Sun Polyp feeding

[!wrass!]

I had always wanted to have Sun Polyps in my tank. I could not resist the mixed orange and black rock and Planet Reef. They are happy and eating well, but I am getting tired from the lack of sleep feeding them at night. They were too big to fit in the cave I had planed for them, so they are in a very shaded area of the tank.

Now for the questions...can you train them to feed during the "day"? If not, I will have to alter by photoperiod. It is well worth in to have these corals flourish in my tank, but would prefer to leave the timers as they are.

What are the real world feeding requirements? I am prepared to feed as often as I have to but does every polyp have to be feed every day, as all the “specs” say. I have heard with other corals that if one eats they all benefit. Is this true?

 

[JxMetal]

when i first got mine, they only fed right after lights off. the more I fed the tank the more they're out. Now they spend about half the day opened up for feeding.

Each polyp needs to be fed individually. They're a time consuming coral if you want them to live. I feed mine probably every other day.

 

[!wrass!]

Corals like these are what make this money pit fun for me. I love to watch corals eat. I have spent lots of time to grow and collect food just to watch them feed.

These two colonies are opening up amazingly at night. After 6 straight nights of feeding until midnight, they are looking great. I fed before lights out tonight and the blacks responded some. The orange ones gave no response. This is kind of weird because the orange ones are much more aggressive eaters so far. As soon as the lights went out the orange ones expanded to 1.5 times there size last night.

 

[JxMetal]

i love the black one's too.

The black one's almost never close. My yellow/orange ones open at normal feeding times, or after they smell meaty items in the water.

 

[ksteiny]

They can be almost trained to open up at the time of day that you feed. Light does not seem to be a factor. I don't kkep them anymore (im to lazy) but when I did they would open up like clock wrok looking for there meals. You can feed your fish or put a little brine shrimp juice in the water to get them in the mood before they get acustomed to a certain fedding time. Also you can remove the colony and place it in a bowl with brine shrimp or whatever you are feeding to train them to come out when they sense food in the water. This can be handy if fish take the food from the coral or you are having water quality issues from feeding them all the time. I would feed at the least 3x per week.