Black Sun Coral!

[Lebowski_]

Feeding pics:

Weapon of choice for smaller polyps, especially the black ones:

Looks cloudy because-

a) Mysis juice clouds up the water

b) Poor lighting

c) Glass wasnt cleaned for pics

d) Camera sucks.


Choose one of the the above

All those white specks on the black polyps will be gone in 10 mins, then I will do the final round of feeding, followed by a water change.

 

[Lebowski_]

I have one black polyp that is basically a huge ball...I think he is almost ready to extend...is it ok if I feed him a ton of mysis? Like Ive fed him around 10 tonight because he keeps gobblin them down so fast.

 

[tigerarmy40]

from whay I have read when it comes to lps that if one polyp feeds then the entire colony eats!! is this true?

 

[Lebowski_]

Ive read that every Sun Polyp needs to be fed?

 

[tigerarmy40]

probably right!! so when you put the mysis on them do they all take one or two peices in? or are only certain polyps feeding?

 

[Lebowski_]

Nope, I feed every polyp one at a time. The larger heads are easier, so they get around 5 mysis per feeding.

 

[CKreef]

Yes you have to feed each polyp individually mine just keep eating some ate 12-15 mysis tonight

 

[Freed]

Keep feeding but they will spit out what they don't need after about 30-60 minutes or so.

 

[Lebowski_]

So how do you think they look? Any tips Freed? Like I said, some of the black ones are starting to get larger, I think they are preparing to extend. Hopefully sometime in the next couple weeks I can get them all to extend, if only a little. It will help with the feeding quite a bit.

 

[Freed]

They look fine and yes they do look like they are ready to explode their polyps out in a few days even. They just need to get their energy back so they can extend them is all.

 

[Freed]

Also what you can do is cut yourself a 1"-2" piece of soft air line and attach that to the end of the syringe. May not go on very easy but push it onto the end about half way. Take yourself a piece of rigid 1/4" air line tubing about a foot long or however long you need it to reach down to the polyps and push that into the piece of the soft air line on the end of the syringe. Makes it much easier to reach them so you don't have to keep putting your arms/hands in the tank.

 

[Lebowski_]

Thanks mate, that'll help a ton

 

[Lebowski_]

Tank params:

Salinity- .022-.023

Temp- 78

Nitrates- 10ppm

 

[Lebowski_]

One of my black corals is alone in the feeding bucket :lol: He wasnt eating, and the tips of his polpys are looking rough (light colour, look brittle) so I hope this will help revive it. I put a shot of mysis shrimp and 3 shots of live phytoplankton along with a Rio 90. Hopefully I dont lose this guy. Im goin to leave him in there for a few hours.

BTW, the other black coral looks AMAZING these days. Each polyp is always wanting more food, it is a very dark colour of green, and each head looks like it ready to extend.

 

[Freed]

Gotta have more pics

 

[Lebowski_]

Will get more tonight.

 

[Freed]

I don't know if using a powerhead in the bucket will really help the polyps get the food they need. You might want to rethink that. Seems to me the PH would just blow the food all over the place and not let it settle onto the polyps like it needs to.

 

[Lebowski_]

Oh, I tohught I read to put one in there earlier in the thread?

 

[tigerarmy40]

you gotta watch for heat issues when you put a powerhead in that little water!! just a heads up!!!

 

[Freed]

Yes, I read it too but I still don't see how the polyps can catch the food and hold on to it to feed. You'd be better off feeding as before or with a 2 liter bottle cut in half and placed over top so the food will stay in the bottle area and around the coral.