black sun corals

[owlbassboy]

just wondering if these are the same to care for as normal yellow/orange suns or are they more or less difficult?

 

[uhuru]

The ones I have seem to have great appetites, and consume their food rather quickly compared to my orange ones. My yellow ones seem borderline invasive.

 

[bunzaroo]

I have several colonies of suns , dendros, etcc. My black colony took about 3 months until it started to come out like my other colonies. Other than that I would say they are abiut the same.

 

[rowjimmy]

I have two small colonies of Black Sun Coral that came growing mixed in with Orange Sun Coral . They were/are growing into each other.

The black Tubastrea have voracious appetites. They were more difficult to get to open up initially then my other Tubastrea corals .

I thought I was going to loose them when I first got them because they were so reluctant to open up. I started to notice tissue recession at the base because they were starving. They finally came around, and have been eating/growing like pigs ever since.

I get new polyps growing at the base edges of the corals. I've never found a solitary baby black Tubastrea polyp in my sytem from a spawning event. My orange/yellow ones on the other hand have become invasive like uhuru stated.

 

[Kreeger1]

I've yet to see a black sun coral like yours Rowjimmy, I'm guessing it is not
tubastrea micrantha, but some other morph? Here's mine from my old tank

 

[rowjimmy]

Kreeger, sorry I don't have a positive ID on these black Tubastrea corals I have. They were sold to me as "Black Sun Corals"...that's it.

While all of the black sun corals I've seen labeled as Tubastrea micrantha were sold in the branching form like the one in your picture, I have seen pictures of black sun corals labeled as Tubastrea micrantha that show a more "tight colony/ball like structure" like the ones I keep. Maybe they were identified wrongly? I don't know.

It may be a different morph, or it may be a different species altogether. I'm not sure myself. Maybe someone with more knowledge will step in here.

Mine are just starting to open up for feeding:

 

[Western_reefer]

Very nice black sun corals everyone!

 

[Kreeger1]

There's so many similiar species around and possible hybrids iding this non photo stuff is so hard. I wasn't trying to say yours aren't black suns, just that I haven't seen them in that shape before is all jimmy. Whatever they are they're cool lookin imo

 

[biloulou]

This one was sold to me as Tubastrea diaphana (picture #1+2)
and this fragment, as Tubastrea micrantha (picture #3)


I am not expert, but the one named "diaphana" is more round, while "micrantha" is more branching.
+1: The black Tubastrea have voracious appetites.

Sorry for my pretty poor english, but it is not my native language.

 

[owlbassboy]

thank you for all the help, your english is pretty good better than most of us use haha. im in the uk so in the grand scale not that far from you.

 

[uhuru]

I never knew the species name, but mine must be diaphana. I took a video of mine releasing larvae yesterday will put it up in my build thread later.

 

[biloulou]

@ owlbassboy: Thanks to you. That encourages me to post on this site where I learns a lot. It is true that we are not so far one of the other. ; )

@uhuru: Super! I would like that mine, also, release larvae, because there are many of yellow on my rocks,that misses colors. ; )

 

[stunreefer]

As biloulou stated, there's two recognized species of "black sun coral", which are T. diaphana and T. micrantha.

T. diaphana grows in more of a ball shape as we see most species of Tubastrea and requires basically the same care as other species. T. micrantha is the branching form and grows in areas with very high flow. IME in captivity they do not continue to branch outwards, rather they start to grow more concentrated polyps on the existing branches, likely due to the (amount of) foods we feed and the lack of flow compared to their natural environment.

 

[rowjimmy]

Thank you biloulou, and Austin for the clarification on the two different species of Black Sun Coral. Mine are most likely Tubastrea diaphana then...since they were both wild collected colonies when I obtained them.

Interesting note about them not branching outward in captivity Austin. I always wanted to get one because the branching form was so much different from the other Tubastrea species. Just haven't been able to obtain one yet that looked healthy enough to purchase. Thanks again for the info.

 

[lilmonster]

I picked this one a couple of months ago, it had 1 head and 3 tiny sprouts then.
It has about 10 heads now.

I also just picked up an aussie red, but i haven't gotten any good pics yet.

 

[owlbassboy]

That's a lovely colony there would love to see the red.

 

[SanJuan]

Awesome Diversity, Black sun corals are grrrreat!
Very nice specimens people!

I have found them lightly easier than colored sun corals, but I guess they
are the same.