Sun Coral

amphirion

amphirion

New member
Hi,
I'm about to purchase a Sun Coral in the next month and I wanted to know if anyone is able to make a sun coral open during the day (when the lights are on). What do you feed you sun coral?

What I really want to know is : how do we make a Sun Coral open during the day???

Thanks!!:rollface:
 
My sun coral is open right now.


I feed mine a seafoodshake consisting of mysis shrimp "seafood cuisine" and clams with some selcon roughly daily. It adds new polyps quicker than any other coral I have.
 
All I have to do it put a couple flakes of food in the tank and my sun coral opens right up.

I feed mine different stuff all the time; cyclopeeze, brine shrimp, formula 1, chopped up silversides, well washed caviar ment to be used on sushi. I only feed it 1-2 times a week. I have it in a 12g nano tank so I can't afford the bioload from feeding it daily. I've had it for a year and a half and it keeps growing slowly.
 
You said that its growing up slowly.. for how much time did you have it and you said you fed it caviar!?!? this coral is a lucky one!!:lol:
I heard about someone that has a special method to feed his sun coral without affecting the bioload. I just want to share it with you guys:
-you place your sun coral in a place that you can easily reach
- each time you want to feed it, you take it out of the tank and you put it in a bowl of tank water
-You feed the coral in that bowl
- when the coral has completely finished to eat, you take it out of the bowl and you replace it in the main tank

I thaught it was a very good idea. what do you think?

Thanks
 
feed it during the day...spray food on the coral and watch it open up...then when it opens baste the hell out of it...its like a dog...you gotta train it
 
I feed mine 1-2 times a week. I take it out of the tank, it has it's own bowl. It takes about an hour to an hour and a half for it to eat. Then it goes back into the tank. Any food that may make it back into my tank is quickly eaten by my fish.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8428918#post8428918 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by amphirion
You said that its growing up slowly.. for how much time did you have it and you said you fed it caviar!?!? this coral is a lucky one!!:lol:
I heard about someone that has a special method to feed his sun coral without affecting the bioload. I just want to share it with you guys:
-you place your sun coral in a place that you can easily reach
- each time you want to feed it, you take it out of the tank and you put it in a bowl of tank water
-You feed the coral in that bowl
- when the coral has completely finished to eat, you take it out of the bowl and you replace it in the main tank

I thaught it was a very good idea. what do you think?

Thanks
Click to expand...

That is a very good way to get it trained and get used to feeding it, but is a PITA in the long-term. I've used that method to get lots of frags to open up in the past. Tonight, my first experience with cyclopeeze, I just thawed some in tank water and shot small amounts at my cun coral's mouths with a syringe. It worked wonderfully, though next time I'm definitely killing my tank's flow (I fed everything and bet I wasted 60-70% of the cyclopeeze I thawed, but I've never seen my lobo happier)
 
Another great method of feeding these is to use a sterile 2l drinks bottle with the bottom removed and a supply of live newly hatched brine shrimp. Slowly lower your bottle over the specimen to be targeted. Seat the bottle firmly over the animal but do not push too deep into the sand bed if you have one. You will see the animal react to the change in environment. Begin to pour the live food into the removed bottle top. This will fill the chamber with food as you have secured the bottom to stop any release. Almost immediately you can see the polyps start to emerge. After passing food to the gut via nematocyst laden polyps, the polyps soon extend again for second helpings!

Remember that Sun corals have no zooxanthellae and cannot use light as a source of nutrition. Target feeding is a must even in a well established mature system for best results.
 
Is light an issue

Is light an issue

My lfs had a gorgeous one under direct light. Told me to put cyclopeez in water table and feed direct with mysis. Still not opening.

Why was it so wide open in his tank in the light?
 
How long have you had it fishnugget, how long did you acclimatise it for and what lighting did the lfs have it under - any differences ?
 
They dont require light as theyre non-photosynthetic but could be that it got used to the PC's and isnt responding too well to the change. Try the feeding tip I gave out in an earlier post but try to feed at night and see if that makes a difference. Stick with it m8.
 
Persistence seemed to be the key to getting mine to open in the light. Once it figured out that there would be more food available during the light, it seems to stay ready and will extend its polyps within about 10 min. of first smelling food. The key is to really feed it well the first few times it extends during the day. After that, they are much more willing to come out.

Here's a feeding hat I used to use (now I just feed the tank):

img_0348_web.jpg
 
Oh, remember that while all the polyps look joined together, they are actually not gastronomically connected. Every polyp needs to get some food to survive.
 
i just feed mine when it is ready, usually right before lights out and lights on. it responds well and i just deal with it.

it looks like this

<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b94/vbcoach22/10-13-06028-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>
 
I have four (yellow, orange and red - still looking for a black one) for months and do not feed them (used to but not anymore). I feed all LPS at the same way: reefbooster weekly + Phytoplan and Zooplan twice week.

They open anytime they smell food.

I've read that suncorals don't care if they are under light or not. It became a myth because at sea they used to be found in caves, but the real reason they like caves are because the current brings more food. Water movement seems to matter for mines. The two located under stronger movement (and under more light) are growing faster and open more than the ones with lower movement.

Pic_9162_10.jpg
 
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