New sun coral owner question

[Tzwizzle]

Hey guys. Just picked up a new sun coral frag and I have a question. I've only had it for 2 days but the LFS said it was feeding. I haven't been able to get it to open yet. So my question.

Does it need to be completely dark to trigger the feeding response? I had my lights at 1% blue at night and I'm wondering if turning them off completely will help. Or is the trigger smelling food in the water?

I know they are non-photo but it seems that most peoples feed at night and you have to train them to eat during the day. Does that not mean they can at least tell whether it's night or day or do they have an internal clock??

 

[hypostatic]

They can definitely sense the light. Having it darker will help with the feeding response, but if it is well established it will also expand during the day. Either turning off the lights or feeding should trigger polyp expansion. A good healthy specimen will expand it's polyps the entire time that the lights are off.

Are you getting any polyp expansion? If you're not, then the LFS lied and they sold you a declining coral. This is very common with frags.

 

[Tzwizzle]

I'm not getting any polyp extension yet. After the first day it did plump up a bit. I've got it under an overhang toward the top of the tank. Thinking if I don't get a response in the next day or so I might switch it to a higher flow spot. I know zoos can be finicky as well and can stay closed for months before opening. What's considered normal for sun corals?

 

[hypostatic]

Sun corals aren't finicky. They should open up within a few hours of being in your tank, especially if it's dark. If they're healthy/well fed, that is. If they don't extend it's because they are starving.

Get it out from that overhang. These guys like high flow. They'll expand more and more often in higher flow

 

[mlott132]

Have you tried feeding it since you brought it home? I target feed mine a combo of mysis and cyclopeeze every two days. Since yours are not open I would try just Cyclop first to see if they open. Once they start to open then add mysis to the feeding. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Tzwizzle]

I moved it to a slightly higher flow area and one of the 3 heads was open just enough to feed it a Mysis shrimp. The other 2 puffed up but did not open. I checked at dark and they were all closed. Going to try again tonight but looks like it should be alright.

 

[Tamarae]

Mine took about a week of work between tupperware and just being very patient with trying to get them to extend before I got them to finally accept mysis. I know they were eating coral frenzy/cyclopeze at some point because one night they pooped like there was no tomorrow.

Good luck with them!