Help Reviving Suncoral! Can it be Saved?

[HollyG]

Ok, so one of my friends gave me a sun coral frag that needs to be revived a little. She didn't want it anymore. She had a red slime algea out break in her tank not too long ago and just recently got rid of it all. Apparently the sun coral got covered in it and suffocated a bit. The polyps are sunk into the skeleton but I think there still is a possibility to bring it back. The is my first nps coral... Anything specifically I should do to help it along? I have it down near the bottom snugged along side of some LR to shade it a little. Not on the sandbed! Would love some advice, thanks.
Here's a pic of it!

 

[kcooley]

Keep it in higher flow area with low light. If you add frozen to the tank while the pumps are on it should open up polyps a little bit, then shut the pumps off and feed mysis shrimp thenn cover with a baby food jar until the polyps are done ingesting it. (baby food jar is for if you have shrimp or crabs.)

 

[HollyG]

Keep it in higher flow area with low light. If you add frozen to the tank while the pumps are on it should open up polyps a little bit, then shut the pumps off and feed mysis shrimp thenn cover with a baby food jar until the polyps are done ingesting it. (baby food jar is for if you have shrimp or crabs.)

Well, I heard good things about placing it in a container of tank water and letting small pieces fall and settle onto each polyp for about 12 mins or so. So, at the moment that it what I'm doing and the largest polyps mouth is opening and eating some small pieces... they aren't opening though. So, I think i may do this once a day until they start looking better. It probably isn't helping that i just got the coral today and its probably still acclimating to my tank. I'll just give it time... maybe it will rebound.

 

[kcooley]

to get the polyps to open thaw mysis in a cup outside the tank, if it is PE mysis then just dump the water on top into the aquarium and wait 15 minutes. If you are using any other brand than PE rinse the mysis well and just add some of it to the tank and wait the 15 minutes. Night time is the best until it is trained to open up the rest of the day. Give it a day or two of being in your tank acclimating to your conditions before trying again.

 

[HollyG]

to get the polyps to open thaw mysis in a cup outside the tank, if it is PE mysis then just dump the water on top into the aquarium and wait 15 minutes. If you are using any other brand than PE rinse the mysis well and just add some of it to the tank and wait the 15 minutes. Night time is the best until it is trained to open up the rest of the day. Give it a day or two of being in your tank acclimating to your conditions before trying again.

They won't open because I think they are slowly on their way out because my friend didn't quite know how to care for them properly and the red slime. I don't want to wait and throw a bunch of frozen food in my tank hoping they will open just ruining my water quality because I have no skimmer or sump in a 10gal! (don't want them) Since having them in that container I saw a couple polyps mouths eating, so I am going to stick with the container way of doing things. It seems to be working and it won't ruin my tank water. Since having them in the container, they are back in the tank and a couple heads aren't as concave looking... I hope they all make it!

 

[lilmonster]

I use a bulb feeder to spot feed mine every night and there starting to come back around.
I feed over an hours time, the first is a small blast to wake them up, then when they open up, you can feed more.
there's over 20 new heads coming in around the larger heads.

and they are trained to come out when the dusk cycle starts.

there's also a black sun coral right behind them that i'm trying to revive.
it's so dark, it's hard to photograph.

and please ignore the bubble alge, thanks. :wavehand:

 

[username in use]

You might need to start with feeding them in some tupperware, they look kind of hurt up.

Take them out of the tank at least once a day in a bowl or tupperware of tank water and baste them with food, letting it sit on the polyps for a while. Then put them back in the tank. This may take a few days to a week or more to get them to start opening. Once they do continue until they start to open on their own in the tank. Then start feeding them where they are.

 

[MarineSniper]

You might need to start with feeding them in some tupperware, they look kind of hurt up.

Take them out of the tank at least once a day in a bowl or tupperware of tank water and baste them with food, letting it sit on the polyps for a while. Then put them back in the tank. This may take a few days to a week or more to get them to start opening. Once they do continue until they start to open on their own in the tank. Then start feeding them where they are.

+1

You may need to do that for a while, with a 10g tank, until you "master" feeding them. The small tank will actually make target feeding them fairly easy and their small size also helps. You're rightfully concerned about water quality as it's a definite issue with these. I'm in the process of adding 2 100g stock tanks to my 75g nps tank to deal with the excess nutrients I have from feeding so many!

Good luck nursing it back to health. They're beautiful corals and should look great in your tank once you get them back into shape

 

[HollyG]

Yea, this morning they look a little better than they did last night. Tonight I will be feeding them in a container again. 2 of the smaller polyps around the edge still seem to be receeding, so only time will tell if those 2 will make it or not. I think for the most part the rest of the polyps will more of less make it.

 

[pyly220]

Have they started to coming out. I got a sun coral that was almost gone. And I read to place the food on top of each poly even if they don't open that they will eat it anyways. And I did that and they did eat it even if they didn't open. Now they're opening and even have a lot of babies on the side.

 

[sea witch1]

I just put the food in the water and they open at different times. but all seem to eat

 

[bok]

Any news ?