Sun polyp

[rholguin]

I have a sun polyp that I bought about 5 or 6 days ago. The problem is that it has not opened to feed, so last night I took it out and placed it in a bowl and placed a frozen cube of mysd shrimp. All the polyps extended but did not extend their feather structures out. After about an hour I placed it back in the tank and it extended nicely. I squirted some marine snow at each head. What else can I do to feed it. I really dont wanted to die. Any help is greatly appreciated. All water parameters are ok.

 

[JetCat USA]

cut the bottom off a soda bottle and place the top part of it over the coral and add food through the cap and reinstall the cap, that keeps the food concentration around the coral, after a few regular feedings they get used to it and they'll open when you feed the tank.

 

[rholguin]

thanks jetcat

 

[spellbound]

It took mine almost 2 1/2 weeks to open. I like the soda bottle idea. What I finally did was to squirt some shrimp around it and wait a little bit. Then it opened and I went back and fed them making sure to do this about the same time every day. Now they open and are ready for their feeding.

 

[mikekman]

rholguin, when you take the sun coral out please don't expose it to air and stress it out further. What you do is get some kind of bowl, dip it into your tank and carefully put the sun coral in it all the time the bowl is still in the tank.

Try what Jetcat said and see how it goes.

It may take the sun coral some time to open up so don't worry too much.

Lastly, the soda bottle thing can be a pain, so you could turn off all the pumps in your tank and feed the sun corals without all that water flow blowing the food away.

 

[rholguin]

Well I tried the bottle method some of the polyps opened but not all. Today I noticed that my sun coral had its mouth fully opened then it just shuts its mouth again. Is this normal. Could not take a pic.

 

[sunkool]

try to feed about an hour after the lights go out. turn the pumps off, thet the water settle, then using a turkey baster squirt them with live baby brine shrimp. fill a glass with tank water then put filtered shrimp only in the glass. within 5 min. all the polyps should open then squirt a few more times.

After the first few times of doing this they should open any time they sence food in the water. Mine open up with the lights on now whenever I feed the tank. They now have 10x more heads in 2 months.

I tried the 2l bottle trick. I think they could sence a envirment change and not want to open.

 

[sufunk]

I always have the best success getting the polyps to open by putting in a few drpos of either selcon or zoecon(zoecon is better ime).

About 15 minutes after putting it in, the polyps open and can feed. Once they open, then put the bottle over the coral to feed. If you put the bowl over it before they are open, like sunkool said, they are much less likely to open. Even if only a few polyps open, try to feed it. This will get it "trained" to start opening.

Also, once it is opening, feed it something "meaty". I use a mix of shrimp, clams, mussels, scallops and squidd chopped VERY fine.

 

[rholguin]

Thanks for all your advice I have been feeding the sun coral in a bowl and has been eating fine and now in the tank when the lights are off its opening very nicely. Thanks again.