Black Sun Coral!

Alright, it didnt seem like any food was caught, but I saw a few mouths. I ended up feeding it inside the main tank again.

Im getting these guys a 20g soon, just made the deal with a guy I know (20g long). The orange ones are getting HUGE, like tall...but still only tiny little feelers :(

The other black coral, the healthier one, ate fairly well today. No big news on it. Hopefully he comes around with time.
 
The One Black Coral is gone :( I tried so hard to keep him alive, but he seemed like a lost cause.

The Orange ones still havent fully extended, but they seem to get larger and bolder everyday. The other Black frag is eating well and looks to be ready to let extend fairly soon (the polyps are "bulbing").

I might be buying another frag once I get my 20gl set up. Got ti reserved, its about twice the size of my frags right now :)
 
well it sounds like you did everything you could so it may have been disease or tissue damage from shipping? good luck with the next one!!!
 
Dannyboy, I read through the thread and had a few tips. The black suncoral was 1/2 dead when you bought it, notice how there is white at the base of each polyp, and the polyp end sunken in showing skeletel tissue? That should always be covered with the tissue color, tissue from one polyp to the next without any white receeding means it is healthy. When we get these from the LFS usually they have not eaten in 2-3 weeks so sunken polyps and receeding tissue should be avoided. I think that there is a point when so much of the tissue has receeded that the coral really has no way of catching food anymore, stubby polyp tenticles is a sign of malnutrition too. I had a black one and it never fed like the orange, it wasted away and clogged my nano with organics as it did, red algea... I have had good luck with the orange and it even spawned all over the tank! As far as any warning signs, check the skimmate. I have a neon pink one now that is acting like the black, I have pink skimmate! I had green when the black/green was dying, they dissolve the color into your tank. If you buy another use the first one as an indicator for health, don't get one that looks like that. It was bone and skin on the polyp end, this should be puffy and unable to retract fully. There should be color between every polyp, no white! That just means you are buying something 1/2 dead and will need 5x the amount of care to rebound. I have some pictures in my photobucket, ryhosk
 
here is the link
http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e42/ryhosk/

On page 5 there are full tank shots and th suncorals ar closed.

Here is another health tip.
IMG_7878email.jpg

Notice how the pink ones have a smaller polyp than the polyp skeleton; this is an early sign of starvation. The polyps tissue has shrunk from its former size and the tentacles are not as long either, this is a critical stage they must be fed consistently.
 
Without any doubt the most beautiful tubastrea IÃ"šÃ‚´ve ever seen Reefman, congratulations.

Have you identified it??
 
hey i have a question... dont sunflowers die eventually in captivity?

I had mine for almost a year now, but ppl tell me that they'll slowly recede from the base.... which is true. not all my poylps are connected. I've been feeding them more lately. like 3 times a day. put a cut soda bottle on top and squirt mysis.

I dunno. just wondering if it is true that they WILL die eventually
 
Thanks to all for the kind words! I purchased the pink one at the LFS, before it was even out of the shipping bag:) Turbastrea gets no nutrition from the light, so for most people they will eventually die. It is an easy coral to keep if you are ready to make a big fuss over it. I find that it is a tough balance between feeding it, and polluting my reef with extra nutrients=red algae. Right now it is receding because I had a red algae issue and stopped feeding for the past 2 weeks. I would say a dedicated system would be the best for these. Or a monster skimmer :), mine is junk! I feed with an oversized syringe(actually a bar promo for a shot), this has a hole the size of a turkey baster but, unlike the turkey baster the syringe has a vacuum so the food stays in when you stop. get it?? I use frozen zooplankton and cyclopeeze, mostly zooplankton cubes from san Francisco baybrand They will eat several times a day and I give mine several sessions of food, like a 2nd helping. After the first round of food is taken in, the polyps will extend back out and will sometimes take more food, other times they let the food fall off them. I feel like the success of this coral is directly related to the amount of time spent feeding it. I had a clown fish mistake it for an anemone and after a few weeks of the fish rubbing against it, the polyps began to eject! After the fish was removed, the coral began to rebound and baby polyps sprouted around the larger ones. It also released little orange caviar looking (maguro for you who know sushi) balls and now I have turbastrea growing all over my live rock! If you saw a hermit crab in the photobucket acct, there was an aqua cultured sun coral polyp on the shell. I will take some pictures of the growth soon. I also use frozen cyclopeeze and think this is a big factor in keeping the little ones alive.
Good luck :) !
 
Dannyboy,
I cant get my pics to load on here but you can see many pics of mine on the other main board under this screenname. I have had tremendous success with this coral and my feeding method so far. In my opinion, it is a huge mistake to remove this coral for every feeding. WAY too much stress and they are very delicate. The "flesh" should NEVER be touched. You will have MUCH greater success feeding with the "cup method". Drill a few small holes in a small tupperware container that will fit over the coral and shoot the food in using a small syringe. Cyclopeeze soaked in zoecon or selcon works awesome. I feed that 2 times a week and krill soaked in selcon/zoecon 2 times a week.
Mine no longer fits inside its 4x4x4 tupperware container. When i got it like 3 months ago it fit inside a 2x2x2. :cool:
 
hey Dannyboy, I use a feeding hat to feed my sun corals. Cut the top part off of a 2 liter coke bottle and put big enough holes, three or four, and put the feeding hat on top of the coral. The fish and inverts will not bother the coral while it is trying to eat. And the juice from the mysis or whatever you are using will bring the polyps right out. Awesome techinque I picked up. Had my sun corals trained in three days.
 
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