Sun coral

perfectdark

Active Member
Originally Posted by Dude23455
Bleaching is caused by a die-off zooanthellea. Since suncorals dont have any zooanthellea, they really cant bleach.
So if you leave a colored blanket out on your clothes line for 6 months in the direct sunlight, and it bleaches does it have zooxanthellea in it and its dieing off?
To answer the question, Yes they can bleach in high light. The Pigment given to non photosynthetic corals serves as a type of sun block. If exposed the coral can sustain life without getting hurt by the sun. However if the light source is too intense and the coral does not get the proper amount of shade that it requires then it will indeed bleach.
To be more exact the type of lighting that would be bad for them would be as an example 150W MH lighting on an aquapod or cube, exposed as you would photosyn corals. Far too intense for a non photo coral long term, it may take a while but in time it will indeed bleach.
 

albfishin'

Member
Originally Posted by jamiegrl
how long did it take for the polyps to come out? I see the tips of the yellow but they aren't blossoming which is making the feeding a little difficult haha
uh i wish this was easier
Thanks all for your help!
Jamie, dont give up on them yet. Use a turkey baster as stated above and be consistant with your feedings. When I first got mine, it took about 3 or 4 days of every night trying to get them to open. What I did tho is chopped my mysis up a little smaller (smaller bits), and fed them so it kind of made like a soup and then used the baster. They came out eventually. Just keep at it. Once you get a couple to open and feed them the rest will open as well. As for placement, I have mine in the open in the sb. I have mine under pc's and they are just fine. As stated above the most important thing is to keep them in a place that you can feed all the polyps easily. Good luck, they are fantastic when they "bloom."
 
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h2ocrazy

Guest
Well, I'm very happy to say my sun coral is doing great on its fifth night. I fed tonight with brine shrimp and cyclopeeze. I have to say my sun coral is a bit particular to brine shrimp, it didn't really grab a hold of the cyclopeeze. Here is my update on mine. Hope everything is going good with yours.
 
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jamiegrl

Guest
uhhh im confused if i should place in on the sb.
After feeding a little last night they are looking better today thank god! Hopefully they will continue to do better!
 
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h2ocrazy

Guest
Happy to hear yours are eating, give it time and hopefully they should do better. Yes it is fine just make sure none of the polyps get buried as the tissue that gets buried will die.
 

peef

Active Member
The sandbed is fine if none of the tissue gets buried. If it does it will die. Otherwise no problem. My Sun looks like this after about 3 months and has tripled in size and went from like 15 polyps to 75+. This is it about 1 1/2 months ago it has grown since then alot also. As you can see in this pic mine is on the SB but now I have it mounted on my LR wall (looks way better also)
 
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jamiegrl

Guest
im getting worried.... i dont think this is going well
they dont look good (they didn;t look good before but i thought i could rehab them.... bad choice)
i try to feed them but the second the food goes near them they pull all the way back... i literally cant feed them... they wont take it
one or two fed the first night but i cant get any to yest or today
here are some pics
dont laugh or get mad but things look bad



 
I was also told that the sun coral needs shade. My SC is out in the open under my lights and in a strong flow with no problems what so ever. I have had mine for 3 weeks now and after acclimation I ended up dropping it from about 6' to the floor and shattered a part of it. I thought it was going to die but ti pulled through fine and looks alot healthier then before. I feed them with long pipet. I give them zoo & phyto and brine every other day. I tried to upload a pic from my cell phone but it isn't working for some reason. GL on yours jamie
 
try taking a plastic bottle and cutting it in half. save the cap. when you want to feed them place the bottle over the coral into the sand and pipet the food into the bottle. cover with the cap and let it sit for an hour or 2. that was part of the rehab I used for mine after I dropped them. Within a few days you should see them start to poke out some if they are going to live that is. I suggest trying that for a week to 1.5 weeks. You dont want them to get used to being fed that way.
 
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jamiegrl

Guest
yep i tried that haha....
i'll see how they do tonight
they are refusing mysis shrimp
i'll try brine.... is zoo smaller?
i also heard cytopleeze but all my lfs has is cytofreeze so we'll see
its a little pricey
 
From my understanding of the SC it will eat any type of zoo/phyto. I have never heard of cytopleeze. Is it a variation of Cyclopeeze? If you they will eat it. Cyclop is a very fine zoo.
 

bronco300

Active Member
they dont look gone from saving by any means...you can still see flesh, good...they may be in quite a bit but they'll adjust...i suggest just spending the money on the cyclopeeze...its expensive but they absolutely love it...fish and other corals will love it as well...dont know if you are, but if you hit the polyp they will go in...if its just the food and they reteat then, i don't know, id try something smaller like cyclopeeze
 

theappe3

Member
what i do with my sun coral is that i take it out of the tank and stick it in tupperware and just feed it mysis. once its done eating then i just stick it back in the tank.
 
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jamiegrl

Guest
that may make my life easier... stupid peppermint shrimp haha
 

theappe3

Member
Originally Posted by jamiegrl
that may make my life easier... stupid peppermint shrimp haha

believe me it will
 
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alexmir

Guest
Do sun corals need any special additives added to the water, or any trace elements? I dont have enough money yet to buy proper lighting for my tank to set it up as a reef tank, but since sun coral dont need special lighting their the perfect candidate for me right now.
 
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h2ocrazy

Guest
SC require good to high water quality and are sometimes sensitive to Nitrates. I use Oceans Blend 2 Part and it keeps my water quality in good condition. I love that it has everything in it, Trace elements, calcium and keeps your ALK stable. If you want to go at it another way, you can do 10-15% water changes once a week that will keep your water quality good as well.
Jamiegrl I hope your SC do better. I would do what theappe3 says, I use a syringe the type used to kill aptasia. The first night mine weren't opening I would get as close as I could to the center and just blow a brine towards the center of the polyp. If it doesn't come out right away just leave the brine there it should eventually open at least enough to eat it. If they are in that bad a shape it may take you about an hour to feed since they are not fully opening to readily accept the food. Don't get discouraged with some TLC and dedication they should spring back.
 
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jamiegrl

Guest
wow i took the advice and put them in a container to feed and switched up my food
i gave them brine shrimp that was all ground up and fed with a hospital syringe (neddle removed) and they all ate... every polyp
still no blooming but hey it's a start
thanks everyone!!
 
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