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Care of Sun Coral


MichelleChang

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MichelleChang

Dear all,

 

Attached is a picture of my sun coral (not too sure if it is the proper name). I place it in the shade because I was told they don't like bright light.

 

It has been several months and it is doing ok. Although I seldom see him poping out like in the picture. I don't deliberately feed them in their mouth, I just drop the marine snow in the tank as their food.

 

Lately I find white areas on their "trunks"....it appears to be slowly "decaying" or dying. Can someone tell me how to save this lovely coral and a more proper way to maintain them please please please...?

 

Thanks much

 

-M

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direct feeding.

 

 

take the coral and place it under a container (in the tank) and then squirt the food under the container.

 

or you can take the coral out of the tank and place it in a container with tank water and squirt the food into the water.

 

 

They are non-photosynthetic but they will open up under your lights if they are being fed. I have/had a huge a colony of them that opens up whenever I feed the tank and then I squirt some food directly onto them and they are still dying (haven't been doing that for the past three weeks). Very hard coral to keep. needs attention and care.

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I have kept my sun coral nice and happy for about a year now. Here is what I have learned in that time.

 

Feed large foods. Stuff like mysis and lots of brine and krill and large pellets work great. My personal favorite is dried shrimp pellets. They are usually sold as a freshwater food but they are my sun coral's favorite. Plus they are easy. Just grab a bunch in your hand and start passing them out to the polyps. Those liquid foods with tiny particles just ain't gonna cut it.

 

Feed at least once a week. You don't need to make it an every night thing.

 

Place it at the top of the aquarium. My sun coral could care less on how much light it is getting. With it placed at the top of the aquarium you will be able to feed it much easier. If it is easy to feed then you will probably do it more often.

 

Here is a pic of my colony from early summer. It is just starting to come out for feeding time.

 

SunCoral.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

UofA, wow those look great. I bought mine for $15 bucks since they were dying back, but quite honestly I'm having a hard time keeping them alive. Two little heads have turned from orange to black, but I've been hesitant to overfeed my tank because of recent green and red slimy algae growing at the bottom of my sand. I just bought a protein skimmer though, so hopefully I don't have to worry as much about that.

 

I have a question though. What exactly do you mean by passing them out? Like dropping one pellet per head or something? My greedy little shrimp and clown fish would jack the pellets and meaty stuff before the sun corals would get to them. How are you passing them out to the bottom ones to ensure they get fed without the food just falling to the bottom?

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Elation,

 

When I feed the pellets, I will hand the polyps their own individual pellets. I only pass out like 25 pellets though. It isn't necessary to feed each polyp as long as there is some tissue connecting it to other polyps. When I feed mysis, I just squirt the whole colony with a turkey baster full of food.

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  • 10 months later...

i feed mine enriched brine shrimp twice a week they are doing great and have reproduced they relesed what looked like small yellow eggs thet have attached to my live rock everywhere i feed a small amount of food and then wait, the food will make them open up when they open i come back and feed them pic of my sun coral

http://www.nano-reef.com/gallery/showphoto...&cat=500&page=1 one of many suncoral babies (stoped counting at 57)http://www.nano-reef.com/gallery/showphoto....php?photo=4939showphoto.php?photo=4939

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  • 2 weeks later...

Having looked at that sun coral. I have a piece that is similar but is and will not extend. The LFS(idiot savant) says nocturnal species but it still looks like chewing gum. Sorry to piggyback on your thread but this is as close to the real thing as it gets. thanks.

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if it's not coming out, provoke it with some food. drop some "meaty" foods as mentioned above to let the sun coral know that there is food in the tank. it should take a couple mins for it to show tentacles and within another couple minutes it should be waiting hungrily for food.

 

i feed mine cyclopeeze, small pieces of krill, and brine shrimp. i used to feed every day, but i've started to feed every other day to reduce amount of food floating in the tank

 

more info about my colony can be found on page 4 & 5 of my nano-cube thread

 

here's a pic of my 2 colonies, yellow & orange :)

attachment.php?s=&postid=321087

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I just got one a couple days ago, having trouble inticing it out. I droped some finly chopped shrimp and brine on it, but they just barely poked out. Maybe its still in a little shock from the move. Any sugesstions?

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Your coral might be trying to get used to its new home for the first couple of days... Try filling an eyedropper with some cyclopeeze and squirting it around the sun coral to try to tempt it out. This "smell" of the cyclopeeze in the water will usually entice some of the polyps out to feed. Oh, btw, try to feed the coral at the same time everyday. They'll get used to the schedule and come out at the same time each day. I've got my sun coral trained to come out just before lights out. HTH

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