Sun Coral - Did You Know?

[mikekman]

qckwzrd, congrats on getting a aqafuge for your tank. Be sure to show some more pics of your dendros

I have to admit, I don't test my tanks water so I have no idea what my nitrates and phosphates are. I just do 2-4 gallon water change a week on my bio cube 14 containing all my non photosynthetics though lately I have been slacking off and just doing 2 gallon a week. Mind you, I am feeding nearly everyday!

sdguy, keep showing more pics of your suncoral/dendro.

Echidna, show more pics of your suncoral/dendro and go to the soft coral forum and show pics of your cesp.

 

[SDguy]

Messina, yes, after two large PE mysis shrimps for dinner last night, my single polup was quite "puffy" this morning, even though it was closed.

Now my next question....obviously the new baby polyp is deriving nutrients from the large one. At what point will this stop, and it will require feeding? Does it ever stop completely? I've always read that you have to feed each polyp of a colony, but does anyone know to what extent the polyps do/do not share nutrients they capture?

 

[SDguy]

I'm pretty happy with the way things have progressed with my little sunpolyp. It easily catches and consumes food now, and has sprouted 3 little side polyps

Note the peanut worming desperately looking for the food it smells

 

[mikekman]

Sdguy, nice pic. Do you target feed your sun coral or just let water current in your tank take it to them?

I have no idea about when baby sun corals won't derive nutrients from the parents. I would like to know as well because I have on several threads that you don't need to feed each polyp on a sun coral colony but then I hear other reports that each polyp needs to be fed.

 

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10474045#post10474045 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mikekman
Sdguy, nice pic. Do you target feed your sun coral or just let water current in your tank take it to them?

I have no idea about when baby sun corals won't derive nutrients from the parents. I would like to know as well because I have on several threads that you don't need to feed each polyp on a sun coral colony but then I hear other reports that each polyp needs to be fed.

Yeah, I've heard that too. I've also heard that you need to feed them every day. Pfft, mine seems to be doing just fine with average of once a week feeding (at best...I know, I know...I'm a lazy sunpolyp owner ).

 

[mikekman]

Sdguy, keep feeding the mother polyp and not the babies and let us know at which point the babies start dying off or whatever. Maybe that can tell us if the babies are individual creatures that need their own nutrition or if they are connected to each other and share nutrients.

 

[beaupierce]

I just got my very first sun coral with about 35 + polyps on it from a local store. However, I had no clue how hard it was to feed them. How do you feed yours? So far it has'nt opened up entirely and I cant get the mysis to stick to the polyps. Are there any tricks? Or does it not eat until its open?

 

[sufunk]

Here's a few pics of mine. Had the orange about 2 years, the yellow about 8 months and the black a few months.

Black
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Yellow
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Orange
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[weaselslucks]

just got a sun coral with about 4-5 polyps on it for $20. did i overpay?
it only opened a tiny bit enough to swallow one piece of food