Need help caring for Sun (Sunflower?) Coral

[Wingnutt021]

I've had this pretty little piece in my 10 gal for about 3 weeks and not much blooming occurred.

But this morning I did a pretty thorough algae cleaning on the glass of the tank, and it opened up for the first time! Was it feeding on the scraped algae?

Does this coral need to be fed? And if so, what do I feed it? How?

Any information on this coral would be a great help!

[/img]http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/3897/suncoral1ue3.jpg

 

[Anonymous]

Yes! If it's what I think it is (a Tubastrea species), then not only does it need to be fed, it needs to be under an overhang or otherwise protected from light or algae will grow ON it. It is a non-photosynthetic, hermatypic coral. In other words, it does not use light, nor does it have algae or zooxanthellae in its tissues, but it does build a skeleton.

 

[Anonymous]

It is a Tubastrea species. It should be placed in an area of moderate to high flow, lighting is irrelevant. Calcium and alkalinity should remain high, and frequent feeding is necessary.

It usually takes 5-10 minutes between the time you add food to the tank and the polyps fully open. I like to add a bit of food to the tank to get the "scent" in the water, and then add whatever food I choose about 15 minutes later. They will take baby brine, cyclop-eeze, frozen mysis, etc. After a few months you should find baby polyps on your live rock if you're feeding it well.

 

[Wingnutt021]

Thanks for the input. After posting I did a little more research on feeding it.

I found a guy in the UK that uses a sterilized soda bottle with the bottom cut off to feed it. It creates a currentless environment for the coral to feed. It also keeps the fish away from stealing the food.

Its position in my tank has a moderate flow that blows the food away from it other than a few of the larger tubes that can hang on to the shrimp.

Do you recommend using a plastic tube to make sure its fed enough? How often should I feed it directly if I do use the soda bottle technique?

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the input. After posting I did a little more research on feeding it.

I found a guy in the UK that uses a sterilized soda bottle with the bottom cut off to feed it. It creates a currentless environment for the coral to feed. It also keeps the fish away from stealing the food.

Its position in my tank has a moderate flow that blows the food away from it other than a few of the larger tubes that can hang on to the shrimp.

Do you recommend using a plastic tube to make sure its fed enough? How often should I feed it directly if I do use the soda bottle technique?

Ideally it should be fed every day. I have done the soda bottle trick before, it becomes laborious (for me to do every day, anyway) and it obviously won't work well for large colonies and it won't feed the baby polyps that should be appearing in your tank soon.

I find it easier to add a bit of food, wait 15 minutes, and then pour in all manner of small foods to the entire tank. This includes finely chopped clam, chopped mysis, fish eggs, cyclop-eeze, baby brine, etc. If you want to direct it at the coral with a turkey baster that works too. After an hour or so of feeding time I throw a filter sock on the tank and pull all of it out of the water. Doing this daily creates a large nutrient input so you should consider whether this coral fits in with the rest of the plan for your tank.

 

[Wingnutt021]

Thanks for the help guys, you saved this animals life!

 

[Anonymous]

Nice! I would keep a close eye on the edges of the tissue as any starvation will start to show here. Well fed colonies will start to pop out little baby polyps in this area as well. The polyps look plump and pastel pink which is a very good sign!

 

[Anonymous]

In my experience with LPS it seems they tend to open up primarily at night (I mean REALLY open), so take a peak after the lights have been out a couple hours. Now you can "train" your corals too, however for me it tends to be a bit of a pain to "train" them as my fish usually will snap up any food.

One trick I used to do was to put the top of a 2-liter upside down over it, and simple squirt food in the top (so food doesn't blow all over the tank), just don't touch any of the feeders as they tend to retract and don't forget to take out the plastic top after a couple minutes!

 

[Wingnutt021]

Nice!... Well fed colonies will start to pop out little baby polyps in this area as well.

Thats exactly what is happening, I just took the pic from a different angle.

The soda bottle thing is a real pain. What I'm doing is just adding more food than what I used to do. I do more frequent water changes with the additional food though. Since I have the eclipse hood filter, its easy to just switch out the filter pad more often as well.

Even when its closed up, this animal really stands out in the tank!

 

[jandree22]

I've had this pretty little piece in my 10 gal for about 3 weeks.....

Does this coral need to be fed? And if so, what do I feed it? How?

Any information on this coral would be a great help!

I'm honestly glad it's working out for you, but please, next time research before you buy. It's tempting, but success is a rare outcome of impulse buys :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Well I typically spot feed with a syringe/baster my LPS corals rather than "feed the tank" this prevents excess food from from floating around, plus it allows me to make sure each polyp gets some food

 

[Anonymous]

In my experience with LPS it seems they tend to open up primarily at night (I mean REALLY open)

Tubastrea opens up day and night if there is food in the water. The lighting is irrelevant.

 

[Wingnutt021]

Here are the little spuds on the end of the rock.

 

[Wingnutt021]

In my experience with LPS it seems they tend to open up primarily at night (I mean REALLY open)

Tubastrea opens up day and night if there is food in the water. The lighting is irrelevant.

I know that the lighting is irrelevent, but I have noticed that it opens up nicely after the lights go out, too.

 

[scifi_3d_zoo]

You can see if you get better growth or polyp extension in shade. You should also test your nitrate levels to see if it really makes any difference. I wouldn't just switch to weekly water changes when one large monthly one will suffice.

And yea.. you are supposed to feed these things everyday. You should not just research, but if going out on a limb at least ask the people where you buy stuff. Some are honest. You might be able to get away with feeding every 2-3 days too. Experiment a bit. Maybe you don't want them growing all over the place so you might just slow down their growth but not health.

They are a really BEAUTIFUL coral. But personally I just can't hack everyday feedings. Let me know how it goes and if they can last 2-3 days with just frozen food in the tank (NOT hand feeding) I'll think about getting some. But every store I've ever been to says daily "DIRECT" feeding.