Black Sun Coral

[RickM61]

I have a black sun coral that im trying to save..it has about 10 good polyps on it and the rest are dead..my question is can i frag the good ones off of the dead ones..would that help the ones that are still alive..

thanks in advance

Rick

[RickM61]

no one has an answer...:(

[dannyfromholland]

HI Rick

I have no particulate experience but I think that you can frag it but it won't help saving the others polyps. I think its better to let the coral in its original state (its easier to mount it on a good spot )and put it a light protected area to prevent algae on the dead skeleton. Then start feeding it reguarly. When the coral recovers you can frag it cut the dead spots away and put it were you want it.

Cheers

Danny Dame

[RickM61]

Danny thanks for your input..i will be doing just that..this thing will be nice if it comes out of it

[akindbro4u]

this may seem strange to you, but what i have done(or i should say my sleeper gobby) is bury the sun coral in a light layer of sand for about three days. When you take it out shake it well, and give it a day or two. After that you can try burying it again. I have found that this encourages them to expand there"skin", and the will regrow faster. Just my2cents.

[jlone101]

careful don't want to stress the good part of the coral :)

[Kreeger1]

Yes you can frag the good heads off. Heres a picture of one of my fragged black sun corals
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e109/kreeger1/blacktub.jpg

[RickM61]

sweet sun coral.... i am going to have to do something.. i think the dead polyps are killing the live ones off..one at a time..

[RickM61]

any special way to frag these..

[Kreeger1]

The dead polyps won't kill off anything. Lack of food or water quality is what will kill the coral.

[RickM61]

ok i will just keep it the way it is..its getting pleanty of food and the water quality is good.

[Hesham]

Unless you see sign of some infection moving through the polyps, there is no need to frag.

I don't think I've ever seen an infected tubastrea - if anyone has pictures, please post. With acros, it typically is obvious when there is an infection (e.g. band moving up a branch) and then action is required to save the healthy branches.

[redshirt]

I have a huge colony of the black suncoral and I will tell u that they are very diffrent from a reg: sun coral they must be fed daily each polyp if they branch and if it is a whole lump then just a couple of polyps getting food is ok. I have had sun coral orange and yellow very easy to keep now the black sun coral take TLC everyday. Now this is just what I have notice with my colony that I have had for a year or longer that I have fragged many many times. Hope this help I also feed cyclop eeze or mysis.

[dendro982]

redshirt:
Can you make a thread about your black coral care, progress, rate of growth, fragging, comparison with other suns, observations. Is it T. micrantha?

Would appreciate that: when I bought my T. diaphana (also black sun, but was expected to be trouble free) and it behaved very different, I panicked. Would like to be prepared for T. micrantha, if I'll find it. Others may like to see this information too.

Thanks.

[RickM61]

I would also like to see a thread on this too..mine is doing better but it's still not there yet

[MikePowell]

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[Qckwzrd]

just use a pliers and bread off the dead branches/ployps. Try to leave the coral in a bucket and in the water as you break the dead polyps off. "black" suncorals require way more care then the "reg" oranges and yellows. Much more food (frequently). IDK about placing the suncoral under the sand bed, heard if its placed on the sand bed and sand is injested its very difficult for them to expell it.

[Avalon_Princess]

I was given a black sun froma nice LFS owner who new I'd had success with the orange suns in bringing it back to life. It's got probably ten polyps on it and they were hollow and jagged when I got it. two days and five feedings later its beginning to fill out though still no polyp extension.

Those of you with black sun corals, how much extra care do they need compared to orange suns? I picked the black sun coral up at the same time as a very much worse off orange sun but after five feedings its looking happier then the black sun coral and extending.
I have a large sun coral colony with 40-50 polyps, which is fed everyday I'm assuming the black sun coral would ahve similiar requirements? mounted in the shade or in a cave, fed every day with a range of meaty foods?

Oh and are they able to be trained to extend during the daytime? or are they more light sensitive then the orange suns?

There doesn't seem to be much info on the net about them, apart from their harder to care for then orange sun corals and have a lower survival rate.

[dendro982]

Avalon_Princess:
Can you post pictures before and after?
Daily feedings of the meaty food mean a lot, my suns feel much better when fed this way.

I no longer feed every day, the growth is slower. But my T. diaphana opens each time after feeding fish and other corals, to pick what was left, during daytime, just like all the others. I have an impression, that this is more a matter of sensing food, that of training, with all of mine suns: pale orange, intense orange, yellow, yellow branching and black.

My T. diaphana was not more sensitive, than other suns, after it started eating, but this took a long time.
And it regenerated fast from the burn caused by hammer coral, while pale orange polyps died, where the branch of frogspawn landed.

[Avalon_Princess]

This was taken when I bought it, its not much different, though its had like 8 feedings. I don't know where the food disappears to but within a few hours of feedings they lose their plump filled look and return to looking hollow, and their not regurgitating.
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n12/cutencoolcages/Nanoreef034resize-1.jpg

I'm trying feedings three times a day of meaty food just to get it back and healthy, or extending at the least, then I'll cut it back to once a day. But I can't until it begins extending as right now I have to remove it from the tank just to feed it.

[dendro982]

And I thought, that mine was in a bad condition! :p

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g78/dendro982/LPS/Black%20sun/Feb290812opened.jpg
It didn't open by itself too, had to shower it by food for 1.5 hrs, with intervals 5-10 min, until it started to open for a feeding by itself, 3 days maybe. After initial 5 days of trying to figure out how to make it open.

Lunar Lander (http://reefrancher.com/index.php?tag=diy) can be used too, to reduce tank pollution. Didn't tried yet, but looks good.

After mine started to eat, I fed it daily too, then once in two days, it started to recover:
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g78/dendro982/LPS/Black%20sun/Apr17_08blo.jpg
but still didn't grow as much of body, as a healthy sun coral should have. But I have it not too long, and in a hot weather feedings are reduced again..

[Avalon_Princess]

i haven't got anywhere near to making it open yet LOL, still just trying to give it enough food for its mouths to come to the top, right now their just hollow cylinders between feedings. It doesn't help that my puffer went on a coral rampage and destroyed a couple of the healthiest polyps, puffer has no been moved to an FO tank.

[RickM61]

mine isnt anywhere near that either..but it is hanging on..im setting up a little 3 gal just for it today so i can feed it more often without polluting my display tank.. all the black sun corals ive seen at the LFS dont seem to open up much either..Dendro982, so for yours is the best 1 ive seen out there..anyone else have black suns they would like to share..

Rick

[dendro982]

Fingers crossed, yours will feel better with time :) .

What else I did: when mine didn't ate for ~5 days - some tentacles were seen on some polyps, but not catching the food, as if they are too weak or not sticky - I, honestly, panicked and asked on forums. They said - keep feeding.
Then I did once container feeding, in a separate container, coral submersed in the concentrated food "soup":
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g78/dendro982/LPS/Black%20sun/Feb2808contfed.jpg
It was February, co container is with heater and water flow. It was there approximately 1 hr, I didn't see it catching food, but it inflated better, showed more tentacles, and water cleared from mysis and brine shrimp. Returned back to the tank.

After was feeding all sun corals every day, with rare exceptions, squirting some fine particles onto the black coral, for maybe 1.5 hr with interval 5-10 min, turning flow on few times during feeding - it seemed, that reacted on flow better, just like pure yellow coral. Again flow off and feed.

Then tentacles couldn't keep food, used tong to apply single mysis to the mouth, then next and next. This is 24" (60 cm) deep tank, care was taken not to touch coral, but it not always could be avoided.

This took time, but only for the very few days, then is came out of lethargic state, and started to eat itself, but always opening after all other sun corals, until became feel better, within month or so.

Hope that helps.
Watch how your sun reacts and try feed it. Mine was just very slow, until recovered.

There are pages about making open and recovery of the other black sun coral, Tubastrea micrantha, link (http://www.buttercreamdreams.com/tubastrea_micrantha.htm), another link (http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?t=189966) .

[RickM61]

my fingers are crossed too..now ive just noticed a little bit of hair algae startig to grow on it so have to take care of that problem right now..these corals are rapidly becoming my favorite coral.

[Avalon_Princess]

Well the coral is finally beginning to react better. I'm now leaving it in a bowl floating around the tank for 1-2 hours and it seems to be eating a lot more, some polyps haven't eaten at all so I'm guessing their probably too far gone, there's a definite difference though since when i got it the polyps are getting more of a glossy black look instead of chocolate brown and the actual stems of the coral seem to have darkened a bit. The orange sun I got at the same time is still way ahead of it in regeneration but it definitely does seem to be doing better.

There's now no fish or inverts in the tank apart from corals and a few snails, so nothing to nick its food which should help, but I'll keep removing it from the tank for now until I'm seeing full extension during feeding. I'm glad I'm on school holidays though its a lot of work feeding them this way but hopefully they'll be better soon so I can just squirt food at them in the tank like I do with my other suns.

[RickM61]

Avalon
good luck ...looks like yours is coming around..i moved mine into a 5 gal yesterday so a can feed more often..right now i am feding 4 times a day..and have my photo period on 4 hours off 4 hours...because of heat issues..

Rick

[Kreeger1]

They like stronger flow then the yellow or orange types.
Erik

[RickM61]

yeah i have a Rio 90 in there for flow..i have a polyp extending already..as as long as there is 1 i can bring it back.

Rick

[Kreeger1]

yep

[tiff393]

I just got mine this weekend and it eats like crazy but it has a bunch of babies to are you suppose to feed the babies to or just the big ones??

[RickM61]

Tiff

Every polyp needs to be feed if possible...sometimes its just no possible though..

Rick

[tiff393]

Will try to feed some of them are just so small and others are in between the larger ones. I feed the larger ones krill but I'll have to try and feed the others brine shrimp. Mine also open when I turn the lights on and I have them in direct light and they seem to like it.

[RickM61]

tiff

try feeding the ones you cant get to cyclopeze or reef chile with a turkey baster..that seems to work for me..

Rick

[RickM61]

well sadly to say my black sun didnt make it..i tried everything it just wouldnt come back..

Rick

[dendro982]

A real pity. You have my sympathy.

You have only a skeleton now, not a single polyp?
:sad2:

[RickM61]

yes just the skeleton thats it..i can find a single polyp on it

Rick

[dendro982]

Then don't throw it away, give it a chance to this polyp, maybe it survives, even with no particular care. It happens.

[iglowce]

any pic of ur colony?

[RickM61]

it didnt make it..i have a small colony of orange suns that got broke off the mother colony by my tang..i glued that to the skeleton..it semms to be thriving..

Rick