Sun Coral - Did You Know?

messina -holy cow, thats a huge sun coral. At least 50+ heads on that thing! Have fun feeding it, it probably can easily consume 2-3 cubes of mysis per feeding!

As a general rule, I usually don't touch my corals. I find a good spot to put them and then let them grow. Touch them minimally. The other rock of sun polyps might still be stressed out a bit so don't worry.
 
I wouldn't worry about it. Mine still haven't opened all the way and it's been over a week. When I put food in they seem to close more. I touch them a lot, because my retarded hermit crabs knock them down all the time. They seem to like it better once I pick them back up.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10322224#post10322224 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by messina06
here are some pics after feeding

looks like they actually may start to come out after all

DSC00155.jpg


DSC00157.jpg
my sun coral wont come out it has been a little over a week it looks like the sun coral in the second picture. i tried to feed it but not sure if it is able to eat the food i give it. how much longer before it extends all its polyps?:confused:
 
My first ever sun coral...lonely little guy :D
Happysunpolyp.jpg


I've heard the black ones are more difficult to keep. Is this true?
 
sdguy, that looks like a branching tubastrea or maybe even an arbusula. I like it!

Great pics of sun corals guys, they are truely lovely. It sucks though that its very hard to get them to open up FULLY during the day. Thats why I like the dendros. They are the best of both worlds but sun corals are still beautiful.

Sdguy- as for black sun corals, I would say they are hard to keep. I have one that was a rescue from a lfs and after nearly 2 months of feeding it mysis soaked with selcon about 3-4 times a week, it looks a little bit better. I don't see any major growth on it or anything. Everything else like my sun corals and dendros have shown growth and improvement but the black suns really haven't. From what I have read online, its said that black sun corals are hard to keep alive. I think other people have had success with them but I think they are hard to keep compared to the normal orange sun corals.
 
It is growing a baby off the side like Viper's second pic.
 
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Miguel from Fraggle Reef ensured that the ones I got really are Dendrophyllia Arbuscula. At night they are finally starting to open up but they haven't all the way it's sad. I'm usually up like all night so I check periodically and they never open up all the way.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10344930#post10344930 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Echidna09
Miguel from Fraggle Reef ensured that the ones I got really are Dendrophyllia Arbuscula. At night they are finally starting to open up but they haven't all the way it's sad. I'm usually up like all night so I check periodically and they never open up all the way.

Hey, that's where mine came from! :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10347719#post10347719 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SDguy
Hey, that's where mine came from! :)

That's cool. If you got it recently then it is probably D. Arbuscula. I haven't seen any Branching Tubastrea on his site recently. Mine are starting to open more towards the end of the day instead of just when the lights are off. Hopefully tonight will be the night they open all the way. I will try to get pics if they do open tonight.
 
Yes, got it a few weeks ago. It was a freebee with a large order.

Mine actually opened no problem from day one, about 30 minutes after lights out. It is in a pretty high flow area, FWIW.
 
I talked to Mike from thecaptivereef.com and he believes they're a kind of Tubastrea. He's also got one.
It probably just said D. arbuscula on Miguel's invoice when he got them.
I would be happy to be wrong though. I have a large colony of these, but I just don't think they're arbusculas.
 
Yeah, I'm no expert, but mine just looks like a regular ol' suncoral polyp, only single.
 
I bought a beautiful sun coral today that has two colonies on one rock. It has 50+ heads. I could believe how healthy this piece looked when I found it. Most of the time they look pretty bad so I couldn't pass this up. It actually started opening up as I was acclimating it and after lights out every polyp was shining. Maybe tomorrow I can get a pic.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10361180#post10361180 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Qckwzrd
thats gotta suck. think your gettin a dendro and you get a suncoral..not that I dont LOVE suncorals

Hey free is always the right price....no biggie for me :D

Here it is feeding tonight, with the little baby side polyp open too:
Sunpolypfeeding1.jpg
 
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Lol SDguy your right....great deal!

Messina yes swelling up is normal. They must have eaten a lot of food...which is good. I just added a cpr aquafuge on my tank and took my old HOB filter off and my nitrates are close to 0! So I may get a new suncoral colony :)
 
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