Sun Coral

[jbk65]

Saw one at my LFS today. There were two in the tank and neither was open. While they looked beautiful, I did a good thing and resisted the buy.
Done some minor research and see they are pretty tough to care for.
Any opinions out there?
Anyone have one?
Thanks

 

[newbienz]

If you tank conditions are right, they are fairly easy to care for. The difficulty lies within the feeding, which would make the coral hard to care for. Mainly you will have to spot feed each head of the coral in order for them to survive.
Besides that fact, I think they are fairly easy....time consuming, but easy. Its just my opinion, otherwise may think otherwise.
Attached is a pic of mine under an LED show light, which comes on at night with my moonlights. But the LED show light is directed directly about the sun coral to give it a glowing effect, since it is my show piece at night.

 

[kpk]

They really are cool, but a big pain. Alot of people (like myself) get tired of doing it. I have a great colony but thinking about trading it at the lfs. I would take more time to feed a black sun coral, they are beautiful and harder to come by. Here is a pic of mine.

 

[stapler]

You really have to spot feed each polyp? How often is this necessary?
I would love to get one(way in the future), just would like to know a little more about them.

 

[kyle10]

jbk65 was craig trying to push those on you...everytime lately i go to oc2 hes like why dont you buy those?
were you just there friday ? did he have any new corals?
selection ther has been a little slim..

 

[jbk65]

Actually it was not from craig. Haven't been there in about 2 weeks. His selection has been real thin, and prices are going up.

 

[jmesmcm]

I don't worry about spot feeding each head but I feed it cyclopeeze using a turkey baster every couple of nights and spray a bunch of it over them and they are both doing great. I have an orange one and a black one and both have been growing and I have spotted additional orange sun polyps starting to grow on my power heads so must be healthy.

 

[kpk]

I had tried feeding mine in the tank, but with the current it was pretty much impossible. Plus that alot of pollution when the heads can't hang on to the food. So every 2 nights or so I take it out in a jar or something and feed it. I skipped feeding it about 4 days a week ago and it took about 4 more days to get the polyps to come back out and feed. It's all what you wanna do, but they are alot of work.

 

[stapler]

Well I wouldnt even think about getting one for a long time to come...but will look into later.
Thanks kpk!

 

[lafish]

I have one...and was pulling it out of the tank, putting it in a container and feeding it brine/cut up mysis shrimp. However, after asking a few LFS guys about their routine...and have tried it w/ success. I take the guy out of the tank after lights out...put into the container, squirt in some zooplankton and let a small pump/airstone circulate the water. How in the world do sun corals catch shrimp in the ocean?

 

[stapler]

Pulling them out of the tank all the time doesnt stress them out? I wouldnt think of doing that with any of my corals...let alone the hard ones to keep up.

 

[lafish]

I should have clarified that I'm in the traing phase for my sun. Somebody was cool enough to post a link on one of the other sun coral threads to an "expert" who gives some pretty good advice on how to care for these things. What I found interesting is this trend toward feeding sun corals zoo...the more people I talk to lately are doing it this way...it appears a lot less onerous than feeding it shrimp. I plan on leaving it in the tank when its trained properly (when the polyps come out out super quick)...but for now it seems to work nicely....I do agree about the stress factor (but making sure I get this guy fed is a higher priority at this point) The polyps stay out even when I put it back in the tank...and by not using shrimp I don't have to worry about my hermit crabs trying to jack food off it. Hemits have dropped themselves off of higher ledges (its hilarious) just to get near it when it had some leftover food stuck to a polyp!

 

[fishman830]

what LFS? i was just at beitals, came home with a sebae anemone

 

[kpk]

Me and my girlfriend were talking, and she brought an important point up. I am always doing something with my tank and the sun coral is definitley worth the trouble because it is a beautiful coral. So I am now thinking about keeping it considering keeping it. It really is worth the trouble, especially if you are always doing it anyways (aren't we all always doing it?). I have been taking it out of the tank too since I got it and it does great. I even have had it out feeding for over an hour at a time.

 

[sultros]

A few months ago I picked one of these up as a gift for my best friend. Other than having to get creative with spot feeding, its been quite easy to care for.
He usually feeds them last, after the lights have shut down for a bit, to keep the fish from hijacking too much food.
As far as tank placement goes, they are non photosynthetic so if you get one make sure to place is somewhere that is convienient for spot feeding.
If only they grew faster