New Sun Coral Owner

[Phoenix19]

Well that subject just about says it all. I recently picked up one of these corals at the LFS. I was in near closing time and the owner keeps the light of the marine aisles when new fish come in to let them acclimate for a day without kids beating on the glass screaming "NEMO!"

I used to work there so I know if you open tank doors on the other side of the aisle light will spill into the marine tanks and you can see the new goodies. So I noticed this sun coral with full polyp extension for $19.99 and just had to have it. It has at least 7 or 8 heads on it. I got the fish manager to come bag it up for me. And almost walked out when she said, "Oh my god! I've never seen it do that before. I thought it was dying! Why does it look like that?" (What an idiot.) So I explained that the coral was in a way of sorts, nocturnal. And it extended its polyps to feed at night. The she tells me she's only been giving it DT's PhytoPlankton once a week, because that is all she has time to do....*rolls eyes*

Regardless the coral is now in my tank under an overhang (although it may be getting moved as I noticed my Yellow Watchman Goby decided to move the coral closer to one of its burrow entrances and likes to perch on it. :rolleye1:

I haven't seen polyp extension like what I saw in the store since I brought it home. Although I have seed it expand and a few tentacles come out on a few of the heads. However, the head shrinks back down and starts the process all over again. This usually happens in the evening when I feed.

I would like to train the coral to open during the day. What is the easiest way to go about this? I feed a mixture of Kent's marine PhytoPlex, DT's PhytoPlankton, PE Mysis, Brine, Formula 1, and a few other meaty foods. I have not target fed the coral yet though as my lights are on a weird schedule and I don't want to get up at four in the morning to see if it has expanded and hand feed mysis. I have not seen it eat yet.

Would love to here about personal experiences with this coral, tips for training it to open during the day, spot feeding, feeding it in a bowl, and any other helpful hints to make this coral thrive in my system.

 

[dendro982]

Training it to open during day time: I had large fish, that had to be fed 3x a day. Sun corals opened every time to pick up what was left, with no effort from my side. Closed after 1 hr or so. Much longer - in the night.

Now, in fishless tank, they open after I add small dried crustaceans (Cyclop eeze) or a little food. In 15-20 min they are open.
Dark tank doesn't help with keeping them open, unlike for chili coral.

I have different sun corals (photos), all commonly available Tubastreas, cold pink Cladopsammia, warm pink and yellow Dendrophyllia, and none ot them is usually open on their own all day long.
But: I have read more than once, that large firecracker dendrophyllia is open practically all the time. $150 for a small colony here, though.

Training didn't work for me, only direct food-response connection.

All, that I could think was important or interesting with my sun corals, is here.
BTW, I would like to see yours similar pages or forum posts, just curious how others are doing.

Additional interesting link is Lunar Lander.