Sun Coral Question

sun corals open normally at night and have to be trained to open during the day It can take a while to get them to open at all during the day. What you will want ot do is to target feed them some phyto, coral freenzy or mysis at night when the tenticles are out. Do this for a couple weeks. You need to let them get acclimated and well fed at first. Then gradually start feeding it a little earlier in the evening and then gradually start feeding it in the afternoon. You only need to feed a couple times a week. You will then start to see your corals opening up during the day when you feed your fish. Now mine opens during the day and then closes around afternoon, and then opens up again at night when I feed my other corals.Again, remember that this is a non-photosynthetic coral...so if you dont feed it it will starve to death. If you are not able to feed it a couple times a week then it should go back. I slacked off a little and the polyps died quickly. Now they are doing well I have mine slightly under a ledge with good flow

 

K+ you took the words out of my mouth

 

I have been trying to feed it. I target feed it mysis shrimp about 4x a week trying to get it to eat something. The problem is that even when the polyps are extended at night they don't have many tentacles out. I know that 1-2 of the polyps have gotten food, but they're the only ones with tentacles out. The rest of the polyps are just extended, but still closed. Each polyp needs to eat right? Or do they have some sort of way to share nutrients amonst the colony?

Do you guys think that since I've got a couple polyps opening up enough to eat that given time it'll open more and more? I certainly don't want to kill this beauty but I would love to keep it. How long should I give it before I give up and return it to the lfs?
Thanks for everyone's help and prompt responses.

 

I think they will share nutrients...As long as you are getting some of them fed you should be fine. Do you feed any of your other corals anything? If so they will pull that out of the water supply to supplement themselves

Some people have turned off pumps, feed them and then place a bowl over the coral so that it allows time for the corals to grab it. I personally found it easier to take the coral out of the tank and place it in a bowl of water outside of the tank (aquarium water). I then heavily fed the coral with lots of food and let it stand for about 10 minutes or so. This way it does not pollute your water overly by trying to get one coral to eat. Problem is that you have to handle the coral...which I try not to do very much. But if they are not responding to food, this is a way to get them to do it.

 

I have read that you MUST feed each polyp because the colony won't share nutriets. I have also recently got one from a freind that didn't realize the care that they needed and mine really hasn't opend up either but if you can get some food to just sit on top of the polyp where it looks sunk in theb it will suck the food in. That's what iv been doing and they seem to open up a little more now. Just try to have no flow around them or fish so the food don't get blown off. G/L

 

Thanks for that tip. I'm going to try taking it out and putting it into a bowl to see if it'll eat. I do feed my other corals too, it probably gets a lil bit of that food, but I would like to see each polyp eat something, rather than hoping it's eating, I'd like to see it eat. I think the bowl method will achieve that. Thanks again for the suggestion.

 

Well, I've been turning off all the pumps and putting an inverted clear plastic cup with a hole cut in the bottom over the sun coral. I push it into the sand a bit so it stays in place well. Then I put the turkey baster through the hole and squirt the mysis all over the coral and they will sit on the coral. After about 10-15 mins you can see several of the polyps have opened and are shoving shrimp down their gullets. A whole bunch of little polyps that I would never have guessed were there open up during this time too. It's cool to watch. Thanks everyone for your suggestions. My sun coral thanks you too. I didn't know how to get the polyps to come out before cuz the shrimp would not be sitting directly on the coral enticing the polyps out. Now they're eating their requisite 2-3 times per week.
Thanks 3reefers!

 

That is awesome!!! If you can get some pictures I would love to see your coral!!

 

This works for me. Cut the bottom off of a 2 liter bottle. Lower if over the Sun Coral. Use a syringe or turkey baster to shoot some Microvert or Coral Frenzy type food over it. This usually stimulates mine enough to start poking its polyps out. After 10-15 min it will be extended enough to grab meaty foods. Mysis or your choice. 4 weeks in my tank and I still have to coax it out. Patience seems to be the key with these guys as well as alot of other inhabitants of our little slices of ocean.

Edit. Use the bottle for feeding meaty foods as well. I didn't clarify that initially. Keeps the fishies away ehile feeding the Sun Coral.

 

I have 2.... one opened right away but the other one didn't open for days so I started feeding it at the same time every night, with a seasquirt, then it just knew when feeding time was and starting opening up about a half hour before time and staying open. they don't stay open much during the day though, on and off. I also turn off ph's and filter and leave them off for about 1/2 hour.