Sun Coral Question

[happyface888]

While at my LFS I was told that sun corals would only open if they smell food. And most of the time they are closed. Is that true? If so that means all I would see more of the time are orange sticks?

 

[a2fire2i]

Unless you are prepared to feed each polyp every night, then i would pass on it. Unless you train them, most will only open at night in hopes to catch food.

 

[musty baby]

Not entirely true. By feeding them over and over again during lit hours you can "train" them to be open, but I haven't been so devoted. They do open when they smell food, and throwing in the water that you thaw food for them in will make them open quite quickly after a short while (a few weeks at most). Even closed they are a completely unique shape and extremely brilliant color, so if you have the capacity (and you HAVE to have the capacity, or they will die) to feed them regularly then go ahead and pick one up, otherwise leave it to someone else.

 

[oltemative]

I suggest trying a small frag first. It's not time consuming to feed just a few polyps every day or so and you'll gain some experience with them.

Just watch out that you don't train your shrimp to always find the food in the sun coral. Many people feed it in a bowl of tank water outside the tank to avoid food poaching by the livestock.