show me your sun coral

[ReneX]

That looks like Phyllangia americana or one of the other many Caribbean species known as "cup coral". Non-photosynthetic, needs small meaty foods to live. I have some of those on my LR as well in my sun coral tank and I use them to catch whatever the sun corals miss. The skeletons on mine are a little smaller than a dime, and the polyps when open can be about 1 1/2" wide. Pretty, aren't they? Like very long-tentacled transparent sun corals.

Edit: Or, well, it could be Aiptasia If it doesn't have an obvious hard skeleton when closed. But I think I can make one out in the picture.

 

[Kreeger1]

 

[Mental1]

It's not aiptasia. I used to have an aiptasia garden and I know what that looks like -- I ended up throwing all of that rock out. I have never target fed them and they seem to be surviving just fine! I have about ten in my tank and they have been there for 18 months! They are very beautiful looking. I love how their tentacles are so transparent. Thank you ReneX -- took me a while but I found someone who took a decent picture. It's the Hidden Cup Coral. It must be getting something! I will start getting food to them! I love em...

 

[JokerGirl]

Here's mine - it's slowly recovering from a massive algae problem I had that killed half the colony.

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

JokerGirl, was your algae a wispy hair-like algae? If so, I've had the same problem. A good way to deal with it is to blast the algae off it with a turkey baster.

 

[JokerGirl]

Nope, not the same problem. What I had was some form of hair algae. It had really strong holdfasts - could pick up my live rock by it. It was covering almost every rock in my tank along with my sun coral.

 

[Qckwzrd]

Nice looking tubastrea JokerGirl. I had the same hair algae problem with my whites. I couldnt get it off with a powerhead. I used a toothbrush and kept my lights off for a few days.

 

[JokerGirl]

A toothbrush didn't even work on this stuff. I tried that when the tank got transferred over in March. The only thing that has worked is a Phosban reactor and lots of peeling. When the stuff starts to die, it would get this "melting" look to it, at that point I could just go in and it would peel off the rocks in huge strips leaving clean rock behind.

You can see it up close in this picture... it otherwise just looked like little fluffy mats all over the tank.

 

[whoopper]

Here's mine!! Not a good photo, it was with the cell but i think he deserve my recognition anyway!

 

[Qckwzrd]

 

[foolish08015]

heres mine ?

 

[foolish08015]

Here's Mine

Here's Mine

 

[Kustomreefer]

Great looking corals. I just never had good luck with them

 

[Kreeger1]

Qckwzrd what do you feed your tank?

 

[Qckwzrd]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11664815#post11664815 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kreeger1
Qckwzrd what do you feed your tank?

Mysis shrimp, frozen and flaked cyclops, formula one flakes, diced shrimp and squid, and I also soak my food in selcon from time to time. I feed my tank just about everyday.

 

[ZenMan]

I just picked up some sun polyps from a LFS. I've had them two days and I have yet to see any polyps. Even one hour after the lights go out, no extension.

Should I start to worry? Is there anything I can do to encourage the polyps to feed?

 

[dendro982]

ZenMan:
If you have bright lights, sun coral will likely open after the main lights are off - late evening.
To provoke it open for a feeding, the best, what worked for me, was a pinch of Cyclop-eeze, added to 90g tank. Polyps open in ~15 min. But fine particles from frozen seafood should work too.

If this will not work - in a couple of days (or tomorrow) try container feeding. Removing sun coral from the tank, placing it in container with tank water, adding food. Cover from bright light. Keeping there, until eats, but within 1 hr. Watch for temperature drop - double container with warm water between them may be necessary.
Then return to the tank.

For my new starved coral one container feeding was enough to make it open in the tank by itself.
More illustrated information and links to other ways to feed - here.

Good luck!

 

[ZenMan]

Thanks a bunch for the link. I'll try it out!

 

[PauChi]

Here's my two old Faithful ..... (old pic .. a year or two ago ... )

 

[krajacich]

Here's mine several months ago:

Unfortunately they suffered from neglect while I was finishing up my masters but I think they've made a turn for the better with a little more personal attention