I got a sun coral - pics

[Pallen81]

Here is my brand new sun Coral. It's got like 20-30 polyps. I couldn't believe they had such a nice one at the LFS for $35. I haven't even had it for a full day yet, but it has not opened up yet. Eventually, it will and I can't wait. Any tips on how to get them to come out?

Also, i'm prolly going to get some more live rock so he's more under shade and less in the light.

[AquariumFish]

when it opens up - post a few photo's of it! sounds like an excellent find!

[Catpicklesdog]

The disadvantage of having such a beautiful coral as a sun coral is that they tend to come out at night. My suggestion would be to tuck it in a slightly sheltered area so that it's not in direct light although it does look like it's in a slight cave. Saying that mine did come out occasionally during the day but it was mostly night time! Try squirting a tiny bit of food over it but not directly at it.

[Nick540]

i also have a sun and i have found that keeping them off the sand is a good idea, and generally keeping sand away from it. Also try and feed at the same time everynight, then thy come out at that time and get used to a regualr feeding. I feed mine at 11 every night.

[Pallen81]

hmmm okay good to note. thanks for the advice.

I actually just bought another 2.83 lbs of live rock and made a better cave area for him. now he's much more sheltered and shady. I have loose bits of live rock rubble that I could prop the sun coral on if need be to get him off the sand. I'll keep my eye on him.

[Reefscape]

Nice coral, will look great when it opens up...

Niko

[saltyjane]

I have found that they do just fine in the light or in the dark if they are fed regularly. They love lots of flow and when they "smell" the food from feeding your fish they will usually open up. My daughter currently has one in her tank and she has been successful in keeping it alive for over a year now feeding it exclusively frozen cyclopeeze. It has gone from the normal pale orange color to the most brilliant firey orange you've ever seen. She fills a little Salifert ml syringe and bastes each polyp every other night. Mine loved small meaty food like frozen Prime Reef minced up or tiny bits of silverside fed with a tweezer. These methods cut down on the possibility of polluting your tank with too much food .......all the food is grabbed by the sticky polyps. They are a high maintenace coral but a beautiful creature if you have the time to care for it. The speciman you have is in great shape. Just be sure its getting adequate flow. If you have fish that will bother it when you feed cut the top off of a plastic pop bottle and cover it. You can squirt food in through the top and fish can't steal it, but watch out you don't use too much food this way......don't want to pollute your tank. My daughter feeds her after the light go out when fish have retreated into the rockwork for the night. If the coral proves stubborn to open, you can take the coral and put it in a small bucket filled with tankwater and small powerhead for circulation. Drop a little food in and once it opens turn the powerhead off and feed it manually .....then return it to the main tank. You should be fine to leave it in your tank for feedings once trained to open........

HTH
Janey

[Rbishop]

Very sharp!

[Pallen81]

the coral still hasn't opened up yet. but I'll get it to!!!

[Pallen81]

Where can I get a syringe that will work?

Walmart, Petsmart, cvs? where should I look? I have millions of stores about 15 minutes away from me so where ever shouldn't be a problem. thanks!

[Rbishop]

At any pharmacy?

[saltyjane]

Check with your local pharmacy........they sometimes have them if you explain what you are looking for:)

[Catpicklesdog]

Have you got one in any of your test kits? That's why I always use.

[Pallen81]

i got one at CVS. it worked decent.

I moved my sun coral out into a bucket like the previous poster suggested. out of the 30 polyps about 6-7 ate. So it wasn't super successful but at least a few ate. Hopefully, they are getting better acclimated. When I put the sun coral back into my tank, my fire shrimp leaped onto it and started sticking their little clawhands down into the coral and stealing the food. what the heck!

[saltyjane]

Try covering it with the top of a 1 liter pop bottle (cut off the top) or use one of those containers strawberries come in from the grocery store. Keeps the thiefs at bay:)

[AquariumFish]

so - what do they look like when they are open and eating?

I have never seen that!

[saltyjane]

Check it out: http://www.melevsreef.com/suncoral.html

[Pallen81]

mine have def not opened up as much as in those pictures. about 2 opened like that. the rest hardly. hmmm... those 2 ate that opened though I can't wait. they are super cool

[AquariumFish]

saltyjane Thanks for the link - that is amazing!

another question ... how do they excrete their waist? Is it obvious when you see it?
I guess what I am wondering is how much maintenance do they create?
I'm sure it's not like an Oscar ... right?

Is it difficult to clean it up? do you have to vacuum the tank every week.

Once the tank is cycled what kind of maintenance schedule does a person need to plan for?

Is the LFS type premixed salt water good enough or is it better to mix what is needed?

What about water evaporation?
Does it effect the coral if it gets a bit saltier because of evaporation?

I do seem to have a bit of an evaporation going on here ... summers are hot and winter is warmed with gas heat so it is dry air in the house.

Thanks!
Randy

[saltyjane]

Hi Randy:)

As to how sun corals secrete their waste......it's not noticeable. After they eat a meal they sometimes expell a bit of their food but it is not enough to pollute your tank. Problem comes in when you try to feed the coral in mass.....like with a turkey baster. That's why I suggest a small test kit syringe to feed each polyp with cycopeeze. Frozen is best (not available in every area) but I have a friend that uses the freeze dried cyclops on hers and it does well. Once you get the coral to open, maintenance is no biggie except for the TIME it takes (minimum 4 times a week) to target feed the coral......and protect it from opportunistic scavengers.......cleaner shrimp are the worst offenders here:) I assume you do not have a saltwater tank right now so if you are thinking of setting one up, my suggestion is to read, read, read.......and then read some more. The Contientious Marine Aquarist is a good place to start. Saltwater forums are a great tool for asking and getting questions answered. Premixed saltwater is expensive for sure and I know nothing about actually using it. I mix my own and have found it to be very satisfactory. Water evaporation does occur and daily topoffs with preferably RODI water are a must for reef tanks. It takes time and planning to set up a saltwater reef tank. Don't be in a hurry............that old saying that nothing good happens fast in this hobby is very true. Also have your billfold stocked to the limit.......it's a very expensive hobby!!! Hope this has helped you Randy...........

Your fishy friend,
SJ

[AquariumFish]

Thanks SaltyJane!

I am probably at least several months from (POSSIBLY) taking the plunge.

Currently; I have a brackish tank that will need to be full marine in the future.

I am borderline thinking FOLR ... but the excessive part of my personality says .... HAAAAAA! :drool:

Just went and got a Dragon Goby today :headbang2: for the brackish tank.

It all stems on getting (hopefully) at least a 210 FW tank and possible converting one of the living room tanks to full salt ....

I am a bit of a snake shaped fish fanatic .... and puffers! :grinyes:

... but those corals are awesome .... can't call myself a coral fanatic yet ... never owned any yet.

MORE QUESTIONS:

I have been reading here people feed them late at night .... can it be a pre-dawn schedule?
Do they require all night to digest their food?

I am early to bed - early to rise kind of person ...
That is a BIG factor in doing this or not ....

I coddle my aquariums more than I did my son when he was a newborn ...

Thanks for all the info!
Randy

[Pallen81]

I'm going to try the 1 liter soda (i can't bring myself to say pop. lol) bottle trick and see how it works. i bet my sun coral is hungry. he's barely eaten anything in 3 days. I am gonna use plankton and mysid shrimp.

I'm gonna make sure he pigs out tonight!

[saltyjane]

Sun corals require small meaty foods preferably, cyclopeeze is good but not as good. Phyto is useless with these corals in my opinion......where's the BEEF LOL!!! They love aqua yums silversides......those little one that look like toothpicks. I have broken off little 1/8 inch pieces and fed each polyp with tweezers.......that's really babying it though:) They prefer to be fed small meaty food when lights out but can be trained to open up when lights are on. Make it fit YOUR schedule! I have also taken coral out and placed in small tupperware bowl and thawed out a cube of PrimeReef and basted it all over the coral.......waited 15 minutes to a half hour until all the polyps are out and then swirled the meaty buffet around with a with a turkey baster until all the food was gone. You'd be amazed how much they can eat when they get the chance. You have to slowly move the coral back into the tank (try immersing the bowl with coral into the tank water)so as not to make them polyps retreat and push all the food back out of their mouths:)

Nuf said,
Janey

[Pallen81]

Sun corals require small meaty foods preferably, cyclopeeze is good but not as good. Phyto is useless with these corals in my opinion......where's the BEEF LOL!!!

yeah, I have large plankton/small krill pieces that I'm going to use... no phytoplankton. I should have made that clearer. I can't wait to try this out tonight. :)

[saltyjane]

Good luck!!

[Pallen81]

okay, I'm about ready to feed these guys. I have a seperate bucket set up so that I can properly feed them without my shrimps stealing their food.


However, my tank is running at about 83.7 degrees... (it got a little hot today)

and my bucket is 79.9. is that too big of a difference or can I just move him with no problems?

[saltyjane]

I don't think it will cause you any problem but you need to keep your tank cooler......maybe run a fan on your sump to increase evaporation. If your coral does open up and eats you will still have to protect it when you put it back in the tank. The shrimp will be all over it sticking their feet down inside the mouths trying to dislodge food. Sometimes they are turned off by the stickiness of the polyp but they are pretty agressive most of the time.

Hope things work out well for you.........

Janey

[AquariumFish]

Good Luck!

[Pallen81]

ok, it worked. I know for sure about 20 of the 30 polyps ate. I didn't see all of them. some are very small. but most at least got something. a few ate like pigs. I put the plastic bottle on top of the coral when I put him back in the display tank. fire shrimp stayed away.

I still have yet to see my polyps actually open up completely.

yeah saltyjane, yesterday my tank temp went up a few degrees, its cooler today so I'm sure its around 78-80 this morning. I didn't check though. if my tank hits 84 I put on the A/C. :)

I must be doing something wrong because it took me over 3 hours to ensure this coral ate well. lol.

How long does it take you guys?

[saltyjane]

It does take a while especially at first......you are doing nothing wrong:) Once the coral is trained to open and it is hardy (eaten several times and looking good) you can stop the bucket feedings and find a permanent home for it in your tank. You can give up daily feedings (although some continue daily) and go into a maintenace schedule of feeding. I always fed mine daily at first to get it nice and healthy then went to every other/every third day. If you ever notice that it isn't opening and declining, you can always remove and do a food bath to rejuvenate.......

Janey

[aquaman#1]

Hmmmm it looks good.

[Pallen81]

It does take a while especially at first......you are doing nothing wrong:) Once the coral is trained to open and it is hardy (eaten several times and looking good) you can stop the bucket feedings and find a permanent home for it in your tank. You can give up daily feedings (although some continue daily) and go into a maintenace schedule of feeding. I always fed mine daily at first to get it nice and healthy then went to every other/every third day. If you ever notice that it isn't opening and declining, you can always remove and do a food bath to rejuvenate.......

Janey

Okay, good to know. I've only seen 2 of the tubes open up fully. the rest stay somewhat open to hardly at all. I see the little yellow fingers, but they don't come out fully. Will they all open eventually??? I am being impatient or just concerned they are healthy?

[saltyjane]

Went back and looked at the pic of your coral......it looks really good. I noticed that you have it on the sandbed in the pic......do you still? I always kept mine up midway in the rockwork in high flow......they love flow! If you still have yours on the sandbed move it up......don't worry about shading it. I never did, and mine always opened up beautifully. In my experience, they don't need light but don't mind if they are in it..........I bet you just need more flow to get them to open in your tank. They usually open their fullest after the lights go out............

HTH
~J~

[Pallen81]

Went back and looked at the pic of your coral......it looks really good. I noticed that you have it on the sandbed in the pic......do you still? I always kept mine up midway in the rockwork in high flow......they love flow! If you still have yours on the sandbed move it up......don't worry about shading it. I never did, and mine always opened up beautifully. In my experience, they don't need light but don't mind if they are in it..........I bet you just need more flow to get them to open in your tank. They usually open their fullest after the lights go out............

HTH
~J~
Thanks for you help. I appreciate it.

actually, I have moved it since that picture. It's still on the bottom of the tank, but it's propped up on some live rock rubble so it's not resting on the sand. I built a cave for it from live rock, so it's about half shady and half in the light. I have it in the highest flow area of my tank already.

I may think about moving it up higher now. it's a thought. I heard they would get covered in algae eventually when in full light?

Last night, I tried the plastic bottle trick. I cut it and put it over the coral and shot live brine shrimp in there. I also did this around 11pm. my light goes off at 11:15pm. I saw many of the polyps eat. I can't tell if the super tiny ones are getting anything though. so small.

[saltyjane]

Mine never got algae in full light nor has my daughters. Just keep experimenting with feeding techniques and location if need be. Eventually you'll get the hang of caring for one........just be faithful in feeding it and it will reward you with a burst of color unlike any other coral I've seen...........all this talk about your suncoral is making me want another one.....I gave mine away a couple of years ago.............really missing it! My daughter still has hers......4 years now I think:)

~J~

[Pallen81]

I moved my coral up onto a piece of live rock. I fed him squid and live brine shrimp last night and he ate very well. I think that works out well.

I counted the polyps and I got to 80 and lost count. I think it's somewhere around 90-95. Holy smokes, thats alot of mouths. I'm having a real hard time getting the smaller ones to eat.

Has anyone seen a Sun Coral with this many polyps???!?!? I'll post more pics later.

[saltyjane]

I had one once that had about that many mouths.....don't worry about the smaller ones....I never did. If the larger ones are eating the smaller ones will gain some (minimal) nourshment from the colony in general. As they get bigger they will be more easy to target feed. You're on your way to a keeping a beautiful centerpiece for your tank...............Congrats!!

~J~

[Pallen81]

this is directly after a hefty feeding. he looks happy!!! thanks to everyone (salty jane) for your advice and encouragement!

[SuperScro]

Does the feeding affect your parameters? I was afraid that If I got one, I would be adding waste from all the food needed to feed them.

[saltyjane]

Whooo---eeeee that's one pretty coral:) Congrats on getting it off to a good start. Here's my newest coral, called a "whisker" coral (Duncanopsammia Axifuga). It's polyps look similar to a sun coral but a bit bigger and they stay out all the time:) This one is eating well and has new buds starting to appear. They are supposed to be hardy.......time will tell:)


~Janey~

[saltyjane]

If you target feed the coral using either tweezers for small pieces of food or small test kit syringe to feed each polyp frozen cyclopeeze there is no reason it should polute your tank. Especially if you only do this every two to three days once the coral is through it's initial "break-in" period (daily feedings until coral is healthy).......HTH

Janey

[Mgamer20o0]

cool

[Nick540]

what a beauty, looks very healthy.

[5xevy]

Awesome. This thread has convinced me to finally buy one. So what exactly did you end up feeding it, the Cyclop-eeze?

[Pallen81]

Awesome. This thread has convinced me to finally buy one. So what exactly did you end up feeding it, the Cyclop-eeze?

Honestly, I’ve been changing his diet up every time I feed. I figured the more the better. So far I’ve used Vitamin Enriched Brine Shrimp, Live Brine Shrimp, Marine mix, Cyclop Eeze, Squid, and a few Blood worms just to see what would happen. He’s eaten everything eagerly and seems to really like the meaty foods. I’ve fed him something else too but I forget.

And I only accidently polluted my tank once with cyclop eeze I was fumbling around shooting it all over the place. My ammonia went to 0.25 and I did a water change the next day to eliminate it.

Thanks for all the nice comments about my first coral!!!! Salty Jane, your new coral looks awesome!!!!! I love it.

[Subliminal]

Sweet coral, man!

[5xevy]

Pallen- like I said, this thread convinced me to go buy one. I put one on hold yesterday and will be picking it up today. Looks about the same size as yours, maybe smaller.

Just wondering, where do you get the squid from? Local grocery store or is there some prepared aquarium version? What exactly do you spot feed with? I have a miniature turkey baster-like thing but am thinking it's still too large.

I hope mine will look as great as yours. Any advice appreciated. Oh and I'm thinking a consistent 2-3 feeding- too little?

[Pallen81]

Pallen- like I said, this thread convinced me to go buy one. I put one on hold yesterday and will be picking it up today. Looks about the same size as yours, maybe smaller.

Just wondering, where do you get the squid from? Local grocery store or is there some prepared aquarium version? What exactly do you spot feed with? I have a miniature turkey baster-like thing but am thinking it's still too large.

I hope mine will look as great as yours. Any advice appreciated. Oh and I'm thinking a consistent 2-3 feeding- too little?

hey 5xevy, thanks again for the kind words. glad I could inspire you. my sun coral is actually getting bigger. I can see if everyday, its freakin awesome. I'll post a new pic soon. anyway on to your question...

I got the squid from your typical frozen foods. they sell squid in those little packets at the LFS. Same where you'd get froozen bloodworms, brine shrimp, etc. So far, the sun coral eats anything I give it. as long as its somewhat meaty they looooove it.

Personally, I've tried a few technics to feed my guys and the best seems to be a turkey baster (if you don't have any aggressive hungry fish that is, which I don't have!). I also got a very small syringe that seems to work well. got the syringe at CVS for like 3 bucks. a mini turkey blaster may work perfectly actually!

In my experience (this is my first sun coral hehe), I fed every day for the first week. I did this specifically just to get the coral healthy and confident he'd get food. Often times they are somewhat starved from the LFS. He didn't really come out the first few days that much. Another tip: feed your other fish, inverts first before the sun coral... reason being...

1. so the fish aren't super hungry and bother you when you feed the sun coral and steal his food
2. the sun coral will actually smell the food and start to come out if he's not out already. this is def a handy tip cause the polyps aren't always out.

After the first week of feedings, I took off one day and fed about 5 days the next week. They recommend around 3 days a week or more, but since I baby my animals, I usually feed every day or every other day now. He's growing so well its awesome!!! I think they would be fine a couple times a week though. it's just so fascinating to watch them eat!

Hope that helped. anything else hit me up. :headbang2:

[5xevy]

Just saw your answer today. Thanks a lot. They haven't opened up yet but I only put it in my tank yesterday. The cool thing is that they're all orange except for one black one on the side.

Why are some of you recommending not leaving it in the sand?

Thanks again.

[Gildurath]

Pallen,
I do the same thing with my moon/pineapple/brain, whatever youw ant to call it. I feed my fish and then the polyps all open, and I then blast the openings with mysis, or whatever. I got him good for the first time 2 days ago. He sucked in the whole mysis, and the polpys were all bulged from the food. It digested it and it looks alot healthier.

Your looks awesome. Corals are so awesome when fully open and doing well.

[Pallen81]

I'll have to update you guys with a new picture. My sun coral is without a doubt much larger.

It's tenticles and polyps are getting larger everyday. Guess I'm doing a good job feeding him!!!! He's really filling out nicely and looks more like sunflowers.

Sand, I believe can kill polps.

[Subliminal]

When ya gunna frag that baby and sell me a lil' guy? ;)

[Riverserver]

I want to get one of these so bad! Especially since they're peaceful and very pretty. The black tube coral is also very pretty but would be harder to feed since it spreads vertically.

I'm jealous!

[Pallen81]

:) I want to get a black sun coral too. I know a LFS that has a small frag of it.

then my tank will be complete!

I'll get that picture tonight when I feed my sun coral again and he opens all the way up...

[Germanman]

pics look very nice!

[Pallen81]

Here's what the Sun coral is looking more like nowdays -- getting bigger every day it seems. :headbang2: That's his little cave spot. He's outgrowing it already.

[SigPiPup]

Stunning!! You've convinced me. I shall have one....someday.

[5xevy]

Gorgeous. Thanks again for sharing.

[Subliminal]

Dang man...that's awesome!

[SuperScro]

Looks much better.

[Grins]

Gorgeous, looks like you're keeping it very happy.

[Catpicklesdog]

Yep - you've definately convinced me to get another one (I lost my last one to Phosphates!!) You've done a fantastic job with yours and it's been interesting watching it flourish!!

Keep up the good work:headbang2:

[Pallen81]

Check out the Orange Sun Coral now. it's trhe best thing in my tank. you can't help but see this baby. a few months of TLC and this thing is happy happy.

[saltyjane]

Lookin' good:)

SJ

[Almondsaz]

Beautiful Sun Coral!!!!

[kay-bee]

Fantastic sun coral there!

Has your feeding schedule (and menu) changed any since earlier in the thread?

[Grins]

That 3rd photo down is pic of the month worthy.

[Pallen81]

That 3rd photo down is pic of the month worthy.

Why thank you! hehe.

[Pallen81]

Has your feeding schedule (and menu) changed any since earlier in the thread?

Still feeding a little nearly everyday.

Feeding: Brine Shrimp, Mysis Shrimp, Carnivore Mix (clam, mussels, etc), Krill, Cyclop Eeze

[Sploke]

Wow that thing looks amazing. What kind of requirements does it have? sounds like it needs some pretty attentive target-feeding anyway.

[Pallen81]

Guess what?!! My orange sun coral has reproduced. I found about 20-30 tiny tiny little sun polyps all over my tank. Some on the glass, sand, shells, live rock. Its pretty cool. Im going to try and grow some of them out and see if I can start a new colony. If you feed your sun corals well they will breed!!!!!

Pretty wicked..... dont you think?

[Grins]

Wow! Congrats Pallen and glad to see you back around by the way.

[Pallen81]

Lol. Thanks. I know its been a while.

[Grins]

Someone was asking about sun corals earlier today and I immediately wondered about your's. Did you ever think you'd start breeding them?

[Catpicklesdog]

Excellent news Pallen - you know we're going to want to see piccies!!

[Grins]

Yes pictures please...speaking of which you need to go check out the girth on CPD's mandarian. I'm not sure she is giving the poor thing enough to eat.

[Catpicklesdog]

:banher:

[Pallen81]

I'm working on the pics as i write this.

[clown-lover]

Very Cool Pallen.. And like others have said nice to see you around again.. If you ever feel the need to put together a care package you could always send a baby colony this way.. Kind of like how I want CPD to send over both her Mandarin to me and her coco to Grins.. :)

[Subliminal]

Hey Pallen,

If any of those get established, and you want to get rid of them, lemme know. I'll trade you for some zoos or a shroom. Those are usually pretty low-light coral.

:)

[chucke]

Nice!

[FeatherDuster]

That colony is beautiful! I can't believe it grew so fast. I guess thats what happens when they are happy and healthy.

So they don't require any light? I never really looked into sun corals since we don't really have them available here.

[Pallen81]

Nope, the Sun Corals are not dependant on light for food. Its up to you to feed them properly!

[sumo warior]

Did you get to take any pics of the baby sun corals? I looked around but i didnt find them

[AquariumFish]

I just picked one up ...

http://www.thebasicsabout.com/Coral/SunCoralSmall.jpg
http://www.thebasicsabout.com/Coral/SunCoralSmall.jpg