Can this sun coral be saved?

[harleychic]

I guess I got lucky with my first sun coral, it ate right away. I got a 5" colony from my LFS Monday, drip acclimated it. Days two and three it sloughed off tissue. Every night I have tried feeding the heads in a container, I leave it in there for around an hour. I see no polyp expansion, except for a possible attempt by maybe the smallest of heads, maybe four or so. Tank params are all good, everyone else is happy. What now?

 

[MarineSniper]

Keep doing what you're doing until it starts producing results; which it should, soon enough. I've had a few colonies that I purchased from local hobbyists, open up completely the first night and others have taken weeks. These corals can go a very long time without food so it's not a life or death situation right now. I would use mysid, soaked in Selcon or Zoe, since that gets the best feeding response from mine. May want to feed your other one in the tank before trying with this new one. I also picked up a betta bowl heater off of Ebay, specifically for drip acclimating and feeding in bowls, when necessary. Less than 10 bucks and now I don't have to rush my corals back into the tank because of temperature

 

[GoingPostal]

Have you tried feeding at night? I usually don't attempt separate feedings on new nps unless they are clearly starved, don't want to stress them out right away so I just chum the water at night and set timers, seems like 15-20 minutes they will start popping out a small amount of feeders so I feed, shut off flow and wait around some more. Doing this currently with a sun coral I got about a week ago, it really doesn't like light so I've been staying up late to feed. There's 1 polyp on the side that opens fully and the rest just poke out a little so far. Actually thinking about changing up the flow on it a bit to see if that helps matters.

 

[harleychic]

Thanks for the help. A betta bowl heater, duh, why didnt I think of that?! Maybe I will let it stay in the tank until I go get one, and keep trying to feed that way. I usually feed around 9 pm. My light cycle on my tanks is 4 pm to midnite. Since this tank only has NPS in it I only have NO floro actinic lighting anyway.

 

[harleychic]

After searching around for more info, it appears I actually have a branching dendro, not a sun coral I am still attempting to feed each head daily. I moved it into a higher flow area which it seems to like. The polyps extend part way, but it seems to be ingesting the mysid. Any more thoughts on care for this coral?

 

[Reef Frog]

Congrats it looks like its going to make it. You probably know this but it won't need food daily unless you just enjoy feedinf small amounts. In fact many first hand reports in this forum suggest hazards in over feeding! Other advice would be to maintain calc alk & mg as you would for any stony corals.

 

[L8ndeb]

I would set it in your display tank and leave it alone. Constant moving upsets them and just prolongs the aclimation time. Mine went about a week before it started to extend slightly. Another week, with feeding attempts every third day, got them fully extended. I now just feed once a week. BTW, mine has had infants, distributed all around the tank! Be patient.

 

[harleychic]

Thanks eveeyone. I haven't been taking it out anymore to feed. It's been in my tank for a month now, which is why I was getting worried. So I should maybe feed only every 2 to 3 days then?

 

[Reef Frog]

I don't think there are any hard & fast rules, but 2 to 3 times per week of mysis or other good food should be adequate. But if you find yourself over feeding, a few off days to let it process food already eaten is probably a good practice.