sun corals.

[Salty Cracker]

Placed a couple dozen frags in the tank a couple days ago. Everything opened and is doing good except my new sun coral. I know sometimes they take thier time to open. Just worried about it. Are sun corals really picky?

[CuzzA]

From the research I've done they are a really needy coral. Every polyp needs to be fed often and usually they only open at night. Not the type of coral I like, instead I purchased dendrophyllia (Aka Fathead, Firecracker) and they are awesome. Big fat heads that open and close throughout the day. Reproduce pretty fast. Are much hardier. Can be placed almost anywhere in your tank and after feeding they look amazing when they open up. Almost like they're smiling at you saying thanks for dinner bud.

[toothybugs]

Mine took about 3 months to start behaving. They used to be closed up ALL THE TIME (day or night) and then would only stick the tips of the tentacles out. Took some nudging but now they open up more often than not. Shrimp juice teases mine out for feeding.

Edit: FWIW, they're one of my favorite corals in the tank. They aren't "set and forget" but I think it's that interaction that endears them to me. Don't let sand get on them - I did, and the flesh rotted underneath it really quick. Good news is, with a little diligence and better feeding, they recovered within a couple weeks and are starting to sprout new heads.

[Stevenliu9]

They do tend to open more at night, and if you have them placed under bright light I'd recommend place them under a shaded area or the darkest corner of the tank you can find since they do not need light at all and having excess light actually cause algae to grow and affect their health.

[tkeracer619]

They take specialized care.

[Mark9]

Sun corals are a PITA.
Typically they come out at night to feed, but you an train them to open during the day.
Use a baster to "mist" them with a bit of finely chopped up food, they should open in a bit, then feed them.

[laga77]

At the beginning, feed them whenever they are open. Chances are they did not get the care they need. You need to feed them meaty foods up to 5 times a week. Black worms, mysis, plankton. This is going to have to be spot feeding, and you will have to watch them afterwards to make sure other critters in the tank do not steal what you just fed. If you think you cannot give them special care, give them to someone who can.

[Lmax8rn]

I have one. It extends its tentacles after I feed the fish. Then I use a mixture of roe, mysis, and vitamins in a syringe, shoot it down a stiff tube into the round end of a water bottle (top cut off about 4inches down) and feed it that way. I keep the "shield" around it until the polyps get a good hold of some food. After that they really extend nicely, but you do have to feed them nearly every day.

[Lmax8rn]

The fish food in the water stimulates them to open.

[Salty Cracker]

Thanks for the advice. I had read that they were a pain to keep with feeding but I have no problem feeding by hand every day. I was just worried.

[Lmax8rn]

If you are willing to feed them every day you should be successful! There is also an article on advanced aquarist about them. It states that they will not be harmed by light, but don't need it to survive, so you could place them in light, but I have mine under an overhang. Good luck and enjoy!

[laga77]

Most of mine are in bright light right next to sps corals and are doing great.

[cmcoker]

Check this out:
http://melevsreef.com/suncorals

[cloak]

Check this out:
http://melevsreef.com/suncorals

+1

Just feed them... Your already feeding your fish and probably some of your other corals already. It's not like offering them food on a regular basis is a chore or anything, you SHOULD enjoy this. GL.

[CuzzA]

True, but it's not as simple as just dropping fish food in the tank. You still have to target feed it and make sure nothing else (cleaner shrimp comes to mind) steals the food. You could spend 15-20 minutes just feeding that thing, especially if you have to baby sit it from other inhabitants. While people may already be target feeding corals, nps corals are totally different. If a fish or shrimp steals the food from my lobo I don't have to worry so much because the lights are there to back me up, not the case with nps. IMO, for someone with a busy schedule this coral should definitely be avoided. But to each his own.

Even from the link that was shared, Melev eventually said this and my guess is a lot of people get tired of having to feed it so often. He's just such an addict he setup a sun coral tank. :lmao:

During 2007, this coral deteriorated because I stopped feeding it regularly. Back in August I moved it out of my main reef and into a suncoral tank.

[cloak]

Well, I hope you didn't buy this coral on a whim... Research, research, research...

I just can't imagine waking up every morning and saying God damn it, now I have to go feed my coral. :headwalls: