sun coral question

digidana

Member
i bought a little one today from CR...i've got all the lights out and its not opening. is that cause its been through so much today? should i just kinda baste it with mysis juice every night and hope it opens? or is there anything else i can do? thanks!
 
For the most part tubastrea will extend when food is present in the water column... They're probably a bit stressed right now, so I'd probably wait a couple nights...
 
ok, i got up to check on my new pet sun coral a couple times during the nite (i know, i'm a freak) and it wasn't open. i turn on the lights this morning, and now its partially open. maybe its already been trained to like the daylight? sorry, it feels like my first real coral...i'm excited. :bounce1:
 
We've got 3 diff types of suncoral, the black, yellow, and orange. Dont worry if they dont come out immediately, or even for a day or so. Like it was stated, put a little food in the water column to get him to open up. What i like to do is throw a little dry cyclopeeze into the tank and wait about 30 mins. After that they are all open and then you can feed some mysis to them. After a while, you wont have to put any food in the water column and they will stay open during your photoperiod and you can feed when you want. Its awesome!

By the way, if anyone happens to see the red/purple strain of tubastrea thats in the pic at CR, LET ME KNOW PLEASE. (sorry, not trying to hijack)
 
wow, very cool! it didn't fully open last nite, but partially. i did get to feed it...i just kinda held a mysis there and it seemed to stick to it.

what do you use to feed it...do you actually use tweezers to feed each polyp, or do you just kinda blow mysis at it with a turkey baster, or what? i can't wait to see it fully open.

is the pic on the board at CR? can't they order one for you? thanks!
 
No, I dont use tweezers. what i do is I simply hold a turkey baster with Scott Michaels Mysis over it and let is seep out on the cup corals. I move the turkey baster around to feed 99% of the polyps...the other 1% grow in hard to get places, LOL. dont forget to turn the pumps off for a short time so they have a peaceful time eating and dont have to compete with the water column.

If your cup coral is on the sand what you can do is build a nifty alien craft looking feeder.

Cut a coke bottle in half and use the top half. Drill a small hole into the cap and insert an a tube (this can be an airline tube or larger) and silicone it in the cap. After this has cured and dried epoxy some of those flat rocks/marbles that you find in beta bowls all the time to weigh it down. Now all you have to do is direct the flying saucer over the cup coral and land it. then just put the food in the tube and watch it surround the cup coral. This also protects it from feeder shrimp or other fish from eating off of the cup coral. Hope this helps.

And I do ask them everytime im in there to get me one so if CR is reading this, I still want one!
 
oh, that flying saucer sounds too cool! right now its in a 14g so i can reach it ok...but i'll have to make one of those when it gets moved to the big tank (if i ever get water in it!). does yours stay open most of the day, or does it open off and on? do you have any pics handy? i'd love to see the different colors! i can't wait to see mine open all the way.

i need a new turkey baster. i think the kids got a hold of it, and the tip is chewed up. last night i bought a turkey injector tho (on clearance at lowes), and cut off the holes on the tip off. looks like a big needle now. i might try it. thanks!
 
Back
Top