Sun Coral - advice

[Playdope]

Brought a Sun Coral home today, and I had a few questions.....

When can I expect it to first come out?

Is it alright that some of the polyps are covered? I'm guessing those couple of polyps will die off, but will the coral as a whole be alright?

I tried feeding some mysis with the bottle method... about an hour after the coral was in the tank, and it didn't open up at all...

Should I be waiting untill it is dark to feed?

I was rustling the mysis around with a baster, so there was a nice cloud of the stuff in the capsule around the coral, but I guess its too freaked out to open up right now.

When should I try feeding next (time of day + how long from now)?

Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

Do not try to feed it until it opens. It make take a couple of days to get adjusted to your tank. Once it opens make sure you feed it dayly or at least every other day.

 

[Unarce]

What do you mean by covered? It will do better in a cave or under a shelf, as it is non-photosynthetic. Feed it when you see the polyps in full bloom, which is usually at night, but can happen during the day. I think most people have the best success with cyclopeeze (spelling?). I think feeding once a day is what's recommended.

 

[Playdope]

I read about people "training" the coral to open up for feeding at certain points in the day... how is this done? Any tips to getting it to open during the day?

When I say the polyps are "covered"... I mean some of them are nearly touching the substrate (angled downwards), and I can't see how they would open to get food.

 

[Anonymous]

Like Wazzel said, don't try to feed it until it opens up. Mine took about a day to start extending its polyps. You can "train" it to feed during the day by squirting a little food over the coral during the day or just feeding the rest of the tank before feeding the sun coral. After about 15 minutes the polyps begin to extend because they detect the food. Once they're open, you can feed them. Mine it frequently opened up fully in the evening with the lights on, because that's when I usually feed after work. Mine also opens up fully after lights out. These guys are PIGS. Mine will eat 1.5 cubes of frozen mysis if you let it. I've posted these before, but here's some pics of mine, and the little feeding chamber I made to keep the cleaner shrimp away from the coral while it feeds.

 

[Anonymous]

What apex said, LOL-beautiful pics by the way. I 'pretreat' the tank at feeding time, in other words I squirt a small amount food at the corals I want to feed and after they've shown a feeding response I target feed with either the turkey baster or a wide mouth 60 cc syringe I have for that purpose.

I also feed close to or at the same time everyday and find certain corals extend feeding tenticles even though there isn't any food in the water.