borneman told me that feeding each polyp is a myth.
We were talking about feeding a favia and I asked if each polyp of the favia needed to be fed like the sun coral. Here is what he said "No, the polyps are connected (and they are in sun corals, too - the notion of feeding each polyp is a myth but the difference there is that the coral receives more energy from feeding, and thus it is more important that the whole coral be fed well). "
Now again I am not telling anyone not to feed each polyp of their sun coral. I am just passing on information that I received. I do still feed each polyp of my sun coral probably 2-3 times a week.
As far placing them in the sand. I did loose a few polyps on mine with it in the sand. So if you can find somewhere to place it that would be best IMO. I just can't get my feeding cup to stay closed around it (on the bottom) with it on a rock.

 

[hdspringer]

I did the 2 liter thing and it worked, so-so. Too much wasted food in the water. Pobably have to do water change soon. I wonder if some foam like weaterstirping foam would keep the food from escaping from the bottom where it meets the rock?

 

[emmitt2]

How big is the sun? Unless its huge, you should be able to find a tupperware like container to fit over it. Our Supertarget has every size imaginable and i got a pack of 4"x4"x4", works perfect.