What can you tell me about sun corals?

katsafados

katsafados

Active Member
I just got a 40+ head of suncoral. Right now I have it positioned in the shaded area of my tank next to my coco worm.
I dont think stinging will be a probelm, since the coco isnt coral, right?
How often should I fed it?
What do you usually feed it?
Do I have to feed it at night when its open?
To train it to open in the day, should I feed in the day?
and anything else you can tell me about sun corals.
Thanks!
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by Katsafados
http:///forum/post/3143866
I just got a 40+ head of suncoral. Right now I have it positioned in the shaded area of my tank next to my coco worm.
I dont think stinging will be a probelm, since the coco isnt coral, right?
How often should I fed it?
What do you usually feed it?
Do I have to feed it at night when its open?
To train it to open in the day, should I feed in the day?
and anything else you can tell me about sun corals.
Thanks!

You have to watch for it to open...Usually it is night time...feed it then...closer and closer to the time you want it to open. Moonlights will help. Get it totally out of the light under a ledge or in a cave.
I fed mine phytoplaton using a (fish only) turkey baister
 
katsafados

katsafados

Active Member
Okay well I fed the tank about an hour ago, and the sun is starting to open up even though the daylights are still on.
What if its in the light a little? I dont have many shaded areas? Its in the leaste light I can possibly get it in.
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
There is no training the suncoral to open during the day.
It is a night creature, opening up when lights go out, so you'll have to accommodate it. I fed mine daily using a syringe, giving each polyp food. It needs to be in a very low light area, with like an overhang of live rock. Also needs a steady stream of gentle current, like most corals do.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by Katsafados
http:///forum/post/3143929
Okay well I fed the tank about an hour ago, and the sun is starting to open up even though the daylights are still on.
What if its in the light a little? I dont have many shaded areas? Its in the leaste light I can possibly get it in.

If it opens it is happy...you can't do better than that...
.. They are beautiful corals.
 
katsafados

katsafados

Active Member
It closed up again lol.
How come I see people with these corals in the middle of their tanks as center pieces, if they need little to no light?
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Originally Posted by Katsafados
http:///forum/post/3143952
It closed up again lol.
How come I see people with these corals in the middle of their tanks as center pieces, if they need little to no light?
LOL...If I had pc's on my 30" deep 225G...I bet I could keep it in the center....Probably depends on their lights...
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by Katsafados
http:///forum/post/3143952
It closed up again lol.
How come I see people with these corals in the middle of their tanks as center pieces, if they need little to no light?

I tell anyone who will listen when they first set up their rocks for a reef tank...leave some big ledges and a cave...for corals that don't care for bright lights.
Anyway, don't bother it or move it just because it closed back up..It was peeking out but not sure it wants to bloom yet. It is in a new environment, so give it a week to open up. That is why I said watch for it. It will do no good to feed it if it is closed. However when lights are low...like just actinic if you don't have moonlights..You can squirt a little bit of phytoplankton at it where it flows over it, and it might come out to eat when it senses food nearby.
 
katsafados

katsafados

Active Member
Thats true, but then again if you had pcs on a 30" deep tank, you wouldnt be able to house anything near the sand that needs light. The people Ive seen that have it i nthe center also have other corals near the bottom lol. So I dont know.
I've also heard of people training their sun corals to stay open in the light, guess I'll have to research more.
 
katsafados

katsafados

Active Member
Originally Posted by Flower
http:///forum/post/3143965

I tell anyone who will listen when they first set up their rocks for a reef tank...leave some big ledges and a cave...for corals that don't care for bright lights.
Anyway, don't bother it or move it just because it closed back up..It was peeking out but not sure it wants to bloom yet. It is in a new environment, so give it a week to open up. That is why I said watch for it. It will do no good to feed it if it is closed. However when lights are low...like just actinic if you don't have moonlights..You can squirt a little bit of phytoplankton at it where it flows over it, and it might come out to eat when it senses food nearby.

Unfortunatly I dont have many ledges in a 10g tank. Heres a pic where its possitioned. Its going to be bad since its on a cell phone.
Attachment 232276
Attachment 232277

 
T

tizzo

Guest
They do not require light, but light will not hurt it.
You wanna feed meaty foods 2x a week.
Frozen Mysis and/ or cyclop eeze are good foods for it.
Feeding each polyp is ideal.
When you feed your fish, you may see it open. Feed it if you want but I think I agree with Beth in that it will not open in the day on it's own, without "smelling" food first.
 
katsafados

katsafados

Active Member
Should be, its a mesh net.
The shrooms are round again, so I'd think there doing okay. I picked the container up today and saw soem of them floating around that were nice and round.
Tomorrow when I do the W/C I'll take the mesh off it to see how they are acctually doing.
Back to my sun tho.
You think its getting to much light? I can more it to the other side where the gorg. is, but I dont want to since it might grow and sting the gorg.
 
katsafados

katsafados

Active Member
So lastnight the suncoral out lasted me. I fell asleep before it opened up. This morning I noticed that it was more i nthe center of the tank, so my guess was that it was to close to the rock and when it opened up it pushed itself away from where I had it.
I decided to put it under the arch that I have made of my LR since there is much less light there(figured I'd have a better chance of it extending earlier there). I'm just worried about how large it'll get when it extends (might hit the bottom of the LR arch.).
I'm going to keep my blue lights off and leave my moonlights on untill about 1pm today to see if it'll open up so I can feed it and see how it looks open.
Do you guys reccomend changing my lighting schedual so I have more hours of moonlight (while I'm still up)?
My schedual as of now is;
actinic on at 7am
daylights on at around 1pm
daylights off at around 8pm
acinic off at 10pm
Moonlights on at 10pm - 7am
Thanks!
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

Originally Posted by Katsafados
http:///forum/post/3144321
So lastnight the suncoral out lasted me. I fell asleep before it opened up. This morning I noticed that it was more i nthe center of the tank, so my guess was that it was to close to the rock and when it opened up it pushed itself away from where I had it.
I decided to put it under the arch that I have made of my LR since there is much less light there(figured I'd have a better chance of it extending earlier there). I'm just worried about how large it'll get when it extends (might hit the bottom of the LR arch.).
I'm going to keep my blue lights off and leave my moonlights on untill about 1pm today to see if it'll open up so I can feed it and see how it looks open.
Do you guys reccomend changing my lighting schedual so I have more hours of moonlight (while I'm still up)?
My schedual as of now is;
actinic on at 7am
daylights on at around 1pm
daylights off at around 8pm
acinic off at 10pm
Moonlights on at 10pm - 7am
Thanks!


Like all coral, the first week they don't open fully (as a rule, not always) No coral will starve in a week. So it is too soon to try and stay up to watch it open.
So relax and wait a week or at least 5 days...then begin the vigil. You have to not bother it at all. Everytime you move it or disturb it, the wait begins anew. Corals freak out if you mess with them and they won't open. So wait and try and coax a very hungry coral out with a smell of food, like I mentioned before.
Yes, you can arrange your light times to your schedule. I work night shift, and I enjoy my tank with lights on according to when I am awake. I even covered my tank glass in the day so the coral would close up and sleep to be awake when I wanted them to. Lighting is a personal choice.
However no matter what time you have the lights on..a certain amount of bright light is required for coral health. IMO 8 to 12 hours of bright light. I leave my MH lights on for 4 hours, then off for 4 with only actinic, then back on for 4 hours. Then 12 hours of moonlights only.
 
R

roxannej

Guest
Sun corals do not require shade.
Sun coral is non-photosynthetic. That simply means it needs no light to grow and thrive. It does not mean it needs shade from light.
Most people lose sun corals because they stick them in a place under rocks ("in the shade") making it difficult to feed them.
As your sun coral acclimates to the tank, you will see it open when you feed the tank. That would be an excellent opportunity to feed it as well. In fact, if you have shrimp in the tank with it, they will steal the food from the sun coral if they don't also have food to eat.
We feed ours a combination of frozen brine shrimp, frozen mysis, cyclopeeze and fish eggs. If I have it, I also mix in some of the Reef Nutrition Oyster Feast. They will, however, thrive on just brine and mysis.
The only thing my sun coral doesn't like is high flow. I just tuck it in an area where the flow is blocked by a rock. Note, I don't block ALL flow, just high flow. In your picture it looks like you may have a powerhead pointed directly at it, it would help to re-direct the powerhead or move the sun coral.
 
katsafados

katsafados

Active Member
Sounds good.
I've been reading about them alot sinc elastnight and this morning. I decided to go out and get some brine shrimp eggs, to try to hatch my own rather than buying frozen since live brine is more nutritional, and my whole tank will benifit from this.
Ill be using a glass jar with a round air stone(with regulator) that will cover the bottom of the jar for optimum water movement, since the brine has to be suspended at all time in the water. I'll post a picture of my operation once its done.
I also read that you can somewhat train the suncoral when to open up for feedings. Usually still at night time, but you can trai nthem to open up way earlier then 1am 2am.
 
R

roxannej

Guest
Originally Posted by Katsafados
http:///forum/post/3144392
Sounds good.
I've been reading about them alot sinc elastnight and this morning. I decided to go out and get some brine shrimp eggs, to try to hatch my own rather than buying frozen since live brine is more nutritional, and my whole tank will benifit from this.
Ill be using a glass jar with a round air stone(with regulator) that will cover the bottom of the jar for optimum water movement, since the brine has to be suspended at all time in the water. I'll post a picture of my operation once its done.
I also read that you can somewhat train the suncoral when to open up for feedings. Usually still at night time, but you can trai nthem to open up way earlier then 1am 2am.
First, my sun coral stays open most of the time, except when eating.
Second, on the live brine shrimp....I keep 2 cultures of live brine going at all times to feed my dwarf seahorses (and other breeding fish). However, you should know that only newly hatched baby brine shrimp are nutritious unless you "gut load" the brine shrimp which are more than 24 hours post hatch. Gut loading involves feeding the brine shrimp something like phytoplankton or crushed flake/pellet foods small enough to be eaten.
I won't discourage you from the brine shrimp project because it is very helpful for all your fish - but you should know going in that it is a bit more work than a 2 liter bottle with an airstone.
 
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