Black Sun Coral pic

[Myrddraal]

I got a great picture (IMO ) of my black sun coral the other day, and thought I'd share it. It was out during the day, with all the lights on! I had just fed the tank a mixture of NHBBS, FD cyclopeeze, and frozen cyclops.

I've had it for about a month now, and there are two new polyps that you can see on the top of the branch. There's also a bit of cyano at the base I've been basting off every day :/

 

[slcw]

if i am not wrong, cyano loves high flow area

 

[dendro982]

Congratulations on having T. micrantha!
I have only black T. diaphana.

Here are a couple of links to the similar looking coral: 1, 2.

 

[lilfish07]

nice

 

[Tennyson]

I agree, Dendro, are all black suncorals like that-branching? Or are there others like an encrusting on rock kind?

 

[dendro982]

Not that I'm aware of, but you may check web on Dendrophylliidae and black, maybe it shows something beyond Tubastrea.

 

[Dustin1300]

Nice looking, don't see too many in black...always orange and yellow

 

[dendro982]

Here black ones are almost as common, as lemon yellow. But T. diaphana, not micrantha.

 

[AB-Bug]

never seen one like that, beautiful

 

[amithi]

im use to see them in orange and yellow..
any other colors ?

 

[dendro982]

Take a look at thread Tubastrea color varieties. Not all are tubastreas, but all belong to the same family.

I have T. aurea (pure yellow, no orange shades), T. faulknery (lignt shade pinkish-orange), T. coccinea (intense orange, close to tangerine color), T. diaphana (almost black, branching, more compact hrowth, than above), Cladopsammia gracilis (or Dendrophyllia gracilis, small polyped, groundcover juniper shape, almost pink, when closed), Dendrophyllia cornigera (closest that I could find - just as T. aurea, only branching).

Tubastreas also include: Tubastraea floreana and Tubastraea tagusensis, less common, one of them you may see through Image Search, also pale orange.

BTW, if you find anywhere - web or books- the key identification features for differential ID, post name of the source for us. OK?

 

[Don-Coraleone]

very cool..

 

[Henryreef]

That is nice!!! I was wondering if care for black sun corals is any different from that of Sun Corals?

 

[dendro982]

From black sun corals I have only Tubastrea diaphana, the common one, once it starts to eat - no particular differences. Slightly larger polyps, eats lot, but grows in height. Making the starved one open to feed - another matter, it is much slower in opening. Taking all time it needs and being persistent helps

The rare black Tubastrea micrantha, as a have read, prefers higher flow and daily feeding. There were cases of its recovery from a very bad state.

 

[goldenmacman]

nice!

 

[cdness]

Here is a pic of my black sun coral. The pic is washed out a bit as I had to increase the brightness to see any of the details...