Orange Cup Coral

[willyreef]

Hello everyone,
I'm new to the reef keeping. I have had a fish only tank for 2 years with lots of live rock. My tank is a 54 Gal. corner tank. I just started adding corals about 2 months ago. I have lots of Zoo's, a gold spag. leather, some Xenia, green star polyps, and some mushrooms. I just added a beautiful Orange Cup coral. I know I need to feed it, but it has been two days now and it is not opened yet. I even check on it during the night. Is this normal?
How long before it should open? What are good ways to feed and what type of food? I thought mysis shrimp would be good.
Any help would be great!

Thank you,

Willyreef

 

[DJ88©]

[moved]

 

[lemonhead]

try frozen cyclopeeze

 

[David Grigor]

What are you referring to as a cup ?

a pagoda, turbinaria, montipora cap. and probably several other possibilities.

 

[Aquariumist]

mine didn't open for almost a week I finally figured out i was dosing way too much iodine, and my salnity was very low.

 

[venwu225]

1.025 rule...its a good one

 

[willyreef]

Day for and my orange cup has not opened to feed. It starts to open up but only a little. Is this a sing that it's getting use to my tank and may soon open?

Willyreef

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

How about a pic? Orange Cup Coral is such a generic name, it could refer to many corals, as previously posted.

This really makes a difference in terms of feeding, habits, etc..

 

[willyreef]

The orange cup is the Tubastraea sp. It is now day six after putting in the tank. It still opens very little if at all. Any suggestions to get him to eat? I use a eye dropper and drop Mysis shrimp on and around it. Little worried he is going to starve.

Willyreef

 

[Azurel]

Do the polyps come out at night? If they do then you will have to feed them then....They prefer low light to trigger thier polyps to come out, most people put them under ledges and in caves but the flow is to slow. They like a good flow and low light. Full light will not kill them they just won't show themselves like you want them to. I know there is a type or sub-species that will come out during the day light hours.

 

[willyreef]

I have checked at night and in the early morning hours and nothing. They start to open when i feed in the day, but only go so far.

Willyreef

 

[Azurel]

How much flow is on them? They might need a little more flow to trigger the polyp response your looking for. As it is right now I would look at flow around them.....I don't think I would have a hard constant flow but maybe a inconsistant flow that will sway the tentacles back and forth.

 

[willyreef]

Day eight, and it seems the coral is starting to open more than before. I squirt some food on the coral when feeding my fish and then about 15 min. later some of the coral opens about 50%. It just wont open all the way. Is it starting to get use to the tank? I hope that it will soon be feeding like it should. Oh while it is opening i keep squirting it with more food. Some times I see it grab some food and draw in.

Thank you,

Willreef

 

[colettem]

Sounds like it is doing fine - apparently they can take two weeks to begin to open fully - just keep on with what you are doing. I've been very lucky with mine in that it has opened fully from day one. It always wants feeding at a very inconvenient time though - just as I'm going to bed! You could try a biphasic feeding - squirt something over it to entice it to open and then 30 mins later when more polyps are open do the main feeding. I feed mine something different everyday - mysis, brine shrimp, cyclopeeze, powdered flake food, or ground up pieces of shrimp or mussel. The only problem I have is that my clean up crew make a stampede towards it and try to pinch the food - I have to target feed my hermits to distract them!