Coral Food and suncorals

[Frosflame]

Hi guys,

Just got a piece of suncoral, half orange half yellow. Understand from the LFS that this is a rather hardy coral but getting it to open can be rather tricky. As they are non photosythetic, they need to be target fed. The owner advise me to prepare a blend of Cyclopeeze + Prawn + Mussel blend to be fed to the corals weekly for best results. Would appreciate if anyone could share their experience

Also, Hope you can help me out on the types/brands of liquid coral food that have good reviews for use with suncorals. (for daily dosing). Currently using Marinesnow from 2 little fishes from 2 years ago (kept in the fridge all this time)

[hondaker]

Hi there,

i am experimenting with sun corals now too

had asked Henry from ML about how to maintain/feed the suncoral, he told me to mix cyclopeeze with phytoplankton

then squirt the solution into the tank, and left the current take the food to the corals, of course, the sun corals must be placed in the direction of the current

sometimes, i will handfeed frozen shrimp cubes or henry mix to each poylp

hope it helps

[Skipper32]

i had a few sunssss..black and green...

frozen brine shrimps and mysis for them carried by flow once it is well thaw...

[Guinness]

Lots of work......

target feeding for best results.....(gotta watch them whilst they eat! keep those pesky shrimps away from them while they eat!!!!!)

[vagabond]

Try Henry's blend. My suns love it.

[Frosflame]

Thanks for your replies guys. Guess I will continue dosing marine snow and try the blend of cyclopeeze + pytoplankton. Currently, the yellow suns are opening consistantly after lights out but the orange part has yet to do so.

[hondaker]

all the best bro, and have a merry xmas

[Elune]

Hey Hey~ Frosflame,

Check the below picture, straight forward idea, this way, you can ensure your fishes wun rip the food off your sunnies little polyp mouth~ introduce the food directly in through the bottle head and make a little current inside to ensure all polyps get the food.

This picture and idea belongs to Cakepro of Huston, in Reef Central Online

By the way, the one on the left is a BLACK SUN CORAL , which Cakepro proudly displays...

And I just got my hands on a PINK SUN CORAL today~~ Love at first sight, as I can distinctively see that the color is different from the usual ORANGE sun coral.

The shopkeeper told me its a PINK SUN CORAL, which he relunctantly sold to me.

Once I get my digital camera back, I'll post it up here~

Besides cyclopeeze + pytoplankton (henry's formula), you can feed sun corals mysis shrimp, selcon, and phytonplankton also.

Quote from Cakepro of Reef Central Online:

...sun corals are normally found in caves, underhangs, and darker places on the reef because the waters there are richer in plankton, which provides 100% of their sustenance and they can catch food all day long. They do not photosynthesize at all, so if you buy one, you will need to feed the colony daily or every other day.

[nakazoru]

Hey Hey~ Frosflame,

Check the below picture, straight forward idea, this way, you can ensure your fishes wun rip the food off your sunnies little polyp mouth~ introduce the food directly in through the bottle head and make a little current inside to ensure all polyps get the food.

This picture and idea belongs to Cakepro of Huston, in Reef Central Online

By the way, the one on the left is a BLACK SUN CORAL , which Cakepro proudly displays...

And I just got my hands on a PINK SUN CORAL today~~ Love at first sight, as I can distinctively see that the color is different from the usual ORANGE sun coral.

The shopkeeper told me its a PINK SUN CORAL, which he relunctantly sold to me.

Once I get my digital camera back, I'll post it up here~

Besides cyclopeeze + pytoplankton (henry's formula), you can feed sun corals mysis shrimp, selcon, and phytonplankton also.

Quote from Cakepro of Reef Central Online:

...sun corals are normally found in caves, underhangs, and darker places on the reef because the waters there are richer in plankton, which provides 100% of their sustenance and they can catch food all day long. They do not photosynthesize at all, so if you buy one, you will need to feed the colony daily or every other day.

Bro,

Funny, you have ur sunny out on the open. So what happens when photo period comes on???

But I really love this idea. But if got rock, then a bit difficult...

If buy bottle with different shades, like sunny with sun glasses...

[Elune]

hi Nakazoru,

yep, i agree having the sunnies out in the open kinda funny, and if got rocks will be difficult.

But this method is good for 1 purpose (perhaps more?) --- when you just bought the sun coral back home and introduces it into your tank. Call it the incubation period.

We all know that these beautiful things get stressed during transport and handling, and will retract inwards (close doors). More importantly, if these sun corals are locked-in for too long a time, they'll basically lock-in forever.

So the number 1 priority when we first introduce sun corals into the tank is to make sure they open up asap. My friend's sun corals opened up ONLY after a few days when he introduced it into his tank. Got him so worried.

My Pink Sun Corals was introduced into my tank last evening (26th Dec, 1700 hrs), and using this feeding method last nite and this morning, mine opened up this very morning before I left for my work (27th Dec, 0800 hrs); 1 polyp opened 100% and 5-6 of the bigger polyps on top opened about 80%. Makes my day. I m still smiling to myself now...

[Frosflame]

OMG Elune, that's a great idea. However, I read from Henry's thread that strong currents are needed to stimulate the sun corals for them to open, won't the bottle eliminate this?

[Elune]

Fros,

I dunno about strong currents stimulating the opening of the sun corals, but i did mention in my above post "make a little current inside to ensure all polyps get the food"...

wat i did was to cover the bottle over my corals, then using a syringe ($0.25 from pharmancy), squirt phytoplankton over the closed polyps. its like letting them smell that food is coming.(Hondaker thought me this) (note that phytoplankton is also food for them).

About 5-10 mins later, they'll start opening up. Thats when i throw in pieces of thawed meaty food into the bottle opening.

Then using the same syringe, i place it into the bottle opening, and pump a couple of times to create currents. (Avoid pumping directly at the polyps, u'll scare them back in.) You can tell so by seeing those pieces of meaty food circulating like a cyclone around the bottle's interiors. This way, you will have a all-round feeding-effect to all the polyps, as the meaty food hovering around inside the bottle will be caught by the tentacles of each polyp.

without the bottle, you will still have currents from the usual environment of your tank, but the food will be flying everywhere and the fishes will be competing for a bite too.

Still, this method is meant for the incubating period of a newly introduced sun coral. by some time, your sun coral will get use to the usual enviorment of your tank and will "graduate" from this "bottle-nursery". cheers~

[Frosflame]

Hey Elune, guess what, I went back and immediately adopted the idea and squirted a mixture of phytoplankton + cyclopeeze into the enclosure, guess what, the orange side started opening, all 36 ployps, not big but a noteworthy improvement. Thanks so much for sharing, it's a great method to intro suncorals to feeding!

[hondaker]

congratz!

[Elune]

Hey ~ congrats~!

i just started on Sun corals also, that why I stumbled upon this method from this cakepro guy in reef central. Find this idea simply "why-didn't-I-think-of-this?".

Anyways, lets hope our sun corals can "graduate" from the bottle nursery and adapt to our tank environment soon!

Cheers for Sun Corals~!!!

[cci[RR]us]

I made a cover like the one shown in the picture, but I attached a long rod to it so that I do not need to dirty my hand whenever I need to protect the sun coral from my other livestock. I simply lower the cover by holding on to the rod, and once the food is consumed, I lift the cover by pulling the rod up.