sun coral

[fiorano]

I just bought a sun coral yesterday and i fed it some brine shrimp tonight and i was just wondering how often i should feed it how much i should feed it and what the best thing is to feed them. i guess i should of looked into this more haha lots of people say there annoying to keep cause you have to feed them lots i hope its not that bad.

[edgv]

I have had a sun corl for more than a year and since it has grown alot. I feed brine shrimp 2-3 times a week.

Ed

[VFX]

I had so many conflicting views when I looked into keeping a Sun Coral that I just went ahead bought one & tried a few different regimes.

In the end I settled on 3-4 times a week which worked well with my particular specimen in my tank conditions.

Sun Coral Blog (http://www.melevsreef.com/suncoral.html)

This guy varied how often he fed his.

Flippers n Fins (http://www.flippersandfins.net/CoralOrangeSun.htm)

This guy says to feed twice a day.

Marine Depot (http://www.marinedepotlive.com/sun-coral--orange----tubastrea-aurea-corals--large-polyp-stony.html)

This place says feed daily.

Sorry, don't know if that helps or confuses :)

.

oh & I fed brine shrimp most of the time...

.

[marie]

I target feed my suncoral at least 3 times a week with mysis shrimp, it also manages to catch some of the fish food every day as well. I have had mine for over 2 years and after I moved the coral out of the peppermint shrimps reach, it has tripled in size

[justinl]

Im with marie on this one. at least three times a week, but i wouldnt do it more than once a day unless they are small feedings. more than that and the coral wont be able to digest the food fast enough.

obviously brine shrimp has worked for you guys, but for the record, it is very poor nutritionally. it's basically like water made to look like a bug. mysis would be a far better choice. Supplementation with something like selcon once in a while wouldnt hurt either.

[untamed]

The challenge I had was (as Marie mentioned...) the crabs/shrimp would steal any food I fed to the sun coral. It just wouldn't eat fast enough and defending it while it ate just took too much effort for me.

In my case, the crabs seem to learn how to get an easy meal and flocked to the sun coral for every feeding.

[VFX]

The challenge I had was (as Marie mentioned...) the crabs/shrimp would steal any food I fed to the sun coral. It just wouldn't eat fast enough and defending it while it ate just took too much effort for me.

In my case, the crabs seem to learn how to get an easy meal and flocked to the sun coral for every feeding.

I cut the top off a large soft drinks bottle & put it over my sun coral when I fed it. I just poked a turkey baster through the hole at the top. Seemed to work a treat as nobody could swim up & steal the food.

I also used mysis and cyclops as well as the vitamin & nutritionally enriched brine shrimp, so in my defence, I was feeding more than just 'water made to look like a bug' - my sun coral more than doubled in size in the 12 months I had it.

[fiorano]

ok thanks guys i think ill try the 3 times a week approach and see how that goes for me :)

[hillbillyreefer]

How's your sun coral doing Fiorano? I got one the same day as you. The polyps eat incredible amounts. Mine is doing well. What did you work out for a feeding schedule? I've been feeding mine every two days, but think I'll cut that down a bit, I've got just barley detectable nitrates today, something I haven't had in a few months. The sun has been the only increased feeding in the tank so it must have something to do with that.

Brad

[Cameron]

My sun coral is receeding not sure why I was feeding it quite often about the same as everyone else, untill I went away for a week and a friend took care of my tank and didnt feed it....argh.....don't think I can save it.

[hillbillyreefer]

I've read about recession happening on a couple other sites. Anyone who has brought it back says that heavy feeding worked. It takes some time but as long as they'll eat they can be saved. Mine will eat anything that drifts past them or is place on them. I feed with airline on the end of a syringe. I suck mysis into the airline and feed each polyp individually, keeps the shrimp, crabs and bristle worms from getting them. This way you know each polyp has eaten. HTH.

Good Luck
Brad

[fiorano]

yah well i do the same i feed it every 2 days and i feed it mysis or brine shrimp with a little bit of phyto plankton for the food to soak in first but the whole 2 liter bottle trick never worked for me because of how it is placed on the rock it cant go all the way around it and i have to feed it each polyp at a time. but o well it looks fantastic :)

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I feed mine a mix of cyclopeeze (either FD or frozen), spirulina powder & Reefroids with 3 drops of Selcon. This is what I feed to my other corals & I usually do a couple of squirts daily into the tank with at least 1/2 squirt directed at the corner with my suncorals. Seems to work so far.

Anthony

[Cameron]

Cant get the polyps left to extend and feed....argh

[Phanman]

What worked for me is taking the coral out and placing it in a small plastic container with water from your setup. Wash the mysis cube and throw it in. Swirl the water so it creates a vortex around the sun coral and the mysis will go to the middle. Once the sun coral opens up swirl a few more times and all the heads will be fed.

Its kinda time consuming but it works :biggrin: