What can you tell me about sun corals?

katsafados

katsafados

Active Member
Well it does respond when I feed the tank. It opens up but only the tips of the tenticles show and I can see the mouths open.
I think I'm goingt o take it out of the tank now and put it in a small bowl filled with food and leave it for a while to open up then ill shoot more food at each tenticle then puit it back into my main tank.
 
dive girl

dive girl

Member
I have 3 sun corals. One of them I rescued and spent hours bringing back. Mine are open more than they are closed. Here's a couple of things I do that I've found success with. I've also kidnapped one from a friend of mine, rescued it and gave it back to him with specific instructions. He sends me photos occasionally so I don't come back and take it.
Mine get light. Because they aren't photosynthetic, they don't need it but I have MH lights on a 29G so they get it.
I took mine and used reef cement to attach them to magnets, I think they are airline holders but there is one magnet in the tank and one out of the tank, like the Koralia powerheads. So they are attached to the side of the tank.
When I feed them, I take them out of my reef tank, and put them in a plastic container with tank water. I dump a bunch of food in, using a turkey baster to bubble it occasionally and let them eat for 30 minutes. After that time, I put them back in the tank and toss the water.
Keeps them fat and happy without polluting my tank.
NOW, if your sun corals don't have the tentacles because they are starving, you are going to have to feed each polyp by hand until they grow the tentacles to capture the food themselves.
I'll have to look and see if I can find before and after photos.
 
katsafados

katsafados

Active Member
See I'm not sure if they do or dont have tenticles...
I havent seen them open up yet. I got the piece yesturday and it still hasnt opened up while I was awake.
I'm goingt o try to stay up tonight and see it they open up. It looks like a healthy suncoral, its nice and fat so I think it does have tenticles.
 
dive girl

dive girl

Member
The first photo is after I had it a month. I wish I would have taken a photo when I got it.
The second photo is after I had it two months!
I didn't take a photo of it before I sent it home with him....
... live and learn.

 
R

roxannej

Guest
Originally Posted by Katsafados
http:///forum/post/3144933
See I'm not sure if they do or dont have tenticles...
It does. It wouldn't get that large without eating. It's a healthy sun coral, you just have to be patient.
I havent seen them open up yet. I got the piece yesturday and it still hasnt opened up while I was awake.
It hasn't opened at all yet. The coral has to adjust to your tank and you have to be patient.

I'm goingt o try to stay up tonight and see it they open up. It looks like a healthy suncoral, its nice and fat so I think it does have tenticles.
It does! Now leave it alone and let it acclimate to your tank.
 
R

roxannej

Guest
Originally Posted by Dive Girl
http:///forum/post/3144934
The first photo is after I had it a month. I wish I would have taken a photo when I got it.
The second photo is after I had it two months!
I didn't take a photo of it before I sent it home with him....
... live and learn.
Great work, DiveGirl! Lovely!
 
katsafados

katsafados

Active Member
haha I cant!
I'm new to the hoby its my first tank, and so far every coral I add to my tank opens up within 15 mins of being introduced. I never temp/drip acclimate my corals, so its wierd for me that this ones taking so long to open up! haha
I WANT TO SE EMY NERW BEAUTIFUL CORAL! lmao
I just want to feed it and know its happy in my tank! I lost my long tenticle plate and I dont want to loose another coral! haha
 
globaldesigns

globaldesigns

Member
That is a beautiful piece of sun coral... Good luck with it, you will have to spend some time with it and hand feed it, but if you are persistant with your maintenance and feeding of it, it will do well.
 
dive girl

dive girl

Member
Originally Posted by RoxanneJ
http:///forum/post/3144506
Here's a picture of my laundry room "hatchery."
I grow brine, phytoplankton, and pods.
I love your culture setup!
I hatch 2 cultures of baby brine shrimp each day because I have dwarf seahorses. Roxanne have you thought about decapsulating your eggs (using bleach to dissolve the outer shell)? It's a little work but in my opinion, less work than dealing with the shells and it's faster.
So I've got my brine. I just started culturing phytoplankton. I want to start some rotifers soon too and then move on to some copepods (I have 3 seahorse tanks). How long have you been running your cultures? Do you worry about contamination or have you had contamination causing any crashes?
Katsafados, I don't want to side-track your thread but instead of sending a PM to Roxanne I thought that since you were starting brine shrimp you might be interested. If not, let me know and I'll take it to PM.
 
R

roxannej

Guest
Originally Posted by Dive Girl
http:///forum/post/3144988
I love your culture setup!
I hatch 2 cultures of baby brine shrimp each day because I have dwarf seahorses. Roxanne have you thought about decapsulating your eggs (using bleach to dissolve the outer shell)? It's a little work but in my opinion, less work than dealing with the shells and it's faster.
So I've got my brine. I just started culturing phytoplankton. I want to start some rotifers soon too and then move on to some copepods (I have 3 seahorse tanks). How long have you been running your cultures? Do you worry about contamination or have you had contamination causing any crashes?
Katsafados, I don't want to side-track your thread but instead of sending a PM to Roxanne I thought that since you were starting brine shrimp you might be interested. If not, let me know and I'll take it to PM.

I have decapsulated, but consider the poor hatch rate to be too detrimental.
I've been running these specific cultures for 6 months to 1 month, depending on which one. I've never had a contamination issue, but I am very careful not to uncap bottles near each other that can cross contaminate, as well as rinsing all equipment that goes into the culture. I also use bleach in every container as soon as it is emptied to ensure I've left nothing behind.
I've never had a culture crash yet. I assume it will happen some day, though. Even the most experienced breeders crash cultures all the time.
I'm culturing Nano and T. Iso phyto at the moment, plus all the stuff you see in the window picture.
As for the pods, the acartia tonsa are the best I've ever cultured...whooo boy, those suckers can populate in a hurry. Almost as fast as a good rotifer culture.
The acartia tonsa is the pod which stays in the water column, rather than on the rocks and glass. Calanoids are pelagic, both adults and nauplii spend their lives swimming in the water column.
The pods we typically see (and purchase, such as DTs) are Harpacticoid. Harps are benthic, adults and nauplii both crawl on tank substrates, like glass, rocks and sand. Both adults and nauplii hide away from light into dark crevices.
At any rate, particularly for seahorses, I would suggest the Acartia tonsa as your pod culture. I got my starter from Dan & Abbie.
 
dive girl

dive girl

Member
Excellent! Thanks. I was researching the pods and was thinking about getting those and getting them from Dan and Abbie too.
I decapsulate my own eggs, but I've gotten the eggs that Dan and Abbie decap too and haven't noticed much of a un-hatched egg rate.
I really appreciate you posting the photo of your setup. It's given me inspiration because lately I've really wondered why I want to start all the work it would take to culture these items.
Thanks Daniel for letting me side step a little in your thread. Your sun corals look healthy and when they do acclimate themselves to your tank; they are going to be beautiful!!
 
R

roxannej

Guest
Originally Posted by Dive Girl
http:///forum/post/3145112
Excellent! Thanks. I was researching the pods and was thinking about getting those and getting them from Dan and Abbie too.
You are quite welcome.
I decapsulate my own eggs, but I've gotten the eggs that Dan and Abbie decap too and haven't noticed much of a un-hatched egg rate.
I've only decapped myself, but my hatch rate was horrid - probably 10% of the decapped eggs hatched. It's probably because I decapped them wrong, but I did it several times and got the same hatch rate.
I really appreciate you posting the photo of your setup. It's given me inspiration because lately I've really wondered why I want to start all the work it would take to culture these items.
I'm glad it helped. I don't honestly think it's much work once you get the cultures started. I'm sure, like me, you hatch brine for your dwarf seahorses and the pods/phyto are really no different. The biggest difference I see is getting phyto going and many of those are as easy as brine. T. Iso is a bit harder to get started, but once you have it going it's gangbusters and very, very healthy for the A. tonsa - their preferred phyto, in fact. Let me know if you have additional questions or if I can help you at all. I'd be happy to send you some starter cultures if you want - I'm overrun with rotifers and T. Iso at the moment.
Thanks Daniel for letting me side step a little in your thread. Your sun corals look healthy and when they do acclimate themselves to your tank; they are going to be beautiful!!
Yes, thanks Daniel. I hope the conversation was helpful for you as well.
 
R

roxannej

Guest
Originally Posted by Katsafados
http:///forum/post/3145188
No problem gals.
What you guys are talking about sounds chineese to me haha.
When I woke up this morning, the sun coral was a little open, but now fully shut sealed again.
Heres some pics of it this morning.

See, it's testing your tank. Patience!
 
katsafados

katsafados

Active Member
I just saw a half brown half red baby bristle worm crawling on the sun coral.
Are those bristle worms the benificial type?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top