Tubastrea- Sun Coral info

I thought some people might be interested in one of my favorite corals I have, my Sun Coral (Tubastrea). Before starting my nano, this is one of the corals that I really wanted to keep. I read a great deal about it, and a lot of what I read was somewhat discouraging due to the fact that the coral requires direct feeding. About a month ago I was at my lfs and they had a very nice looking Sun Coral, so I bought it. Since then the coral has been a delight to have, so I thought I would share my experience with it.

I have it under an overhang in the center of my tank and it has been thriving. Every other night after the lights are turned off, I put the Sun Coral in a small plastic bowl filled with tank water that I float on the surface. I then squirt brine shrimp (or other food) over the tubes. Within a few minutes the polyps extend to feed. I then squirt brine shrimp onto each polyp individually. The polyps will latch onto the food and greedily pull them into their mouth. The tentacles of the polyps are very sticky and hold onto any food very tightly. It's very, very cool to see. When I'm done feeding, I simply set the coral back in its spot in the tank. Within a couple minutes the entire coral "pops" with its polyps fully extended and is absolutely gorgeous!

Feeding the coral while isolated has a number of benefits. 1) I can reach every polyp to be sure each one gets fed. 2) There is no overfeeding that would cause pollution in the tank. 3) My greedy cleaner shrimp won't pull the food from the polyps. 4) It's really fun to do and watch! This method has been working great for me, and there are new polyps forming.

Here are two before and after feeding pics of the Sun Coral:

Before Feeding:

After Feeding:

Hopefully this was of interest and may help other people who are thinking of adding this beautiful coral to their tank. Because of the care this coral requires, it certainly isn't for everyone. For those willining to give it the time it needs though, it will make a great addition to any tank.

Jdiver thanks for the info. I have been struggling wether to get a piece or not. I am not sure that I want to take it in out every other day. Have you considered using a turkey baster or long pipette?

I am also told after a while they will memorize when you feed them and come out at that time. Is that similar to your experience?

Where did you get your frag? How much did you give for it?

There are two reasons why I isolate the sun coral to feed it. One, because it's in a cave/overhang and I can't reach all the polyps with my large pipette, and two because my cleaner shrimp will pull the food from its polyps. I don't actually take it out, but just set it in a bowl with tank water that I float on the surface. I have read of other people feeding it every 3rd day. I also heard of another method to target feed a sun coral, which I would likely use if it weren't under the cave and was in a more open area. Take a tall plastic cup and cut the bottom out of it. Put the cup over the coral and into the sand, so the sun coral is now inside the cup and sheltered. Then just target feed the polyps with a long pipette.

The polyps of my sun coral do tend to start to open every night at about 10:30 or so. I'm going to try to see if I can train it to eat during the day so its polyps would be out more when I can see and appreciate them. I bought mine from my lfs (the Frazer Zoo, in Frazer, PA) and paid $35 for it. It had at least two dozen large polyp heads on it when I bought it, so it wasn't just a 5 or 6 head frag. I consider it to be a pretty good deal considering how gorgeous it is. I have seen them listed for considerably cheaper, but I'm guessing they are for small frags. If you have any other questions about it, then just let me know.

Well you inspired me. I have been watching some sun pylops at my LFS for about 2 mos. They seem to be healthy. I have seen them start to open close to closing time.

Yesterday I went there and they were having a 20% off sale on everything. I ask for the price of the pylops (which they have previously told me was $35). The owner said $29, before the discount. So I bought them for $25 after the discount. There about a dozen or so pylops including some new buds.

After I acclimated them I thought I would try to get them to come out but, didn't have any luck. I think it was to soon. I have a fire shrimp and I see why you put them in a bowl.

You said they come out after 10:30. Does that mean that is when you put them in the bowl. I assume your lights have been out for a while. I have read that if you consistently feed them at the same time each day they will just come out. Have you found that to be true.

Since it is an office nano I am often not there when the lights are out. I am thinking of training them to open during the day. Any hints you know about.

Thanks for the extensive info.

I too have been looking at this coral for a long time, but never bought it as the LFS told me they are hard to keep and must be fed manually. I will be visiting the LFS today, maybe I will buy a small colony if the price is good.

wulffenstein- Glad to hear you decided to make the purchase. I think it's especially good that they've been in an established tank at your lfs for 2 months. That should likely make them open more readily. I wouldn't worry too much about the polyps not coming out immediately. I believe it took mine 1 or 2 days before they opened up.

The polyps on mine start to open at about 10:30 before I turn the light off. I turn the light off and place the coral in the bowl, wait about 5-15 minutes, and then almost all of the polyps will be out. I feed them each a couple times, which is extremely cool to watch how they "grab" the food and then fold it over into their mouths, then open again for more. When I'm done feeding I place it back in the tank and within about 15 minutes its polyps really extend out beautifully (which you can see in the second pic of them I posted).

I would imagine a fire shrimp is just as greedy as a skunk cleaner, so I would definitely recommend isolating the coral somehow to feed it. If you want to try to train it to eat during the day, then I would suggest putting it in a bowl, then spray the food over top of the polyps fairly heavily. Hopefull the presence of food will coax them to come out to eat.

Keep me posted and let me know if you have any other questions about it. Good luck!

Sahin- My experience has been that the only thing that makes the sun coral difficult to keep is that they have to be fed. That can obviously be a drawback and something a lot of people either wouldn't be willing to do, or wouldn't keep up with. From what I've seen of you on here though, you certainly seem very willing to give your tank time and care. Maybe you could buy a smaller frag of it with 4 or 5 heads and see how it goes.

FYI- I was at my lfs today and they had gotten in a huge colony of two different types of sun coral, the peach and black. It looked awesome, and probably had at least 100 heads of the peach and a dozen of the black. It would look amazing when all the polyps were out, but feeding that one would take quite a while!

I'm so excited. I had decent success with target feed. I took them out and blew from frozen mixed, meaty food through the bowl. I took it out of the tank to do it.

After about 30 minutes the polyps started to open. I waited more only one came out fully. I watched the temp drop so I wanted to get them back into the tank. After they went back in they started to open up more fully.

I am think of looking for a intank "cube" If I can find them I can put them in there during the feeding. I noticed that flow was important to get them to open. When I pushed the current with the turkey baster they opened a little more.

What was the most exciting was after I put them back they opened up even more. Now about 1 hours later and heir still partially open. Very cool. I am trying to find a digital here at work to take a pic.

The turkey baster seemed a little clumsy to get specific pieces. Any ideas???

Anyway I had share my excitement. It is beautiful!!!!!!!!

I had to post one other piece of cool news about my frag.

It had some black, what I thought were dead tubes, on it. Well most of them were dead. BUT there are a least one black polyp that I have seen fully open. In additon to that there is a x-mas tree worm in the bottom and a purple and metallic mushroom on the other side. Those other then the sun polyps are all small but still cool.

I am still hunting down a digital camera. I didn't get much done today by the time I made all my exciting discoveries.

:) :)

Awesome wulffenstein! It is very cool to watch the polyps open and take the food. Mine doesn't seem to mind if there is no current on it when it eats, so maybe yours just needs a little more time to adjust. To feed mine I use a long pipette (see attached pic) that works very well. I would imagine a turkey baster would be kind of bulky. I got the long pipette from my lfs. They sell them for $2 I think, so if you want one and can't find one, let me know and I can get one for you. (It would probably be $3 total with shipping.)

So you have some black sun coral polyps as well? What color are the main polyps? (Yellow, orange and pink are the most common varieties, and mine are a very bright orange.) My lfs has a black sun coral that apparently is much more stubborn about coming out than the yellow and orange ones. Apparently the polyps on a black sun coral are an olive green type color, which sounds like it would be really cool. Was that the color your black polyp was when open?

I look forard to seeing some pics when you can find a digital camera!

Aieee! $2 for a single pipette!?! I got mine for 10 cents each!

Go to www.sciplus.com and do a search on "dropper". They don't seem to have any pipettes at the moment, but they do have several other things you could use.

10¢ for a 12" long pipette? Oh well, I might be upset with paying more for one if I didn't like the lfs and the manager so much. Plus, I know their coral prices are fair and below what I was paying at other stores. Better a $2 pipette than a $50 zoanthid rock!

I bought a large black Tubastraea from an online vendor a few weeks ago. It didn't eat at first and started to lose tissue in some spots. I thought it might not make it since I've heard people say these are more difficult than the orange ones. But after feeding it every night for about 2 weeks, I finally saw the polyps start to peek out. The next night many of the polyps were grabbing food. Now for the last couple nights nearly all of the polyps are out and eating as much as I will feed them. I'm surprised at how easy this coral is to feed once it gets past that introductory stage. The polyps begin to open before I even feed them. They've learned that lights out means dinner time. The only difficult part about feeding it comes from the fact that it has a branching growth form. It can be difficult to get food to all of the polyps when some of them are angled downward or to the side, especially since this colony is so large. I might have to frag one or two of the lower branches to make it more manageable.

The polyps are indeed a dark olive green color. I've been wanting to take a picture of it, but I'm not quite sure how. I have NO fluorescent lights on the tank, and they're just not bright enough to illuminate the details of such a dark colored coral. Maybe I'll have to use a flash, or do some other experimenting. I'll try to post a pic tomorrow night if I can get a good one.

BTW, nice coral jdiver! I'd like to get some orange and yellow ones next. And I'm sure we'd all like to see some pics of yours, wulffenstein.

-Chris

Here's info on how to make a Lunar Lander feeder;

http://www.reefrancher.com/diy/lunarlander/

Well, here's a day and night pic of my black Tubastraea (T. micrantha). The polyps have only been feeding for a few nights, so I'm sure they'll continue to expand and grow in the following weeks. You can see some spots of white skeleton where the tissue died back. I'm hoping these will be recovered now that the coral is eating well.

-Chris

AAAHHHH!!!! I need more patience.

I am still working with feeding the coral, but it is taking longer then I would like. The bowl seems to work best but I can't find a bowl that will fit the coral piece and fit in my tank. It has taken it close to two hours to open, but by that time the if I have the bowl out the temp drops by 10 degrees.

I tried the "diving" idea with a cup. A few opened but the largest just swelled but never opened. the other issue is I am putting so much food into the tank. It makes me a bit nervous about an nitrate or algea problem, but the my fish and shrimp love it.

It is a real "catch 22". I need help and encouragement and ideas.

AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! X) X) X) X)

Hey wulf, what size tank do you have? I used the bowl floating method on my orange sun coral. It worked great. But it can be kind of a pain to find room for a bowl to float in your tank. It's a lot better than having your temp drop 10 degrees, though. If you can find a way to do it, I'd try that. At least until it fattens up or feeds more aggresively. Then maybe you could try spot feeding it in the tank. The nutrient problem isn't as bad if the coral is actually catching most of the food.

BTW, does your black sun polyp(s) look anything like mine? It would be interesting to see whether it behaves any differently than the orange ones.

-Chris

I have a 20 gal.

I tried the bowl today. I pushed it down in the opening so the bottom was in the water and it was directly under my lights. I watched the temp and it was more constant. The only thing with the bowl is you have to put your hands in the tank and handle the coral every time.

It's weird the black is responding easier then the yellow. I had heard it was the other way around. All the black that I think are alive came out and ate. All of the yellows swelled, but only a few of those came out and even those not fully.

My black polyps are darker then yours. From the pic yours look a brownish-green. Mine are black as coal. It is so black that at times it is hard to tell if they are open.

I am not to worried yet because they look plump but I would like to get them on a regular feeding schedule. I will at the office well after the lights come out tonight so I will see if they are out after lights out.

Here's a closed pic from a day ago.

There is a similar thread in Coral care right now also... worth looking at.

wulf,

you may have to adapt jdiver's method with a perforated (for some minimal flow) plastic bag weighted down at the bottom. you can then inject your feedings and have the majority of the food whirl around inside the bag for the coral and not everything else.

My black colony also feeds more aggresively than my orange. I have always heard that black colonies are more difficult, but maybe this is not the case.

These corals do seem to learn feeding schedules, so it will probably make things easier if you can feed at the same time every day/night. Also, my orange colony would sometimes refuse to open the next day or two if I missed a feeding, so I'd try to feed them every day if possible.

Oh, and nice pic there wulf.

-Chris

Just thought I would post this with a little update. My feeding has not been as successful as I would like. I have found the bowl method works better then the cup/diver method. For he time being I will be using that. I decided on this partial to preserve water quality and partial avoid the frenzy of my other tank inhabitants.

I am trying to feed at 2 PM everyday for a while. I am trying to get them to feed on a schedule.

Today , I tried putting clam juice in the water to get them to open. It worked well. I'll try tomorrow to see if it works two days in a row.

I think I am on the road to sucess.

just a had a thought I might add, if the bowl method is not working for you due to temperature drop, why not try a small plastic breeder. The ones with the tiny holes in them that float in the tank, this way, the water is constantly circulating around the coral and you should experiance a temp drop at all, if you get one of the breeders with the netting, you shouldn't have an over-feeding problem either because most of the particles will stay trapped in the net. I haven't tried any of this, but in theory it may work. If you're feeding plankton, you could even wrap a micron pad around the breeder to trap any stragglers that don't get eaten.

Hinecken,

I thought of that idea but with the netting or anything that allows current the food would still seep out and could fowl the tank.

The bowl method is working. Yesterday they open a bit when I put in some flake food. I think I just need to buy some patience. Something I lack.

Hey go to the member's reef section and there are some pics of my tank and some close ups on the tubaestra from a day or so ago. They turned out great. It's amazing what happens when you read the manuel on the digital camera.

hey jdiver or anyone else, do you use frozen or live brine shrimp and where do you get them?