new sun coral pics

[mollymonticello]

Tubestrea aurea?faulkneri + Tubestrea micanthra Anyone good with identifying these?

picked it up tonight at my LFS. It's been there for well over a month, maybe longer. I've been drooling over it for a while. To my pleasant surprise, it was opening wide up inside the bag on the way home! Still open.

I'm a little stumped on placement. I have the most flow (outlet for chiller on magdrive 700 and outlet for filstar XP3) on the right side of the tank, but that's where the most light is, too. The left side is shady, and the skimmer is there, but I wouldn't consider that a lot of flow. My tank is very tall, it's a 37 tall, and I have a standard T5 light strip. Is that too much light if I put the coral on the bottom? I can shade it more, but it won't get *as much* flow.

I have a rock flower anemone that I target feed every day, and I decided I really want something that needs to be target fed every day...a lot. lol, I guess this coral is perfect for that. I know they are difficult to keep, any tips would be appreciated. I'm going to try the pop-bottle trick this weekend, even though it ate already. I gave it a coctail of micro-vert, rotifers, and mysis. I'll try to find a link to the pop-bottle trick (or soda bottle if you're not from PA).

Whew, thanks for reading and thanks for any help.

 

[mollymonticello]

I found a thread today talking about placement...

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1156818

For some reason, I just can't find a good place for this in my tank. It's in an ok place now, but it's on the sand. I read on Melev's site that if his got too close to the sand, the flesh died back. I've thought about putting it inside a large seashell on the sand. I'm going to think about it.

 

[sufunk]

Very nice! They are GREAT corals and that is a NICE one. Looks like it has no recession at all.

Don't worry about light. Mine is directly under my lights and i know alot of other people that do the same. They don't need light but light will not hurt them at all.

Imo/ime, put it where it will be easiest to feed under a cup or bowl as long as it gets good flow. Definitely likes good flow!

Yes, sand will kill the polyps since its my understanding that they have a very hard time expelling sand. However, if like you said, you just prop it up, it will be fine.

Here is mine, directly under lights and directly on the sand. Its done great for over 18 months now.
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g89/sufunk/or.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

 

[Aquarist007]

will they eat cyclopeeze from the water without spot feeding them?

 

[mollymonticello]

They might be able to catch enough cyclop eez if you SUPER saturated the water and had good flow, but it's easier to just target with a syringe. They aren't very good at catching stuff. Not like some other corals.

 

[thecichlidpleco]

Mine have become quite good at grabbing on to stuff, as long as i target feed. In the beginning, I had to put them in a bowl, and pretty much just place it in their mouth with a tweezer. They have come a long way, I am so proud.

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10387843#post10387843 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sufunk
Very nice! They are GREAT corals and that is a NICE one. Looks like it has no recession at all.

Don't worry about light. Mine is directly under my lights and i know alot of other people that do the same. They don't need light but light will not hurt them at all.

Imo/ime, put it where it will be easiest to feed under a cup or bowl as long as it gets good flow. Definitely likes good flow!

Yes, sand will kill the polyps since its my understanding that they have a very hard time expelling sand. However, if like you said, you just prop it up, it will be fine.

Here is mine, directly under lights and directly on the sand. Its done great for over 18 months now.
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g89/sufunk/or.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

awesome specimen---what size is it?

 

[sufunk]

Thank you! I love it, probably my favorite coral although i have slacked on feeding since i set up my 180g. I used to feed every day or at worse every other day. Now, maybe 1-2 times a week i feed it.

It's in between a baseball and a softball size. I've had it for almost 2 years now and it has done great since day1 for me.

I did lose about 8 heads right after that pic when my torch coral fell and rolled onto it. I didnt find it until i got home from work and it killed the heads it was lying on. Luckily, the heads that died are on the back so you really cant see them unless you look from the top down.

 

[Aquarist007]

when you reduced the feeding to one or times a week did you notice any change in the growth rate.

 

[sufunk]

No, it just doesnt stay open as much.

It used to be open from maybe 3-4pm until morning. Now it only opens around 8pm or when i feed.