Sun coral pics

kay-bee19

kay-bee19

Large Fish
#1
May 6, 2006
156
0
16
Tampa, FL
#1
I've had this coral (sun coral/tubastraea) for a few weeks now and really enjoy it. This coral requires some involvement since it's not photosynthetic and each polyp requires frequent feeding.

It typically opens up only at night or when I feed it (the following pics were taken at about 2am, I had to briefly turn on some of the lights for these shots):



There are at least three smaller sun corals not attached to main colony (two can be seen on the right). They're growing among some black sun coral which are attached to the same piece:


More black sun coral pics:





In this final pic the polyp on the bottom left is finishing up the last of the mysis shrimp:
 

J

JeLeAk

Large Fish
#3
Jan 4, 2005
491
0
0
40
Alaska
#3
geezz! each polyp requires feeding on a regular basis, i dont think i would be able to take care of such a demanding coral... my shrimp would never allow for any of the the polyps to be fed lol
 

Lorna

Lorna

Elite Fish
#4
Mar 3, 2005
3,082
4
0
NE Indiana
#4
I have heard of putting a plastic soda bottle over the coral to keep wary free riders out....while feeding....I sooooo want one of these, I have been looking and haven't found one yet that the shipping isn't an arm and a leg for.
 

TRe

TRe

Elite Fish
#7
Feb 20, 2005
3,645
1
0
ft. lauderdale
#7
i actually saw one of these a few months back before i knew what it was for like $15 at the lfs .... ive been kinda tryin to stay away from there since im buying a house when my lease is up in june :D but i may have to go see what they have this weekend
 

Lorna

Lorna

Elite Fish
#9
Mar 3, 2005
3,082
4
0
NE Indiana
#9
They probably take up no more time than anything else.......you just need to be dilligent on feeding them......apparently you can train them to open for feeding during the day.....
 

eva

eva

Large Fish
#11
Oct 18, 2006
168
0
0
burnaby, bc
#11
yes i just bought a great piece for $35 CDN...its not as expensive as some other corals up here. we are training it to open around 6pm so we have the whole night to enjoy them! your sun corals are looking great!
 

kay-bee19

kay-bee19

Large Fish
#12
May 6, 2006
156
0
16
Tampa, FL
#12
Thanks for the comments! :)

Lorna said:
...apparently you can train them to open for feeding during the day.....
Click to expand...
I've also heard they can be 'trained' to open up during the day if they're fed at the same time each feeding (but I happen to finish work at 10pm so, having it open after dark seems to fit with my current schedule).

Lorna said:
I have heard of putting a plastic soda bottle over the coral to keep wary free riders out....while feeding....
Click to expand...
I take it out of the tank and feed it in a small container so as not to degrade my water quality (this one coral colony consumes more food in one sitting than probably my entire tank does in a week, each polyp currently consumes 1-3 mysis shrimp during each feeding session). When fed in my main tank that amount of mysis seems to prevent my protein skimmer from producing foam for about 12-18hrs.

I attached this coral to a white plastic plumbing part (you can probably see it in photo #2). It makes moving this coral easier (I initially did this due to the shape of this particular piece to keep the entire coral off the substrate; at the LFS a portion of it was face down on the sand).

JeLeAk said:
geezz! each polyp requires feeding on a regular basis, i dont think i would be able to take care of such a demanding coral... my shrimp would never allow for any of the the polyps to be fed lol
Click to expand...
I feed it mysis using tweezers (the tentacles grab the shrimp from them), and in the small container it has no competition. The first few times I fed it in the tank and it attracted practically every hermit and hitch hiker crab in my tank.
 

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