Is this normal on a sun coral?

[Moort82]

Hi had my sun a couple of weeks now and it's feeding really well and seems happy, however i noticed these on the coral about a week ao and they have since disappeared. I think they were part of the skeleton and have simply shrunk. The best i can describe them as is little yellow bumps. Sorry this was the best pic i could get



Also i have noticed that my sun will continue to feed pretty much as long as i offer food, i tried to feed on consecutive days but it was reluctant to come out again. I took this as it was still full, so can anyone advise how much o feed in one go. I'd like to stick to feedings every other day but want it to get enough.

Thanks

 

[Moort82]

Oh and heres a pic of when it's out and happy

 

[Western_reefer]

Mine has the same thing sometimes. Not sure what it is either.

 

[stunreefer]

It's a sign of stress. They will do this from time to time when/if something ticks them off. Since they've disappeared, no worries.

There is also a nudibranch (pest) that can resemble this, so keep an eye on them to see if they actually move, and if they do remove and dip.

 

[Moort82]

Thanks, sign of stress, that'll be the move from the shop them. Seems to have settled in now. I had looked at pests before it went in the tank.
Any advice on how much to feed?

 

[cpolog]

It's a beautiful piece when it's open.

 

[rowjimmy]

+1 on stress.

I had a parasitic crab eat the core out of one sun coral polyp, and the surrounding polyps all showed the same "little yellow bumps"...or strings.

Once I removed the crab the "little yellow bumps" dissapeared, and the polyp eventually healed.

As far as feeding goes.... daily would be ideal. You can feed every other day once your sun coral is established and healthy (some people get away with less feedings). I feed mine every day cause they seem "happier" and stay out alot more when fed regularly.

 

[Moort82]

The sun is pretty healthy and i think it was just the stress of the move that caused the problem, it shows no signs of this now.
As for feeding i did try everyday but it was always reluctant the second day, i think this is because i've possibly been feeding to much. It will happily swallow a couple of cubes of food and it has just over 50 heads. The yellow piece also seems to have a greater appetite than the orange heads.

So i guess what i'm asking is, how much as in quantity, should i be feeding? As much as it will eat or for example just a couple of mysis per head?

 

[stunreefer]

I give a thorough feeding trying to feed each polyp just once. I use PE Mysis, which are very large, so I chop them up - hard to say how many they actually receive. Just ensure polyps are getting a bit of food and they'll be happy.

 

[Moort82]

I'm guessing i'm over feeding at the moment then, the bigger polyps get much more than one mysis each. Probably a silly question judging by how they eat in the wild but is little and often much better than larger less frequent meals (every other day) ?

 

[uhuru]

I've wondered the same... I think in the wild they probably feed mostly on smaller zooplankton, like bbs and rotifers, maybe almost continuously... and occasionally catching larger, weakened/sick plankton. Here you can see them feeding on rotifers.

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[rowjimmy]

^^^that's awesome!!!

 

[Western_reefer]

Awesome video!!

 

[euromomtx]

It's a sign of stress. I had this awhile ago when my tank was in bad shape due to a stupid mistake I made.
Somebody mentioned parasites so I tried to get the little yellow specks off thinking they were some kind of parasite.
In the end it turns out they're planula and will grow into tiny sun polyps. I think the corals release them when they feel threatened to ensure survival of the species. Kind of like when dying carnation corals drop babies all over the tank.
In the end I had some adult polyps die off but many, many new babies pop up (from the planula - the little yellow specks)