Sun Coral food recommendations

Willistein

Active member
So I picked up a really nice sized sun coral at G's swap a couple weeks ago. I've had difficulty getting it to come out completely and I'm trying different ways to chum the water.

Anybody have experience with these things and do you have a favorite food for them? I've tried cyclop-eeze and coral frenzy to stimulate it and frozen brine and pieces of shrimp once the polyps are out.
 
are you shutting off the flow? I found that when I had mine, shutting off the flow and then squirting the juice at it really helped it open up.
 
When trying to coax new suncorals I always cover them with something (ie. soda bottle, milk jug, etc) I chop some mysis, mix in a little tank water, then squirt into the container with a turkey baster. Occassionally stir up the water in the container with the turkey baster to stir up the mysis, once they open up and start eating this will give them mult. feedings to each head. I leave the container on overnight without any problems. They will eventually start opening up and will start to come out more and more. I've had mine 2+ years and they are open more than half the day and all night. IMO even if the heads don't open up I think they absorb a little nutrition just letting the food sit on them. When I take the cont. off of the suncorals, the remaining mysis is the food for fish that day. When I first get the suncoral I ususally have to spot feed them every other day, eventually they will only need spot feeding twice a week. Although I feed my tank heavily and they get good flow so they catch food on their own also.

I have read that periods of no or low flow cause suncorals to spawn. Don't know if that is true but I have baby suncorals popping up all over the tank, so I really don't think lack of flow overnight hurts them at all. I do remove the cap to the milk jug though so there is some fresh water exchange.
 
I have never kept one but some people take it out of the tank and put it in a dish for an hour or two with food, at least to get it opening at first.

I hope to try some when I get my tank up and running.
 
I cut the top off a 2-liter and attached a 24" long 3/4" PVC pipe. I use a turkey baster to squirt food into the pipe and with a couple more squirts of water it slowly drifts down and onto the coral. The best it has done was last night when 4 or 5 of the 20+ polyps were extended and inflated. Just trying to get it all the way out...
 
take it out of the tank and put it in a dish for an hour or two with food, at least to get it opening at first.

I hope to try some when I get my tank up and running.

This is what I've always done...after a few of these feedings, they won't need much coaxing to open.

I did it for like 30 mins.
 
I was pretty frustrated when i first got mine... it wasn't opening regularly at all. Even got to the point where i put it up for trade on here. I got a text from a friend who said give it time. I just that, now everytime i toss food in the tank for my fish my suns pop open like crazy.

Was feeding with mysis but switched to rods food.
 
ABC in Syracuse carried it a year or two ago, then stopped. I asked a few weeks ago and they said they were going to carry it again soon. If anyone knows of a place that has it in stock I'd love to know. It's expensive but lasts a long time for me.
 
When the frozen food settles to the bottom of the cup it's thawed in, I pull up some of the water into a feeder tube and squirt it toward the Sun Coral. The scent of the water makes the Sun open up. Then I feed as many polyps as I can reach with whatever I'm feeding the fish. I use Hikari frozen foods and find they do not need to be rinsed or cloud the water. I tried Rod's and didn't care for it. Although I've posted the feeding tube before, I'll give it another shot, because it really works great for feeding not only the Sun Coral, but Frogspawn, Hammer, Bubble, etc.

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This can be made as long as you need to reach the bottom of the tank. The rigid tubing is connected to the syringe with a short length of pliable tube. I also put an inch of soft tubing on the other end, so it's softer if I poke a coral a little to hard.

Sun-1.jpg
 
ABC in Syracuse carried it a year or two ago, then stopped. I asked a few weeks ago and they said they were going to carry it again soon. If anyone knows of a place that has it in stock I'd love to know. It's expensive but lasts a long time for me.

Caribbean Forest in Rochester/Irondequoit carries it.
 
i feed mine a very small amount into the water fifteen minutes before im going to actually feed the suncoral . after fifteen minutes the coral polyps are 50% exposed so its time to feed , and to do this i use a "sea squirt" and cyclopeeze that has been thawed in salt water .then i softly squirt the cyclopeeze onto the coral and it gobbles it up like crazy .heres a couple of hints
1-use saltwater or the coral will sense this and quickly retract and not eat
2-get some food in the tank so it will open before you try to spot feed the coral
3-do this a couple times a day till it learns the feeding schedule
 
Hey Im stationed at Drum I bought my sun coral at ABC Reef 2 on the side of town aweek ago, they will speacial order for you
 
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