Truth or myth?

[muttley000]

I picked up my first sun coral. I have only seen it open for a short while so I know I have some work to do to train it to open when I need to be able to feed it. The question is I have read to feed every polyp every couple days, but the guy I got it from says that is not necessary if the polyps are all joined by tissue. What is the right answer? I'm planning on feeding every polyp anyways, I figure I will get the best growth that way.
TIA

 

[krzyphsygy]

Its of course best to feed each polyp, but as your friend said, its not needed. IMO, he's right. If I feed one polyp because all the others are closed. Within the hour they are all WIDE OPEN. This tells me the whole coral get something from the one polyp because I get the same response when I feed them all.
I have feed the coral once a week with success. Meaty pieces of shrimp etc. I now feed it every other day. I also have a black sun coral which IMO needs more feeding. This one is branching and is really cool.

Best option is try and hit each polyp. But if you miss one, no harm done. I used to feed it every single day and felt like I was gut loading it and stopped. One day it just became very inflated and limp. Couldn't understand it. I think I was feeding it too much.

 

[GSMclowns]

I think that if all of their tissue are connected, then you don't need to feed every mouths. I think they can distribute energy among themselves. But if the heads aren't connected by the tissues, then you would need to feed individual mouth. I am not a scientist and all of this info is based on my experiences.

 

[noy]

You have to feed every polyp. The polyps will draw nutrients from the surrounding tissue but this won't be enough and those polyps that are not being fed will eventually die off. You will see that the surrounding tissue will begin to recede.

 

[callmesaul8889]

I too try to feed every polyp. If I miss one or two, I make sure those polyps get fed on the next feeding schedule.

 

[muttley000]

I have been trying to get each polyp. The big ones are easy but the realy small ones are pretty tough because they close before the mysids are out of the syringe I am using. I will keep trying, in a week or so the coral has already learned my schedule. Are frozen mysids ok for a staple?

 

[krzyphsygy]

I mix it up

 

[muttley000]

I mix it up

With???

 

[krzyphsygy]

Mysis, Brine, rods food, reef chili. I try not to broadcast feed anything but occasionally I will to mx it up. Like today I did reef chili in the middle of the night but its rare. Mostly meaty items. Nothing cooked though.
If anything dies in the tank I will feed it to the sun coral also. That's rare but has happened. Snails, crabs, fish etc.

 

[laga77]

Since switching to live black worms and white worms. All seven pieces of my sun and tube corals are happy and growing like crazy. I feed them 5 times a week. I try to hit all the polyps, but on three of the pieces I am sure some don`t get fed.

 

[BarryV]

Since switching to live black worms and white worms. All seven pieces of my sun and tube corals are happy and growing like crazy. I feed them 5 times a week. I try to hit all the polyps, but on three of the pieces I am sure some don`t get fed.

Sure love to see some photos of your Sun Coral.
Barry

 

[laga77]

I would be happy. These are taken at 5p.m. I will take more tonight when they open up.

 

[laga77]

One more. This guy is named Vader. He is pure black. The other Black Sun Coral is named Treebeard and he is a dark green.

 

[laga77]

I added the Spirals because this is the NPS section and you guys might enjoy them.

 

[BarryV]

Thank you laga77, "beautiful"
I will post a photo of mine later.
Thanks again,
Barry

 

[laga77]

Best I can do in the dark. The large Black Sun Coral is an old photo because after a large feeding from a day ago he decided not to open up last night. All of the corals have doubled in size or number of heads in the last 6-9 months. The single dendro on the left is a rescue. The LFS gave him to me to see if I could save him. After a week of trying to get him to open up without success, I had to use two pairs of tweezers to open and insert a live white worm. I would only do that as a last resort. After that, for the next two weeks, anytime his feeders were out I fed him. I am retired and have the time to do that.

 

[laga77]

This cluster is at the LFS. If it did not sell over the weekend they are going to split them up and I will take the yellow one.

 

[BarryV]

laga77, Here is a photo of my lone Sun Coral.
Barry

 

[laga77]

That is one happy coral

 

[Ariel110G]

I feed my sun coral about once a week. I have had him for a year now, for feeding, I took a 2 liter bottle ( mine is big) cut the bottom and put it in the tank over the sun coral this way all polyps get something for sure