Sun Coral: Picture and a couple ??s

[Newreeflady]

Full tank:

Sun Coral after feeding, w/flash at nighttime:

I just bought this coral and am still trying to figure placement. For now, this spot gives me access to feed, but it is not a cave and I don't want to cause the coral stress. Also, it is fairly good sized as you can see, and i'm not sure how much larger it will get and if I should consider epoxying it on a rock. If I do this, will getting more light be harmful to the coral?

Anyhow, as you can see, the coral opens beautifully after a couple nights of coaxing. It eats well, although i'm not sure how i'm supposed to be certain that all of the polyps eat. There are probably >40 polyps, some are small and are kind of blocked by the larger ones. I have been feeding mysis, but also have cyclopeeze, but not sure if it will eat it.

Best,
Angela

 

[norm_al]

Thats a beautie... glue it if u want but no need too. place it on a flat rock thats ok too. give it shade or put in a cave it will eat cyclopeeze free floating in the tank just keep water parms.low to o.o5

 

[Newreeflady]

Thanks. Yes, when I saw a healthy one local I jumped on it. I've wanted one of these for years.

I just fed cyclopeeze after turning off one of the pumps and it seemed to eat it,... but VERY quick! This thing is a PIG!

I would like to move it, i'll need to find an alternate situation for the rock. I have a small cave it can go under, but it makes feeding difficult as it is not easily in reach.

I am not sure it will get enough to eat with just free-floating cyclopeeze. I'm not expert, but it seems to eat an aweful lot if you let it, it wouldn't catch nearly as much with a bit of cyclopeeze floating around. Especially as it is put through the sump and pumps, etc.

Thanks, i'll look into putting it in a cave. For now it is far from the light, but not shaded really.

Angela

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

very nice...

 

[slojmn]

I have found that certain corals have a plating growth formation and make the perfect shade trees in a tank . I set my efflo, for instance, 3" off the bottom and it plates out over the bottom of the tank. I place new frags in the spot under the efflo to acclimate them slowly to light. When it gets bigger it will be the perfect spot for low light corals in the tank. Maybe you could get a monti cap and attach it to a rock out front and center 4-6 off the bottom and have it grow out creating shade for your sun coral and you would still have plenty of access to it. This is not a short term solution but something to think about in the long run, creating a more natural look.

That is a really nice picture of it feeding, just gorgeous .

 

[chem-e]

I have mine in the corner of the tank as well where it gets a little less light. I've had it under ledges as well, but it was difficult to feed and my hermit crabs are able to reach it. Now I have it propped up off the sand bed.

I've been nursing it back as when I got it, it was a little neglected, so it lost half its polyps. All I've been doing is feeding silverside, formula 1, mysis, and cyclopeeze and I would guess that it's back to 70-75%. Hopefully it'll be back to 100% in the next few months.

 

[atf72]

These corals are non-photosynthetic so it really does not matter where you place it as far as light goes. They can handle strong metal halide without a problem IME. Consistent water parameters, light to moderate flow, and lots of hand feeding is the key. I would just mount it to a small rock to keep it off the sandbed, or set it on a rock where you have easy access to feed it.

 

[Newreeflady]

Hi all. Yes, i've got several cap frags that I may consider positioning for this purpose. I have heard keeping it on the sandbed can cause tissue degradation. Right now it appears to be on the sand, but I have actually placed some rock under the sand so it is on rock. I would like to move it as it actually seems a little large for this area and i'd like to give it room to grow and spread its mat of polyps. I will take a look at repositioning.

I got some more great shots of this coral. I swear it looks better every day. I have been feeding mysis and cyclopeeze interchangeably, I think the cyclopeeze is good because it ensures that the smaller polyps get fed. There are a lot of smaller polyps that are kinda shaded or surrounded by larger ones so when I feed mysis only a few of the smaller ones get any.

Thanks for the compliments. It's funny how much pride we can take in these. It is surely a beauty. I hope it sends off babies at some point so I can share with other members of BAR.

Best,
Angela

 

[Whisperer]

I have a question, how come my sun coral are branching? Are they the same as yours or another specie? I'll take pics later to show you.
Ok, I found one pic...

Do I have a different sun coral?

 

[2639]

Glad I found this thread. I am planning a restructure of my entire tank and thought of putting my sun coral on the sandbed. Is it valid that placing her on the sand will damage the tissue?

 

[Newreeflady]

Whisperer,

i'm not sure if you have a sun coral or dendrophyllia (sp?). I'm not so good at identifying species, but that gives you something else to look at. It looks like sun coral to me, but maybe someone else will chime in.

2639, I read that on melev's reef site, i'm not sure the validity but wouldn't doubt it as he's generally a good source for info.

I have now moved mine to a rock mid-tank. I will do some rearrangement to get a monti cap over the sun coral that will eventually shade it. It looks great mid-tank, I think it opens even more.

I have never been so impressed by a coral, this is probably my favorite coral of all time and it doesn't even require light, lol! Just a lot of attention and feeding. I will do a small water change today and check nutrient levels.

-A

 

["Umm fish?"]

They do seem to have trouble ejecting sand that gets in their tubes. One of my colonies is on a low flat rock on the sandbed. The other two didn't have polyps close to the bottom of their skeleton, so they are just resting on the sandbed. They don't care about the light at all. Just remember that every single polyp needs to get fed--they are a collection of individuals and not a colony and they don't share food.

Good luck!

 

["Umm fish?"]

By the way, Whisperer, those might be larvae. Tubastrea are brooders and will release planula larvae eventually if they are well fed. My turbinaria (another dendrophylliid) is also a brooder. That sure might be what you are seeing. Nice photo!

 

[Whisperer]

umm, thanks. So what is the difference aside from structure from a regular sun coral? I used to have the same sun coral as newreeflady's, I saw it when it spawned. I remember seeing small sesame seed-shaped orangey thingies (but a little more plump than sesame seeds) that wiggled as they were released from the mouth of the polyps. I thought they were not real eggs because they were wiggling. So, those are called planula, eh?

 

["Umm fish?"]

Planula larvae, yeah. You can see some in my avatar )).

What can I tell you about the varieties? Well, of the tubastrea I have two different color variants (species? maybe?) of what newreeflady has. That is, kind of encrusting and send polyps up in a sort of hemisphere. I also have a micrantha (the black version) and that one grows in branches.

As far as the rest of the family goes, here's the wetwebmedia page:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/dendrophylliidae.htm

Did any of your larvae settle? Oh, they are so cute when they are small....

 

[Whisperer]

nope, probably skimmed. Never saw babies until I tore down the tank when I moved.

 

["Umm fish?"]

Bummer. They aren't bouyant, so it's pretty likely to get them to settle.

 

[Whisperer]

No, I remember them drifting with the water current.

 

[Qckwzrd]

I've had by black and orange sun corals for about 4 days and they haven't opened yet. I've fed them everyday since I got them it will open a lil then close up they look pretty healthy but is it true they can take about a week to open? I have 130 watts PC.

 

[Qckwzrd]