Tubestrea Sun

[rhinoivory]

Howdy! Today I saw a beautiful orange Tubestrea Sun at my LFS......has anybody owned this specimen or had them open for them in a Nano? I would love to know feedback because this coral is rather splendid and would go quite well as a show specimen in my nano.

[Christopher Marks]

The name sounds kind of familiar.  It's common name seems to be mixed with it's latin name.  It's common name is typically Sun Coral and it's scientific name is Tubastrea faulkneri.  Here's a photo of a few open ones:

 

 

If that is the one, here is some info.  Their Common names are Orange Cup Coral, Turret Coral, Orange Sun Polyp, and Branching Octopus Coral.  It doesn't require light, but it requires very strong flow and frequent daily feedings.  These are very hard to keep, so I don't recommend keeping them, or atleast not for some time.  Hope this helps.

[Christopher Marks]

Looks like this post got lost for a few days?!?!  How odd?  I think I fixed it. :smash: Sorry about that Rhinoivory

[rhinoivory]

Yeah, I know, pretty freaky, thanks for fixing it Chris!!!

 

That Tubestrea is pretty daring though, but on the other hand I might need to keep a constant harvest of brine shrimp and an eye dropper handy so I can feed every one of its polyps!!!!!

[jinx]

I've got 4 colonies of it and they all open and eat. this is one of the hardest corals to keep even more difficult to keep in a nano. If I can do it so can you!

[Seamonkey]

From my experience, this beautiful coral is easy to keep, best in a Nano.  The only requirement is you need to feed it enough food regularly.  A Nano lets you reach it easily.

 

They don't need light.  And please don't feed them filter feeder food.  It's not enough for them.   Put them in a convenient location in the tank so you could reach them with a tool.  

 

I found it's best to feed them marine fish food morsels.  Because it is concentrated in nutrition, unlike live/raw food which is mostly water. So you don't have to feed them that often.  It's also less messy and polluting to feed than raw food.  Put one or two morsels (depending on the size of your food) on each of the flowers.  You don't need to feed every one of them, just ignore the small babies and difficult to reach ones.  Their base are usually connected so they share food.  Feed them once or twice a week. The more quantity you feed each time, the less frequent you need to feed.

 

A well-fed and healthy one can live without food for 3 to 6 months before it's gone.  So you can go for vacation with worrying feeding.

[Lewin]

I have a small sun coral, and he is doing fine.  He gets fed a mixture of brine shrimp and filter feeder food from a 60cc syrince every other day.  I had him in high current, but the polyps wouldnt open, so I moved him to a lower current area.  They arent too hard to keep, they just need to be fed.

[gt3073b]

I too have been trying to figure out how to feed one. My tank is still cycling so I still have a while to figure it out before I pick one up.

 

A guy at my lfs (who has been most helpful thus far)

said he feeds his mostly (dont know what else) Spectra Vital mixed with a tiny bit of tank water using a dropper. The one in the frag tank has been there for about a month and it looks just as healthy as the first time I noticed it.

[pulpsmack]

My concern about the sun coral is over two points, feeding and placement. Feeding seems most problematic since it is almost an aneomone colony in terms of nutritional needs. This requires regular feedings of foods that can rapidly pollute water quality. Furthermore, a glove would also be a recommendation to avoid further contamination since you would also have to have your hand in the tank so often.

  My understanding is this is a light-hating coral that often grows in caves and doesn't bloom until night. These two factors would be enough to discourage me from putting one in a nano. Hand feeding a reclusive coral at an awkward angle under a self-constructed special cave isn't my cup of tea.

[Son Of Skyline]

Tubastrea can also be found in lit areas in the ocean, which questions the theory that they need darkness. It seems that they usually live in darkness because they can't compete for space with photosynthetic corals.

 

I've had a sun coral colony for about a month now. I bought it from my lfs for dirt cheap because they didn't take care of it and it was wasting away. I take it out of the tank and put it in a bowl twice a week and feed it there so I don't pollute the tank. This way I can shoot food all over them without worrying. They are starting to open up in the early evening in the tank, when the tank is still lit.

 

I wouldn't say it's hard to take care of or easy to kill, but it is demanding in terms of feeding.

[Jefe12234]

I completely agree with Skyline. Tubastraea are not difficult corals if fed properly. In fact, my Tubastraea seemed perfectly happy during a tank crash that killed an Acropora and nearly killed some Xenia. And it can be placed in lighted areas. In nature it tends to grow in caves because of the increased zooplankton and lack of competition.

 

I've had mine for 2 1/2 months now and it's doing much better than when I purchased it. I feed mine everyday the same was as Skyline, in a separate bowl.

 

Aside from its dietary requirement, it's actually a very easy coral to keep.

 

-Chris

[Delph]

(Edited by Delph at 10:21 am on June 3, 2002)