Sun coral

[caryn_ia]

I bought a sun coral off the internet about a week ago. I'm a little concerned, because not only has it not opened it's polyps, it looks like it has no polyps. Is it normal when the are closed to be completly hard and encrusted feeling? There is no polyp-like look to it? I know they usually come out at night and during feeding, but no such luck. Wondering if I was completly ripped off. Thanks for your input, I'm really needing it.

 

[oceandream]

From what I have read about them, they need to get sued to the tank first of all. Then try to blow some food at it, like brine, just to get its attention. It should "smell" the food and then open right up wanting some.
They are very pretty coral, do you have a pic to share?

 

[caryn_ia]

I think I understand the feeding requirements/process. I'm more so trying to find out if the polyps come out of an encrusted coral. It's a calcified(sp?) feeling, not soft anywhere. Is this normal?

 

[caryn_ia]

Beth, I have seen your wonderful sun coral. Wondering if you have any of that great insite of yours. Any knowledge would be a great help.

 

[oceandream]

From the pictures I've seen, it looks like it would be hard.

 

[caryn_ia]

Thanks for your reply. Still hoping that someone with personal experience with this coral could help me out. Thanks.

 

[johnny5]

Sun coral do have polyps that come out at night. During the day they look like a butt and are hard (leathery to the touch), but at night they open up and look like bright yellow zoo almost. Mine come out about an inch at night.
I feed them brine and zooplankton mostly, each polyp must be fed or they will die.
If they look empty and are hollow looking they may be dead. Got a pic maybe? I'll try to get you a pic from home tonight for an example.

 

[caryn_ia]

They are hollow. That's why I was confused. *Where do the polyps come out of?* Thanks, that helps a lot. I ordered three corals: the sun, an electric green star polyp, and a bright bink button. The button are brown, the star looks like it was scraped off with a putty knife, and now I know the sun came dead.

Live and learn I guess.

 

[angelofish]

I have a sun. Try checking in on it after the lights are off for a while.What color is it? Is there a little hole in the center? Do all the polyps look alike?

 

[caryn_ia]

They are the yellow suns. I have tried looking at night and still haven't seen anything. Feed them right before the last lights go out, wait, then get flashlight, but nothing. I think the fish are thinking I'm crazy . There is a Very small hole inside each of the small 'divits', but the divits are very hard, no softness/leatherness to them at all. Nothing anywhere on it that resembles a polyp.

 

[angelofish]

Dont worry about it not feeling right.Let it get settled and stop touching it. LOL!!! The stalks inflate themselves and the polyps open.They kinda turn inside out. Tell me which pic is closes to what yours looks like. Sorry about the crude drawing.LOL The 1 on the right is how it would look if its dead.

 

[caryn_ia]

Don't worry! It was touched when I placed it in the tank, and since there have been no changes I would suspect it still feels the same It kinda looks like the one on the right, but not so tall. Imagine an oversized golf ball with dimples in it. The dimples are the same shape as the top of your drawing on the right but without a 'stem' like you have. Just eraser sized dimples with little ridges running down into the center like you have drawn.

 

[angelofish]

When the stems are packed together they look like a ball. What color is it? Like the left pic? So far it doesnt sound good:nope: sorry.

 

[caryn_ia]

No, there are no stems at all, not even to form the ball. Just divits Maaaybe 1 cm up from the live rock it's on. It's more yellow than your pic, like the middle color on the fish on the 'Eye it, Buy it' link. Not yellow, not orange, but in between. I am thinking there should be a little bit of polyp stem visble, correct? I think you are right, I don't think it sounds good. Thanks for your help though, appreciate it!

 

[angelofish]

Anytime. Again I'm sorry. Try to keep it somewhere on the side in the tank just in case.Maybe the site where you bought it has a guarantee policy.Call 'em up. Sometimes being a pain in their butt pays off. I know someone who got a replacement part for a filter she broke.They sent it for free with free shipping and she didnt even buy it from them.

 

[caryn_ia]

I'm giving them a call tomorrow, replacement plan or no. As I posted earlier the shippement was Lousy to begin with It's just kinda sad. I thought the site sounded reliable, as with the closest LFS being 45 miles away (Iowa!) But at least I can give this online place an earfull. Thanks again!

 

[dana&pj]

A live sun polyp is orange and a dead one is white - in my experience. I didn't have good luck with this coral, but I have since leared more about them and I am trying to bring mine back from the edge of death. They look really bad when they are dieing -- just a calcified skeleton. They don't have to be in low light, but they can, They seem to like high flow. I'm still experimenting too, but this is what's working for others.
Good luck.

 

[spline9]

The gf just got a Sun Coral for the tank yesterday.
I've been trying to do a lot of reading about it to make sure it stays healthy. Apparently they are kinda tricky to keep.
From what I've read, they seem to do well in med-low flow which is contradictary to what Dana&PJ says. I'm open to anything really.
Your corals, how did you acclimate them? I used the drip method and they seemed to acclimate just fine. Here is a pic of them a few hours after putting them in the tank...

 

[spline9]

Here is a pic of them later at night (bad flash photography, sorry)... Looks like they were ready for some food. I gave them bits of krill. They seemed to be feeding fine.
I'll give them some brine tomorrow.
I read somewhere that somebody was taking the coral out of the tank and sprinkling freeze-dried brine on them, then putting them back in the tank. They claim to have kept this coral sucessfully for a while now. Aside from the temp issues, I might start doing this or feeding them in a seperate bowl. I cant see myself hand-feeding them in the tank all the time. There are some polyps that are just way too small to target feed like that.
Anyhow, heres the pic...

 

[jmesmcm]

I have kept mine for a year so far, it is not necessary to "spot feed each individual polyp" I use frozen cyclopeeze which I squirt on it using a turkey baster.