Black Sun Coral

[ColleeninFL]

So here it is, our Black Sun. Between this one and the orange I have lost count of the many mouths to feed. Any other of these beauties out there?
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/97752black_2.jpg http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/97752black_1.jpg

[TCU Reefer]

Those suns will definitely keep you busy. Thanks for the pics!

[clsund]

Wow, nice and healthy polyp extension. You will definitely be busy.

[RichardinFL]

Wow, amazing. Thats beautiful, almost as nice as it is in our tank ;) Sad that I am on Reef Central looking at pictures of our own corals huh?

Rich (of Colleen & Rich)

[ShellBell]

I want one!!!! Beautiful coral. I have an orange one and I absolutely love it.

[ColleeninFL]

We call our orang the pigestraria, it would eat all night long if I would stand there and feed it.

[Javeo]

Very nice, i have one that looks similar, but my one has one orange head, which is quite cool. not as showy as the orange ones though

[ColleeninFL]

The orange is beyond beautiful. This one (the picture does not do it justice) seems to be growing and growing. There are some tentacles that are almost as long and flowing now as the orange. Did I misunderstand, you have a black with one orange head? If that is the case please post a pic I would love to see that.

Colleen

[vthondaboi]

Here's mine:

http://www.pacificcrossing.net/tank/fixed/suncoral-black

And a yellow one:
http://www.pacificcrossing.net/tank/fixed/sun-coral-9-1.jpg

[Brooks_McClary]

How much do you guys feed your Sun Corals? I am nursing one back to health and each polyp will eat 2 or 3 mysis or plankton and still look for more!!!!

[Javeo]

Originally posted by ColleeninFL
The orange is beyond beautiful. This one (the picture does not do it justice) seems to be growing and growing. There are some tentacles that are almost as long and flowing now as the orange. Did I misunderstand, you have a black with one orange head? If that is the case please post a pic I would love to see that.

Colleen

yes indeed, check my gallery for my orange sun coral, its stunning also.
Yup i have a black sun with one orange polyp :D its near the bottom and small so its not as noticable. will take a pic when i can, no camera at the moment :(

[ColleeninFL]

Wow, very nice Javeo.

Vthon, those are sweet too.

Yanno, with as many mouths as there are to feed in the one tank, I have never though about how much I feed them. Hmmm .........nope not going to start counting now. I spend a good hour or more with them every other night.

[Large Polyp Dave]

i've always wanted one... but man....how do you guys have time to feed every mouth =)

[Javeo]

its easy, every couple of days put the coral in a bowl full of aqaurium water and add one cube of frozen mysis (thawed and washed) leave it in there for 20 minutes or so, depending on coral size, and swirl the water every so often.

[chaozie]

The polyps are all connected on mine so I only feed 1-2 mouths with large pieces of krill every other day. At first I was worried that they might not share but I was also worried about overfeeding in my small tank. So far they open up every night (for the past two months) and are growing so it's not too difficult.

[Javeo]

The polyps may be connected by flesh but they do not share the nutrition. the other polyps may be eating bits that fall away but as they have a very low metabolic requirement, corals take a long time to starve to death. Suffice to say feeding a few head will, in the long run, lead to the others dying off.

[chaozie]

Oh, well I feed different mouths each time so that may help. But then how do really tiny new polyps grow up that are too small to feed?

[Javeo]

I think they way alot of coral grow is that a part of the flesh will give rise to a new polyp or colony and give it nutrition for awhile before breaking away. the tiny ones can probably subsist on planktors and maybe bacteria and the like.

Why dont you take the entire colony out and feed it seperately?
look at mine in the gallary, fed every other day, all the mouths eat.

[ColleeninFL]

Here is the yellow sun at the backside of dinner time. The babies eat as much (at least it seems like they do) as the bigger polyps. I don't take ours out of the tank I use a baster 4 nights and then there is one night that I will actually hand feed each polyp on both the yellow and the black. Time consuming yes, but stress relief and entertaining for me. They always win at the tug of war and open back up as quickly as possible for more. http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/518/97752tube-y1.jpg

[Javeo]

:O well you are a better (and more patient ) person then i Colleen.

[leaffish75]

I couldnt ever get mine to come out during the day and it would barely come out at night. How do you get it to come out?

[ColleeninFL]

I used to spritz a little juice from the food to come around them and for the most part around the same time of day. Now all I do is put the hand in the tank and everyone starts to open. Yuppers they can be trained.
Colleen

[fishfanv]

Originally posted by leaffish75
I couldnt ever get mine to come out during the day and it would barely come out at night. How do you get it to come out?
i take all mine out and put in a separate container to feed every other day. if the polyps are not already out i dose the container water in some microvert to get them to come out. then i feed each (yes, each!) polyp with a combo of mysis, chunks of f1 and cyclop-eeze. it takes quite awhile to get each polyp as i have 4 suns (1 small, 3 large) and all are piggies.
then i leave all in the container for at least 30 minutes until i cannot see anymore food sticking to them. then i put back into their tanks.

[ColleeninFL]

Looks like they have all survived Hurricane Wilma :rollface:

[AndrewE]

Just reading about all the great info about the suns. I have two a black and a yellow, I had a large yellow that I gave away to someone who had more time for it. I find oyster eggs get the polyps out quickly. Then I feed each polyp mysis. feed them cyclop-eeze in the tank every night after the halide goes out and the vho's are on. Great pics!

[ColleeninFL]

I have on occassion used the cyclop-eeze to stir their taste buds a bit. It grabs their attention for when the main course is coming. I would love to see your pics of the blacks.

[captbunzo]

I have a new black sun coral that was given to me at a LFS on Saturday. It was starving in the tank and is in bad shape.

Anyone have any tips on nursing it back to health?

[ColleeninFL]

I sure hope you got the answer you were looking for. They love to eat and as you most likely know by now they do not hesitate to show their appreciation for a good meal.

[Nizmo350Z]

I have a combo, orange/yellow and black on the same rock. I feed them chopped shrimp, cyclopeez, fish eggs. They eat anything.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/102921PICT0490.jpg

[musty baby]

Dang, I was kinda hoping to see an orange polyp in the middle of a black colony :)

hmm... maybe I'll do exactly that with my orange/yellows and my reds... ;)

[musty baby]

speaking of... anyone have some nice pictures of some red colonies?

[ColleeninFL]

You could share a pic of your reds with us. I know I bwould love to see them.

[musty baby]

I will do that when I return home.

[arozz7]

Great pics everyone!!! Love these corals. :)

[Lpsfanatic338]

Black sun coral is like an oxymoron. The sun is bright and black is dark

[cacique_ccs]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6596812#post6596812 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ColleeninFL
You could share a pic of your reds with us. I know I bwould love to see them.

Here's mine:
<img src="http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d39/cacique_ccs/Sun_Coral.jpg" alt="Image hosting by Photobucket">

[fishfanv]

that's red? i thought those were orange. here is a pic of 1 of my suns after feeding.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v681/valeen/orsun3small.jpg

[musty baby]

Well they're just frags, and they're not quite open, but they're red.

Blacks on the left, oranges on the right (both rejuvenation projects from the LFS)

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~ryanholl/aquarium/Resized_IMG_0221small.jpg

[ColleeninFL]

I want one!

[Dani Arnanz]

WOWWWWW!! That red are great Ryan, could you tell us something more about them??

I´ve never seen anything similar before...

[Javeo]

Goodness me! such a bright red ! are you sure theiir not dyed!!
nah im just jealous :P

[musty baby]

To be painfully honest, I haven't fed them yet. I've witnessed them snatching shrimp out of the water at night though, so I haven't been in a rush to put a lot of effort into them since I've been working on putting together a separate system for them. Because of this, not even I have seen them all the way open yet.

I'll post pictures when they're taken.

Definitely not dyed - photoshopped! ;)