Sun Coral Babies!

[SpikeyPuffer]

About a week ago my sun coral released planula (sp?). They floated around alot, so I thought they all died, but now I have little orange balls all over my rock work. I'ave been feeding one cube of rotifers daily, and doing water non stressful changes every other day, any other suggestions?

[dendro982]

If you feed your tank for fish or corals, the babies should survive on this food. Increased water changes also were unnecessary, at least in my case, if the water parameters are tolerable. After babies grow enough (and they grow very slowly) to accept the meaty food, they will grow much faster. No special care whatsoever :)
HTH

[Premiumaq]

Yeah, that's awesome! The nice thing about the babies is that they were born into the normal conditions of your tank, so that's what they expect and demand from now on! Mine haven't needed any sort of additional feeding and don't suffer for my inability to get to most of them for target feeding.

[ekr]

the baby will be find w/o target feeding. i found a few baby in the back of my nano and they are doing find. who no how long they been there.

[SpikeyPuffer]

Checking back in-- my babies have now developed from balls to very small "towers", and have taken on the typical polyp shape...wohoo!!
How long does it take them to grow to the normal size (big enough to eat mysis?

[ekr]

it depend. mine haven't change much in like a month.

[dendro982]

Several moths, IMHE.
You can start to feed chopped mysis earlier.

[sunrise1982]

I also have a suncoral but it does not open its tentacles at all...but it is still alive...any one have idea?
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/569/img2557itw.th.jpg (http://img12.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img2557itw.jpg)

[EllieSuz]

I've been through this with my Sun Coral recently. Here's how I brought it back: Get a clear plastic container a little larger than your coral. (I used a deli container). This allows you to raise the whole thing up out of the tank to feed it without invertebrates and fish interfering. Squirt some defrosted food in the water over the coral even if it isn't open. After a few days of this, it will begin to respond by starting to open. At first the tentacles seem too weak to close around the food, but when it begins to get some sustenance from the food, it will strengthen and begin to take direct feeding. I use a plastic pipette with the tip cut off to allow it to suction larger foods like mysis, spirulina brine shrimp, prime reef, etc. All these are meaty foods that the Sun Coral likes. Try to feed each polyp daily. A little patience and your chances are good that it will come back. Do this at least once a day and try to make it the same time of day each time. They will start to open on their own accord at that time, in anticipation of being fed. Once it is taking food well, you can wait until they open a second time and feed it again, being careful, of course not to let the water in the container get too cool. Good luck and let me know how this goes for you.

[sunrise1982]

thanks EllieSuz, I will try...but there are other ways not to get the coral out the tank????.

[dendro982]

3 other ways: 1st is difficult, 2nd polluting, 3rd requires slightly moving coral forward.

Pre-conditioning (let it smell the food): 15-20 min after largest fish feeding or after adding a pinch of cyclop eeze. Then try to feed by any of the following methods:

1. Placing mysis onto most mouths. Tweezers or long plastic tongs, depending on tank depth. At 24"/60cm it will be difficult, but doable.
Keep flow off for some time. Repeat.

2. Repeatedly shower coral by food. Flow off and on again, repeat showering. The whole procedure may take from 40 min to 1.5 hrs daily for 3 days, then it may start open by itself.
Battery operated gravel cleaner may help remove uneaten food, or just siphon it off.

3. Lunar Lander (http://reefrancher.com/index.php?tag=diy), weightened version of "half bottle hut". Food is injected in closed compartment. This bell is removed after feeding.

HTH

If you don't mind unasked advice, the orange gorgonian in front of Tubastrea micratha requires more frequent feeding, IMHO :p
ZoPlan, RotiFeast, frozen rotifers - whatever you have.
Is is Swiftia kofoidi? Mine:
http://thumb1.webshots.net/t/64/464/2/24/30/2099224300081040121YwNPDh_th.jpg (http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2099224300081040121YwNPDh) http://thumb1.webshots.net/t/58/558/6/13/43/2820613430081040121kUKiqe_th.jpg (http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2820613430081040121kUKiqe)

[sunrise1982]

thanks dendro982, your coral is so beautifull. I will try these ways......