How to make Sun Corals Open?

I would do something like that but I don't have any other tank to do it in.

I have been making the sun corals open by squirting a mixture of cyclo juice, phyto and baby brine shrimp. It works,but some days one part of the coral will open up, other days, the other sides only open. Could the corals be full? I feed large pieces of O.N formula one food, I think it could be making them full quicker.

Any ideas as to why parts are opening and others aren't?
Thanks!
 
You dont need a tank just a small plastic container so the whole coral can get the smell of food...and have time to open up and eat...and your other tank inhabitants cant steal the food...just pull them out of the tank with your hands and place them in the container...dont worry they will get used to it....mine now open up just from doing that
 
When i first got my sun coral it was in bad condition, didn't extend for three weeks in my DT.

Now my sun coral spends most of the day and night extended. I achieved this by "training" it in a quarantine tank first, a 20 gallon.

I just fed it regular food, which for me is a mixture of frozen mysis, spirulina enriched brine, krill, and plankton. I fed it with a tear dropper directly onto the polyps. I did this at varied times for about three weeks.

Now the first time i feed the tank in the morning, it smells the food and extends and stays that way so long as i am feeding the tank regularly, several times a day. To keep this up all you have to do is feed often and change up feeding times.

One day i'll feed it early morning, the next time, middle of the night. Keep it guessing when the food is coming and as soon as it smells it, it will extend.
 
Hmm, I have been trying to feed around 4:30 since thats the time I get home from school, but with this random feeding time method, does it cause it to open whenever any food hits the water? Does it extend faster than it would if you just sprayed juice over it to make it extend?

Would feeding it at a certain time every day help make it open at that time everyday or is your method more ideal?

Thanks
 
Like i said, mine opens in the morning as soon as i feed, takes maybe five minutes for polyps to extend. The juice, i would imagine, is what is causing it to extend. I prefer my method because i do not like having a set feeding time and i like to enjoy the coral during tank lights on hours, as well as the moon lighting period. I did, however, try to feed it after my main lights out in the beginning.
No problemo.
 
a.jpg


Livelycorpse - that is a sweet Tubastrea for sure man!!!



I have also had luck in the past removing them for feeding. I had a 24 gal nano for a while with a nice little Tubastrea colony in it. I would remove it and place into a small tupperware to feed it daily. After a while the tupperware was no longer necessary, and I could feed in the main tank. It ended up asexually breeding... Tubastrea started to grow off of the walls, other rocks, places that the mother was nowhere close too! It was AWESOME!!! I couldn't believe it, and that was my first year reefing too.

GL - patience and persistant feeding are key with this coral Tennyson.
 
Ok I'll bite, I thought these belonged in the NPS section? That section is dead any way, Your Sun tube looks nice, just give it time and continue to try to feed it.
I will disagree with some previous posts, Flow dose not seem to bother mine at all. (some folks say theirs like high flow, not recommended)

Light dose not bother them at all, and I have seen more than one in the full light from a MH lamp.

I heard that the orange one are not good filter feeders, I see mine ketch food every time I feed the tank.

Acclimating
DSC00530.jpg


Mine had not eaten in a long time. Heres it "open"
DSC00540.jpg

I used a small syringe to inject food in the mouths of each polyp.

Here it is now, still not fully open.
DSC00590.jpg


I feed Brine,Shrimp, or what ever frozen food I feel like feeding at that time.
 
I agree that for me, flow does not seem to matter, neither does light. However, light did seem to matter at the beginning, but that could be attributed to rough acclimation. I like feeding mysis because i found that it had an easier time "grabbing" the mysis but i still feed plankton, krill, and brine.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12377285#post12377285 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Cope
Ok I'll bite, I thought these belonged in the NPS section?
Click to expand...
It doesn't matter since sun corals are also lps corals and nonphotosynthetic:D

Mine has been doing good. I think they might not be able to swallow the food completely, because at night after I have fed them, I see small clumps of food sort of falling out. And other times I see their mouths completely hollowed out with their mouths wide open. Its really confusing since this is my first one.
Its probably because I have been feeding them Formula one food every day, its much better, but maybe I'm feeding them too much to the point where they can't digest all of it in time. Should I feed smaller bits, I'm making them as small as possible.

In case your wondering what type of food, heres the thread I found it on:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1310698

Oh well, atleast it looks healthy. Would it be considered a colony? Atleast 100 polyps, I counted:rolleyes:

175285P1220864.JPG

This is the largest "island" of the colony, they are seperated by dead skeleton but connected.


And I'm still not getting them to open completely. One "island" of the colony will open up, but another won't. Than the next day that one will open while the other doesn't. Maybe its my method of getting them to open with baby brine and phyto and cyclopeeze juice. Or could I be feeding too much to each mini colony?

Thanks
 
I'm pretty sure its food becuase it has the same coloration as the food which is a reddish color.

Could I be feeding too much and possibly too often with this food?
 
I think I'm finally getting the hang of this coral. Last night it was beautiful, all opened up and everything. But I still have the same problem with some of the polyps spitting up some of the food, they don't vomet it out, it just hangs there, stuck in their mouth partially.

And at night, only part of the colony opens up, and the different sides alternate when opening. Does anyone else experience this?

Thanks
 
Hey Tennyson,

I wouldn't be too worried about them openeing up at different times and such. I have even had a colony that half would open one day, the other half the next. They did this for a year or so, then one day started opening in unison. Mind you this was one colony, not seperated like yours. Over time they will probably open in unison. I have several (colonies) now, and some still open at different times than other colonies.

I actually just got a fist sized colony on Saturday, and he's begining to open like crazy already. The guy I got him from only got him to open once in a couple months.... its all in the method and persistance. I have had them take months to get happy though, even with my technique, but they always do eventually, as long as its not damaged to begin with, those can be difficult for anyone to bring back. GL!
 
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