Black sun coral

[Netta]

Hi,
I just got a black sun coral. I made the mistake of trusting a fish store employee and got them without researching. There are two people who work there that give good advice and steer me towards success. My mistake came when I assumed everyone working there would do the same. In any case, it's my mistake for not researching before I bought it.

Could I have some advice on caring for these guys? I'm new to saltwater and these are one of the first corals added to the tank. I got them yesterday. I checked periodically during the night to see if they opened and never saw them open. I tried to feed them right after lights out and they didn't respond. I also tried again in the morning before lights on. This time I put them in a container with a cube of brine shrimp and covered that up with a towel to keep it dark. I waited 40 minutes and nothing. The food I put on top was still there and they were still shriveled up and not open. Is it too late for these guys? I don't want to keep moving them and taking them out cause I'm sure it stresses them. It's hard to tell in the picture but they recede about 1/2-1/3 of the way into the tubes.

 

[Netta]

I don't know how to ad more than one picture to a post, so here is another view.

 

[Netta]

Last one. You can kind of see how far it has receded into the tube. Sorry for the dirty glass. I don't clean it as often as I should.

 

[alan.reef]

they need time to settle down.
my black sun coral takes 3 week to settle down, they come out evrytimes I feed my tank now.
google NPS Thread, .

 

[Netta]

It looks like there is hope! I turned the pumps off and covered them with cyclops and brine and this is how they looked when I came back an hour later! I don't know if they ate, but at least I know they are still alive. I was just worried because they are definitely not beginner corals and I've read they have a very low survival rate. I guess only time will tell. For now, I'll feed them twice a day. When I smother them with food, whatever doesn't get eaten by them gets blown off when I turn the pumps back on and my fish eat it, so I'm not too worried about the water quality going down just yet.

Sorry about the pic being upside down. They are the black blob in the middle.

 

[aries426]

They are non photo. You have to make sure to spot feed them and they usually come out when the light are off, you can train them to come out in the day as well. Read up on them they are a very beautiful coral.

 

[Netta]

Just an update. They still look rough and have no tentacles, but they are much more full. I feed them every day usually with mysis shrimp because they eat those very well but sometimes with ocean caviar and very rarely pellets. All of them have shown a lot of improvement, but for now I have them in my sump so I can feed them easy. Since they can't catch the food, I take tweezers and grab one shrimp at a time and hold it up to each mouth for a few seconds so it can grab on. It takes around an hour to get four to five pieces into each mouth. It's pretty tedious so I'm hopeful there will be tentacles soon! I'm just glad they're still alive and they look better.

 

[stunreefer]

This should help.

 

[trae]

Glad that your coral is doing better. You can also take a small soda bottle cut it in half and feed through the top. the write up is in the DIY section. I want one now.

 

[EllieSuz]

I went through this twice and I solved the problem by putting the frag in a clear plastic container set on the sand. At feeding time I would raise the dish up and set it on a flat surface to feed the polyps with a pipette. It's a good idea to keep a set of aquarium tongs handy for this purpose so you aren't always sticking your hands and arms in the tank. Then you can return the whole container back to the tank. This way the coral is never exposed to air and it doesn't get handled. I would keep this up for as long as it takes for the coral to open willingly when you feed the display tank. After that, the bottle hint above works well to keep the fish away from the coral when you target feed it. Here's the pay-off for the effort:

 

[Reef Frog]

Glad to hear things are coming around for you. If they are feeding, they will live & are quite hardy IME. Feeding a few times per week is key.

I would be cautious feeding pellets. There are reports of similar NPS corals like dendros rotting from the inside out on pellets as its said they can not digest the terrestrial & filler ingredients in them. I'd go with all marine foods like mysis etc as there are no pellets found on a reef.

Also feeding with tweezers sounds tedious. A turkey baster makes things easy.

 

[corny_ratbag]

Great to hear they are coming along. I think they are an awesome addition to any tank

 

[Netta]

Thanks guys for the tips and encouragement. I hope to keep these guys coming along. Elliesue, yours are beautiful! I can't wait to get mine into the main tank but that won't be for at least a month if not more. Tweezers are very tedious, but they aren't very sticky right now, so if I use a turkey baster everything just falls off and they don't get to eat. That's why I'm a little limited in what I can feed right now because I have to be able to grab it and hold one end up to the mouth and wait a little while for it to grab on. Life will get much much easier when I cam use a turkey baster! I will not be feeding pellets anymore.

 

[EllieSuz]

I keep posting this, but it bears repeating:



This is a DIY feeder that I use twice a day without fail. It's easy to make and very cheap too.

The syringe is the type used to medicate infants and it's attached to a length of rigid airline tube with a short piece of flexible tube. I put a piece of flexible tube on the other end too to soften it. I can feed individual polyps with this and it's long enough to reach the bottom without my arm being in the tank. I also use it to target feed my Mandarin and my Randall's Goby because they are slower feeders and if I don't get the food near them, the rest of the fish gobble it up. I also target feed Euphyllia corals with this tool. Everybody should make one.

 

[organism]

Try to crush some pellet food under a spoon and feed them that, the nutrient content is much better than with frozen food and it doesn't mess up your water quality as much. I feed it to my black sun polyps and they love it

 

[Dozer1one]

I keep posting this, but it bears repeating:



This is a DIY feeder that I use twice a day without fail. It's easy to make and very cheap too.

The syringe is the type used to medicate infants and it's attached to a length of rigid airline tube with a short piece of flexible tube. I put a piece of flexible tube on the other end too to soften it. I can feed individual polyps with this and it's long enough to reach the bottom without my arm being in the tank. I also use it to target feed my Mandarin and my Randall's Goby because they are slower feeders and if I don't get the food near them, the rest of the fish gobble it up. I also target feed Euphyllia corals with this tool. Everybody should make one.

AWSOME I just made it after reading your post, I had all the stuff laying around but never thought of it. Thanks Elliesuz:beer:

 

[Netta]

Just wanted to give another update. I've had this guy two months now and it is still slowly improving. I'm glad I got this one, because I went back to the store where I bought them from a couple of weeks ago and the four to five frags that didn't get sold were placed at the bottom of a tank and left for dead. They have more in that look much healthier so hopefully they will get sold before they too go downhill.
In any case, this guy has improved enough to be placed in the display tank! I can now just drop food on it and it will catch it! No more feeding piece by piece with tweezers! It makes feeding a breeze now. Instead of taking over an hour, it now takes 10 minutes. What a relief! It is doing much better, but still has a ways to go.

 

[chalicefreak]

They need the same care as the regular one. Just feed them 3 times a week.

 

[Netta]

Yet another update! These guys are going great! I have officially taken them off my worry list and now can enjoy them. I have included a picture just as they are opening up so you guys can, hopefully, see the little baby head that is popping up in between the three heads grouped together. They still have a lot of tissue regrowth to do, but they are doing amazing!
Because of all the nursing I have had to do, this coral feels more like a pet than just a coral.

 

[acuario]

Very nice to read of your persistence and success Netta, good job.