sun corals

[Holly]

I picked up some sun corals yesterday, and I was just reading about them -

I just discovered that they're NONPHOTOSYNTHETIC and have to be fed DOH!

 

I purposely avoid nonphotosynthetic corals! This is why I steer clear of beautiful carnations! UGH ..It wasn't mentioned to me that suns aren't photosynthetic, but I shoulda asked, I know. Why didn't I ask!? (fishhit) <--me hitting myself

 

Do any of you have these, and if so, how often do you feed and how do you do it? (scratch) I read to give them mysid or silverside or meat, but the mouths look very tiny. Maybe a whole thawed mysid per mouth per night?

 

Any advice on how to handle this would be appreciated. I don't want them to die.

 

Thanks!

[Nyles]

Precisely why I dont have any, I hate target feeding. Most tend to open at night, try to train it to eat during the day by slowly moving its feeding time to the daytime, If its opening during the day then you have 95% of the battle won. Im sure someone will chime in on food type.

[Sol]

I feed mine daily or so (at least 5 times a week). I feed the mysis, and am surprised at the size and quantity of the mysis they can back in. My colony of 20 or so polyps consumes an entire cube of mysis a day!

 

I've found if you feed them at least twice a week, they stay alive. To actually grow they need more than that though.

 

As for when to feed, I've found the best time to feed them is just after I feed everybody else. They seem to "smell" the food I feed the tank, and then when they're open I target feed. Also this means that the fish are full; otherwise they tend to try and steal the mysis that I target feed the sun.

 

As for the "how", I defrost the mysis in about a cup of tank water, and then I sort of "drizzle" that solution over the sun with a turkey baster. All powerheads remain on. Be sure not to squirt too hard as excessive flow velocities will cause it to close up.

 

For more info, check out http://www.melevsreef.com/suncoral.html

 

-Sol

[chewie]

Feed it Patrick's(if you have) Gumbo. They love it and they're able to eat it faster.

[pledosophy]

I feed mine around every other day, might do three days in a row sometimes.

 

I squirt in some phyto and then turn the pumps off. That usually gets them to open. Mine take around 20 minutes to open. So after the pumps are off I put the mysis in a cup with tank water to thaw, and hop in the shower (insert other activity). Then I target feed with a turkey baster making sure every polyp gets food. Then I wait another 1/2 hour or so and I feed again. I wait a bit longer until all the food has disappeared and turn the pumps back on. Just what I do, seems to be working so far. I have about 15 new polyps.

 

HTH

[Holly]

I'll have to try the gumbo/baster thing. I don't have any of Patrick's gumbo yet. Will make a note to pick that up.

 

When I came in this afternoon, almost all of them were open (and the MHs were still on, which I thought was weird), so I thawed some mysis and used tweezers to individually feed each of the 16 heads. Sheesh. Seemed to take forever. My fingers were pruned up.

 

Baster will be easier...but at least for tonight they're fed!

 

BTW Sol, you're right about the quantity AND the post-fish-feeding thing. My arc-eye hawk kept nabbing the mysis off my tweezer so I stopped and fed the tank. That hellped. When I fed the heads, I just kept putting more mysis on each mouth as long as it stayed open and kept taking them. I think several of those big ones may've had five or six before they slowed down :eek:

 

I'm not going on any trips soon, but this kind of coral isn't conducive to being away from home, so I might have to adopt them out. I've finally trained our family house-sitter how to do basic maintenance on the tanks, but this is asking a little too much of a young non-reefer.

 

Thanks for all the advice!

[dsoz]

I personally love how sun corals look, especially the black ones. But I would NEVER get one because of the feeding schedule. It is almost as bad a having a baby (or a new puppy). Vacations would become a non-reality, and my wife would not allow my tank to interfere with her vacations! We both work in the school for a reason, it is called summer!

 

Good luck with it. I hope you have the patience and determination to feed that new baby.

 

dsoz

[impur]

I don't have sun corals, but i've read up on them and i have a Rhizotrochus typus that is non-photosynthetic. I feed it a piece of krill about every other day. I think 3+ times a week would be fine for your sun coral. You might consider dropping in some phyto or cyclopeeze before you feed the bulk of your food for the fish, maybe 10-15min before. The sun coral should open to feed, then feed the fish like normal. The sun coral is bound to catch some.