Seeking out sun coral experts

[TNSRFR]

Hello, I’m a returning reefer after a long break and I recently joined the forum.  I’ve always wanted a sun coral and acquired one at LFS 3months ago.  Since then, I’ve tried Tupperware method, leaving it alone method and back to Tupperware method.  I’ve been taking it out every night at the same time and been polluting with food for 2 to 3 hours for a month now.  I also keep it in my sump for temperature stability.   But all I see is no polyp extension, maybe a bit of swelling with mouth open wide.   I really want this sun coral to make it.  I don’t mind the work.   Can anyone enlighten me as to what else I can do?   My tank has been set up since June of 2019 and I keep my tank parameters in check.  Thank you in advance for your feedback.

[sadie]

I was nervous feeding my with any of the methods I was told about.  I only had a 12 gal. and it was only about 6 months old (this was 20 yrs ago)  I'm not sure how far down in the tank yours is, but I bought frozen food cubes and diced it in little bits.  I used a wooden skewer (like for cabobs)  I poked a piece of food with the tip and put it in each polyps mouth.  It didn't take long at all.  It did great, had babies.  It was one of my favorite coral.  It would open up every morning just waiting to be fed.

[seabass]

Do its feeder tentacles come out after lights out?  If they do, feed mysis shrimp to each polyp every day.  If they don't extend their feeders after lights out, try squirting some mysis juice across them and see if they react.

[biophilia]

If you haven't already, try moving the sun coral into an area of your tank with very high flow. They'll be happier in higher flow areas and a lot of times, the dark and shady spots that people place them in also happen to be spots that are blocked from direct flow. Unlike some other azooxanthellate corals, sun corals do just fine even in direct light. At this point, taking the coral out of the tank and placing in tupperware every day may be stressing it out more than helping.

One thing that I've found can help is to turn the pumps off for around 15 minutes each day and use a pipette to baste a blob of something very pungent and fine like Reef Roids (or similar) to smother the top of each polyp. Another thing you can try is to chum the water in the tank 10 or 15 minutes before doing that with calanus or amino acids as a feeding activator.

 

[TNSRFR]

No feeder tentacles come out at night.  It just swells up a little with mouth open.  From research, when they have been starving, they don’t have any energy to extend their tentacles to take in food.   Mine is placed near mp40 but doesn’t get direct flow and shade provided by monti.  It should get plenty of flow.   From the research, Tupperware method is most recommended.  I know it maybe stressful on the coral but I’m afraid that it may not get enough food in my DT.  I’m also afraid of loosing it.  I keep it in my sump for temperature stability and stir the water every 5mins from food settling in the bottom.   It’s a really nice looking Sun but it’s VERY stubborn...  

 

Sadie, I may try poking the food in it’s mouth like you did.  Thank you all for your reply.

[Tamberav]

I turn off the flow... squirt some reef roids (it is stinky and may get a good reaction) wait... awhile... 30 min maybe... then it might open enough to drop some pellets or such in. They don't have much for tentacles when they are starving but come back quickly once feeding. 

 

Also some of these sold are actually temperate or maybe sub-tropical. I only know this because on the cold water reef facebook.... some people bought some off Live Aquaria for their cold water tanks and they are thriving at 55-60 degrees. I have been thinking about buying one but it needs to be a certain species ofc.