Sun Corals

Can I target feed my Sun Corals with liquid food? Or does it have to be other type of food like Brine Shrimp?

???

what is "liquid" food? i think it's better to feed them "meaty" foods... so stick with brine, plankton, bits of krill/shrimp/squid other things that u can chop up.

Haha liquid food I meant Zooplex. How should I place the brine shrimp in the tank? It's going to go all over the place if I just leave it there on top of the sun coral, wont it?

spot feed it using a turkey baster/pipette/medicine dropper/syringe. try to squirt each polyp individually and be consistent with feedings

Individually meaning a couple of drops to each right? I heard that for the size of my tank I cant place more than 1/2 teaspoon, does that sound right?

1/2 tsp of ZooPlex? i've never used that stuff so i wouldn't know. i seriously think that u should use brine/plankton or Cyclopeeze... and yea... give each polyp a couple squirts so that it's eating "well" ... in about 1 or 2 weeks u will visibly be able to see that it's "fatter" not to mention, it will show polyps more and more with frequent feedings IME

Oh, oh. Should I mix the brine shrimp with some tank water and then basically feed them the watered down brine? Is that what you mean. Sorry for sounding dumb man. Haha.

yep, that's exactly what u should do. what i do is, get a cup and fill it up with a little tank water, mix it with cyclopeeze/brine/chopped up krill. the mixture is kinda chunky and i use a little medicine dropper or a baster and squirt the stuff at the colony. it works well b/c i can control how much i put into the tank, and with "controlled feeding," it eats like a pig without me polluting the tank with food. i squirt once or twice per polyp every 3-5 mins to make sure they're tentacles are out and wanting more after they "swallow" their food.

I have the same frag from the same place as you

and I have zooplex too.

and no, the sun coral does NOT open to zooplex by itself simply because that zooplex sht is half buoyant, and quickly removes itself from the presence of the sun coral.

so I mix frozen brine shrimp with zooplex, turn off the flow at night, and at the same time ever night, I've been putting some mixture over the polyps as best as I can.

I started about four nights ago, and now I'm getting pretty good polyp expansion at around the same time =)

yep, it's all about feeding it consistently. feed it well every 1-2 days for a couple weeks and you'll be surprised with how often it will expand its polyps for you. once it becomes fat you can cut down to feeding it every 2-3 days to keep it "happy." it just takes a little effort to keep up with the feedings but once you get it down, it's not that bad anymore.

lol uchiha, it's still a hassle because my nassarius snails smell that shrimp and try to crawl all over my sun coral, eating it and i have to knock them away with a long stick =)

seriously, i understand that part. my 2 fire shrimp go crazy when i feed... i just scare em away with a couple blasts of water from my little dropper thing i use. i think they've learned to stay away from my sun coral now, they just watch from a distance.

gotta chime in,

my fire does the same to my brand new sun, and everything else i try to target feed!!! greedy bast.

haha, be as rutheless to him as he is to your feeding mechanism. just blast him with water whenever he gets close. or give him something to nibble on so that he won't disturb ur corals while feeding

Uchiha, will it be a problem if I was to do this. Say I mix tank water with some Brine in a little plastic container. Then I place the suncoral inside that container. Then place the sun back into the tank once it's done eating. Can that do some damage? It just sounds easier. Haha

the lfs told me that one of his freinds does that ^ with blood worms, or some stuff.

actually takes it out of the tank.

I just think that this way the suncorals will be the only ones eating and I wont have that damsel trying to eat it. What do you guys think?

don't take it out of the tank. i used to feed one of my tubastrea colonies in a little cup... and i've found that it's "unecessary stress" ... once i stopped "bowl feeding" the frag, and kept it in the tank, i found that the polyps were open longer, since they weren't being moved around. there is no substitute for spot feeding.

Hmm ok sounds reasonable I guess it can cause some stress. Ok I'll just deal with those fishes in the tank. Haha

yea, it's the best way. like i said, blast em w/the baster, and make em learn that NOTHING touches the sun coral or else!! :

do it at night, when tubastrea typically open

when I do it at night, the hermits and emerald can't really see it and my royal gramma is asleep so i only have to worry about the nassarius, who are pretty stupid too

I just terget fed them, wow. They opened up so fast. Now they are starting to look like Suncorals dude.

http://www.nano-reef.com/gallery/showphoto....php?photo=5942

turkey baster is my best friend. I don't know what a reefer would do without one. =)

HeyTigah you said that the suncorals are basically saying to me right now "feed me" Dude I just fed them like not even 10 minutes ago. Haha, should I feed them again?