Some Pics for all to see

[shuturhole316tx]

Can someone ID this coral (the Brain)

 

[shuturhole316tx]

Also dose the sun coral from above and below open like the orange ones or not?

 

[Echidna09]

The brain looks like Lobophyllia. All sun corals should open.

 

[shuturhole316tx]

I spot feed it and it sucks in the food, but it has never opened up yet. I had it for about 3 weeks now. It looks good though, and dosnt look like it is dieing.

 

[sfsuphysics]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10462005#post10462005 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by shuturhole316tx
I spot feed it and it sucks in the food, but it has never opened up yet. I had it for about 3 weeks now. It looks good though, and dosnt look like it is dieing.

When do you spot feed it? My limited experience a few years back was that sun corals, ironically, don't open up if there is light shining on them. So you'll often see them opening at night, which is when you need to spot feed, which is the #1 reason I gave mine away. Although other's have had luck with "training" them to open during the day, I believe that night time only bit is basically response to predation which like many corals can be trained out of it in time as long as there's nothing picking at the corals.

You also might want to try to put it under a shaded ledge, lots of shade is possible, if you don't want to be bothered with night time feeding, I've noticed sun corals sometimes will pop out then as well.

Basically they're non-photosynthetic creatures, and they'll behave like they want to behave

 

[shuturhole316tx]

Thanks for the info. and I do feed at night usally 4 to 5 hours after the lights have gon out.

 

[shuturhole316tx]

the only bad thing about moving this is that I bought it as a "peice of the reef" from Dr. Mac's (one of the sponsors), and the glue that they used to put this stuff togather is very strong. I was trying to get the Candy Cane off and had to break it off from the skeliton and not the glue. I tried for ever to get the brain off, but as you can see its still there. I was afraid to do much with the sun coral after that because I did not wont to damage it. It is place midway in the tank with direct light since the rock has a bubble coral and the brain on it.

 

[Echidna09]

It's a myth that sun corals need to be placed in shade. They lack zooxanthanelle, so they don't really care where they are. Cyclop-eeze or phytoplankton may help influence them to open. My dendros (related to sun polyps) have never fully opened and I believe I've had them for about a month. They puff up at night and when I put food in the tank but never fully open. I can tell they need to be fed so I don't know why they won't open for me. Someone on the forums suggests Zoecon to help them open; I haven't wanted to dish out the cash for the expensive bottle, but may soon.

 

[Qckwzrd]

echidna09 any pics? Make sure the flow is decent and that nothing is bothering it. My single dendro tends to open up more at night and after I feed it. But the tentacles are small on them.

 

[mikekman]

Echidna, the dendro your talking about is the one you got from Fraggle right? If so, didn't you say the flesh on it was sloughing off? How is it doing now?

Qckwzrd, my dendros are open all day and night. I've had direct sunlight hit them and they stayed open. If you see my saltbucket pics, the tentacles on mine are super long about 1-2 inches!!!

 

[shuturhole316tx]

My dendros (related to sun polyps)

Any pics?

Is this coral that I have a sun coral or somthing related to sun corals. It is a hard Skeleton with red tips, and looks nothing like the orange ones. The res tips are hard also. my be a dumb question, but maybe I am looking for the wrong thing from this coral.

 

[Qckwzrd]

Didn't fraggle reef have some dendros for sale but they turned out to be suncorals?

 

[mikekman]

Here are pics of dendros for you shuturhole316tx

Yours looks like a different species of dendro.......I think yours might be a d. arbuscula, a branching sun coral, or a cladopsammia. Not sure but there are a few guys who are good at Iding so they can probably chime in here.

 

[Echidna09]

I didn't get any pics of my dendros when I took pics tonight. they aren't doing too good. at least one of the polyps is almost completely gone. Some are still trying to open; I don't know what their problem is. A part of flesh melted off of one of the heads, but after that nothing has fallen off. I think they are starving. I would love to feed them but can't get them to open for me. Viper thinks that they are branching sun polyps from the pictures. Miguel from Fraggle Reef tells me they are most definitely D. Arbuscula. shuturhole316tx, Yours looks like Branching tubastrea to me.

All pictures of mine can be found in one of the dendro threads a while back.

Next time I'm just going to get some Dendrophyllia Coccenia. They are bigger and seem to be less tempermental. When most people say dendros this is what they are talking about.