"FEED EVERY POLYP" Suncoral fact or fiction

iamwhatiam52

New member
I've had several colonies for a few years and never feed the rear polyps. All are doing well.

Are they getting enough from whatever floats by, or does the feeding polyp nourish the whole colony since they are interconnected?
 
I believe with suncorals the polyps are not interconnected withing the colony coralite structure. There is however connective tissue on the surface between the polyps and there mey be some transferance of nutrition from an overfed polyp to an underfed polyp through this tissue. Not enough to sustain an underfed polyp in the long term though, and not enough for growth of the underfed polyp. In a sick/dying colony when the connective tissue has receded then every polyp will need to be fed for survival.
 
The tissue on the surface between the polyps is why I assumed they were interconnected. Since the whole colony thrives when only the easy to get to polyps are deliberately fed, I believe that the colony shares nourishment. On the other hand, the cyclopeeze and mysids being deliberately fed may be only a small part of what the colony lives on.
I'de love to do some controlled experiments, but that will wait till I retire.
 
BUMP

Does anyone know for sure??????

Is it really necessary to drive ourselves nuts feeding those hard to reach polyps in the back of a large colony?
 
Can't confirm about the every polyp theory, but my black sun catches alot of what fish miss. I do turkey baste in it's general direction. lol
 
I did the search for definite answer with no results. It seems, that this bothers only us, keepers :p .

Only brief mentioning in S. D. Cairns article:
colonies of interconnected polyps
But take a look at my sun (it was before fragging).

This colony:
Jul13_06.jpg

grew to this:
jul24_07.jpg

With no place to grow further (it was moved frequently during cleaning):
Feb0108side.jpg

it started to grow, covering the bottom part, that wasn't accessible for a feeding and therefore was never fed. Polyps were alive and colony continued to expand:
bottomDec7_07.jpg

Note ruptures from the moving: still no infection or necrosis.
Jan1408bott_planula.jpg


I gave up long time ago with trying to feed each polyp, but trying start to feed each time from different place, this way probability that most polyps will eventually receive their food will be higher.

But those, who are using bottle feeding or Lunar Lander shouldn't worry, all polyps are covered ;)
 
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