NOY's Sun Corals

thanks colt

Videos of Sun Corals (and its cousin Duncan) eating Live Brine

Tubeastrea (Sun Coral)
- notice how effective and sticky the nematocysts are in catching brine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNn9Hxs-h5o

Tubeastrea (Black Sun Coral)
- there is one brine which is fighting for its life trying to escape

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjRumggrvsk

Duncan
- the nematocyst are nowhere as effective as the sun corals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI56w5dnPFw

Dendro
- probably the most effective

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVs7m8JliOE

Duncan (Green)
- larger colony uses bulk to envelop brine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUHav13-G_o
 
Hi Noy,
Advice to ask, considering your success!
I have an nps-lps tank that I feed a lot: every day 2-3 cubes mysis, 1-2 cubes brine, nutramar ova, cyclopeeze, phyto, rotifers, rotifer diet, blood worms...
There is a fair amount of flow, and I can see my 3 tubastrea sucking at least water in, and responding a bit when I put food in the tank, but they haven't opened up like yours do.
Is it possible to get the proportions of the food you list?
I'd really appreciate it!
thanks :)
 
teemee said:
Hi Noy,
Advice to ask, considering your success!
I have an nps-lps tank that I feed a lot: every day 2-3 cubes mysis, 1-2 cubes brine, nutramar ova, cyclopeeze, phyto, rotifers, rotifer diet, blood worms...
There is a fair amount of flow, and I can see my 3 tubastrea sucking at least water in, and responding a bit when I put food in the tank, but they haven't opened up like yours do.
Is it possible to get the proportions of the food you list?
I'd really appreciate it!
thanks :)
Click to expand...

My stocklist is:

3 large tubastrea's
3 medium sized tubastrea
1 medium branching tubastrea
2 large black sun corals
1 medium sun coral
1 small sun coral
1 medium dendro
I have a couple of frags here and there.

I feed every other night during the week and nightly on Sat/Sun (~5 times a week) and I have a rotating routine of brine/Mysis/blood worms. I try to make sure I feed blood worms 2x a week. I also try to feed live brine at most once a month.

I don't see any feed response on phyto, or any of the powered coral foods or even cyclopeez. If you put coral food (reef roids etc) in the water the polyps will respond and open up but won't actually show a feeding response if you squirt coral foods at them. I find larger size meat foods generate a good response. I also find that for some reason my corals all hate oyster eggs and literally barf them out (spew them out in this slime excretion).

My thinking (and its just a theory) is that we confuse fish requirement with these corals and while brine shrimp won't work as a staple for fish - i'm inclined to think otherwise for corals. I have this little patch of black sun coral that have been raised on nothing but brine (very small polyps initially) and its grown considerably and multiplied in heads. I like blood worms because its high in protein.

In terms of proportion - I use enough to make sure every head get a bit. The videos on the blood worm feeding is how I apportion food to each head. So I don't follow a strict quantity regiment. I don't mix foods and feed primarily one food each feeding.

When I feed blood worms I generally end up using 6-7 cubes and 1-2 cubes of brine shrimp. I feed the brine to the smaller polyps that have trouble securing the blood worms.

As for brine shrimp I use 8+ cubes. As for the Mysis - i buy a big sheet and chop it up and i probably use about the equivalent of 8 cubes.

As for getting them to open up more - i would suggest the following:

1) feed at a regular time - i feed right after the main lights go out and the moon lights come on. They open up like clockwork after the main lights go out.

2) use some "prompter" foods - i find they respond to "smelly" foods in the water. i have this angel food feed stuff which smells dreadful - i break off a piece and dilute it in water and squirt the diluted stuff at the heads (with all pumps off). i find new acquisitions will respond using this technique.

3) adjust your flow - try direct or bounced direct flow. this actually makes a big difference. i suspect it may be due the flow carrying dissolved foods to the heads.

4) some people use #2 but feed the coral in a bucket - i'm not a fan of that - i think they get more disturbed by being moved.

5) whenever i get new corals i feed everyday for a month or so - gets them used to opening up.

hope that helps!
 
can't wait to see the orange one open and happy, my boyfriend would love a colored rhizo instead of our whites but they are spendy right now
 
I have black and yellow suns. The yellows have 7 new heads started and the blacks started w/4 and now have7. I use a small syringe and feed a mixture of mysis and copepods with a cap full of Garlic Guard to each polyp. They are the stars of my tank. The smell of the garlic seems to open them up pretty quickly. Yeah my clowns and shrimp both associate the syringe with feeding time so it's an act of attrition but like you said it's well worth it. Keep up the good work
 
noy said:
My stocklist is:

3 large tubastrea's
3 medium sized tubastrea
1 medium branching tubastrea
2 large black sun corals
1 medium sun coral
1 small sun coral
1 medium dendro
I have a couple of frags here and there.

I feed every other night during the week and nightly on Sat/Sun (~5 times a week) and I have a rotating routine of brine/Mysis/blood worms. I try to make sure I feed blood worms 2x a week. I also try to feed live brine at most once a month.

I don't see any feed response on phyto, or any of the powered coral foods or even cyclopeez. If you put coral food (reef roids etc) in the water the polyps will respond and open up but won't actually show a feeding response if you squirt coral foods at them. I find larger size meat foods generate a good response. I also find that for some reason my corals all hate oyster eggs and literally barf them out (spew them out in this slime excretion).

My thinking (and its just a theory) is that we confuse fish requirement with these corals and while brine shrimp won't work as a staple for fish - i'm inclined to think otherwise for corals. I have this little patch of black sun coral that have been raised on nothing but brine (very small polyps initially) and its grown considerably and multiplied in heads. I like blood worms because its high in protein.

In terms of proportion - I use enough to make sure every head get a bit. The videos on the blood worm feeding is how I apportion food to each head. So I don't follow a strict quantity regiment. I don't mix foods and feed primarily one food each feeding.

When I feed blood worms I generally end up using 6-7 cubes and 1-2 cubes of brine shrimp. I feed the brine to the smaller polyps that have trouble securing the blood worms.

As for brine shrimp I use 8+ cubes. As for the Mysis - i buy a big sheet and chop it up and i probably use about the equivalent of 8 cubes.

As for getting them to open up more - i would suggest the following:

1) feed at a regular time - i feed right after the main lights go out and the moon lights come on. They open up like clockwork after the main lights go out.

2) use some "prompter" foods - i find they respond to "smelly" foods in the water. i have this angel food feed stuff which smells dreadful - i break off a piece and dilute it in water and squirt the diluted stuff at the heads (with all pumps off). i find new acquisitions will respond using this technique.

3) adjust your flow - try direct or bounced direct flow. this actually makes a big difference. i suspect it may be due the flow carrying dissolved foods to the heads.

4) some people use #2 but feed the coral in a bucket - i'm not a fan of that - i think they get more disturbed by being moved.

5) whenever i get new corals i feed everyday for a month or so - gets them used to opening up.

hope that helps!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips!
I have several nps gorgonians as well as the tubastrea, which is why i also feed cyclopeeze, ova, etc. I'm going to pick up some blood worms and angel food this week. Fingers crossed, it works :)
 
Some shots of my black sun corals (micrantha). Couldn't bring out the differences in colonies as much as I would like.

Black Sun Coral with Polyps with a white tinge to it. I saw these in a LFS and the colony was in pretty bad shape. I noticed that the polyps had this white tinge to it and had white tips and thought it was pretty unique. I really think I lose some this in the macros shots.


IMG_6105

IMG_6114

Typical Black Sun Coral with black polyps and black epidermis (skin).

IMG_6117

Black Sun Corals with a Green Epidermis (skin)

IMG_6116

Black Sun Corals with a dark green polyp

IMG_4705

I think the green and black epidermis are different colour morphs for micranthas. The polyps range from different hues of green to black (with different hues). I've had these colonies for some time and the colours have remained stable. I would not say the same thing about the Yellow Sun Corals though. I started with more red and orange colonies and they are now all the same hue of orange and yellow. I am more inclined to think with the yellow sun corals the colour of the colonies depend a lot more on water chemistry (ph, levels of nitrate) and there are a lot less actual colour morphs out there.

I would love to hear what other people's experiences are (and show pics!)
 
Last edited:
noy said:
I think the green and black epidermis are different colour morphs for micranthas. The polyps range from different hues of green to black (with different hues). I've had these colonies for some time and the colours have remained stable. I would not say the same thing about the Yellow Sun Corals though. I started with more red and orange colonies and they are now all the same hue of orange and yellow. I am more inclined to think with the yellow sun corals the colour of the colonies depend a lot more on water chemistry (ph, levels of nitrate) and there are a lot less actual colour morphs out there.

I would love to hear what other people's experiences are (and show pics!)
Click to expand...

may be what you said, that the pH influence something in the color of certain colonies.

I think that on the contrary, the color change resulting from other factors and may be up to the light but do not contain zooxanthellate know that contribute to energy requirements.

also touched me a whole display as pink colonies have changed color, but also some others have maintained that in the same colony are orange and yellow.

food may be another factor that determines the color change their nutritional components in pigmentation.

interesting topic!

would be interesting to know if any chromo involved in the change.
 
I have my doubts about light being a factor in terms of coloration exactly because there is no zooxanthellate algae. I agree food could be a factor and this gives me an interesting idea whereupon I can feed (or not feed) specific colonies different foods with strong pigmentation (like bloodworms) and see what the effect is.

I totally agree there are colour "morphs" even within the same colony. I have that situation myself where I have one polyp which is a distinct colour than the others - which is interesting. I'll post a photo of this (have to wait till lights out before the polyps open).
 
Any shots of the rhizo's. Picked up one similar to the bottom one in your pics a few weeks ago. Its very rarely not out. Would love another but they are like rocking horse poo over here.
 
Took a couple of quick shots last night.
They both open after lights out. I haven't done anything to try to get them to open during day yet - just trying to get them to fully acclimate to water chemistry.


IMG_6169


IMG_6171
 
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