suncoral help

[blacktip0000]

my suncoral is under a cave and he isnt extending its polyps i have a current blowing on it and the polyps barely extend. it has been about 4 days already.

[sufunk]

Have you tried to feed it yet? To get the polyps to extend, i would put some selcon or zoecon in the tank, that should getb it to extend. Then squirt a little food on it.

I would take it out from under the cave. They dont need light but light wont hurt them, thats a myth. It makes it a million times easier to feed if its out in the open.

There is a sun coral thread a few threads down on this page where myself and a few others describe their feeding techniques. Check it out.

[blacktip0000]

i tried to feed it dt's live phytoplankton and after the mh were off the coral extended part of its polyp

[Freed]

Continue trying to feed it every day. It will eventually open all its polyps for you. After another week or so you will be able to feed it within 10-20 minutes of putting the first bit of food in the water.

[blacktip0000]

does it need a strong current blowing on it?

[Freed]

Won't hurt it and will actually keep stuff from collecting between polyps. Turn flow off when feeding so it can grab the food you feed to it and so the food doesn't get blown out of the polyps.

[blacktip0000]

i have it in a current of a 295gph powerhead 24/7 is that ok because i didnt want to overpower the current and have him stressed out and die

[Freed]

I wouldn't have it being blown straight on with the PH though.

[Qckwzrd]

Try taking the suncoral out everyday using a cup (submerge the cup so the coral doesn't come in contact with the air (mike :) ) ) put some cyclops in the containter and use a turkey baster to stir the water up in the container. Do this for an hr everyday for a week then you'll see a major change. A lot of times suncorals are starved when you get them from Lfs. After a week with the cyclops start adding mysis shrimp (be sure to rise the shrimp off first) when you add the suncoral back to the tank submerge the container so the left over food the other corals and fish can eat. Start with a half of cube then increase to a cube after a week. Then you can start feeding the suncoral in your tank. Don't have the PH facing the suncoral, I think moderate flow is good. Place the suncoral upward in your tank to make it easier to target feed. Good luck

[sufunk]

Phytoplankton isn't going to do anything. I'm not sure it can even eat it. Try something meaty and it should start opening up.

Mine likes in best in moderate but not direct flow.

[mikekman]

I also agree about the phyto.......not sure how its suppose to eat that. Give it meaty foods like mysis. I have mine under moderate flow but not direct.

Mike

[SDguy]

Pardon me while a latch on to this thread for a second. :D My first experience with a suncoral...it's a single, long polyp. Anyways, quick question. Do the tentacles ever get sticky enough to catch food floating through them, or am I better off positioning the polyp vertically so the food will fall into the tentacles and sit there? Right now, I place food in the tentacles, and it floats away :( I have to hold the food in there for several minutes, which is annoying in my 31" tall tank.
Here it is:
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p5/SDreefguy/Happysunpolyp.jpg

And I guess it's doing well since it sprouted a teeny tiny baby:
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p5/SDreefguy/Sunpolypbaby.jpg

TIA for any help.

[kimoy]

my suncoral opens even during the day. but it opens up more at night.

[mikekman]

Hey sdguy, nice little baby growing on the side! :) Were did you get it and did they call it a sun coral? Almost looks like a branching sun coral or a D. arbuscula like Vipers.

If you have a healthy sun coral, its tentacles are a bit sticky and can catch small foods PROVIDED that you don't have a lot of flow. If you have a ton of flow, the food will be blown away from their tentacles.
If you have light flow, yeah it can grab onto it. If you are finding that it can't grab onto the food, continue to do what you are doing........holding the food to its tentacles until it eats it. Maybe its a bit weak right now and just needs your help for a little bit until it has the strength to hold the food.

If you can get your hands on some dendros, get it! They have long sticky tentacles that can grab onto food like mysis really easily and once they grab onto food, they will start shoving it into their mouths.

Mike

[SDguy]

Thanks for the info Mike! Actually, it was a freebee from a group buy I did, so it wasn't called anything :D . I guess I'll move it to a lower flow area, where the food can settle on it and not blow away. Yeah, dendros are gorgeous...I might have to get some soon :D