Sun coral rescued

B

bchdFLdian

We dropped off the 46g we sold tonight. We chatted with the owners while watching their 2 month old reef. She bought tons of coral as soon as she got it and filled the tank. She had a sun coral that looked pretty dead. She said we could have it because it started going downhill ever since she bought it (gee, after 2 months? :p )

While driving home at night all of the polyps started opening up. The flesh isn't very thick and healthy, it's actually thin. We put some phyto-feast in its container while acclimating it. It's eating frozen mysis shrimp (thanks to reading Marc's suncoral site :). )

Now for the question. Should we break off some of the polyps where the dead skeleton is and glue them on new rocks? Maybe leave the whole colony alone and watch it? Also, any advice on sun coral care would be greatly appreciated. I'll be looking up info online all night :D
Thanks,
Catherine
 
Here is a picture after it was put in to the tank. One of the big heads up front is closed because it just ate a mysis shrimp. In fact, most of them are partially closed from just eating.

Some, which you can't see, have their centers completely missing down to the skeleton, but a new little one is growing on the side.

I just realized that I copy/pasted this because I decided not to post it in another forum and only copied half of it. Some of the colony is separated from the rest by dead skeleton. The main part of the colony has one side of 6 heads and one side of 4 heads. Some ends have lots of little babies starting to grow. 95% were very open before feeding.

-Catherine
 
It looks pretty good actually. I wouldn't cut it up and reglue it unless you have a specific need. When I got mine, there were a few babies at the base of the skeleton that would have been submerged in the sand so I cut those off and glued them to the top of the coral where they'd get flow and food.
 
It's morning now and the whole thing looks shrunken and dead, how wierd!

Will this coral regrow back over the skeleton? How would you suggest I feed the baby heads? I was thinking of taking the bottom of a coke bottle, placing it over top, lifting it and squirting BBS and frozen mysis in for a while.

Will they actually eat phyto if I spot feed while they're open at night?

I was trying my hardest to find info last night but it seems as though all the websites got their same 2-paragraph blurb from one location. So, suncoral will be new to me. I know this is a high maintenance coral but we have absolutely no problem with daily feedings etc. Now, I just need to get it in to the shade.
-Catherine
 
I don't think shade is all that important. Mine are out in full light, and I have three of them. Plus the baby polyp is on top of my rockwork directly under a 250w MH bulb.

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Take the top section of a 2-liter bottle, and put that dome over the coral. Now you can squirt food through the top/neck (where the cap was) into the dome to feed the coral. I don't use phytoplankton, as they actually can eat meaty foods. Mysis and cyclop-eeze are both good choices. You can feed it 3 times in a row, during a 15 minute period. Leave the dome over the coral for at least another 30 minutes, then take it off.

I did accidentally leave it on the coral overnight once, and it faded dramatically and took three days to recover. If you think you may forget, cut slits or drill holes in the dome to allow some circulation within it.

You can feed it this way daily, and it will beef up.
 
Thanks! What about the baby heads? Do I need to stick food in their mouths or not worry about it?

We're going to feed them this way tonight ;)
Thanks,
Catherine
 
Try to feed as many polyps as you can. Did you ever see the video of my feeding the suncoral when it was in my 55g? I'd give you the link, but my site is currently offline and I'm waiting on tech support.
 
cyclopeeze is definatly the food of choice for sun coral both orange and black.. we have an entire stick in the freezer, if you need any just pm me and we will arrange a time to meet up!!!
 
Here's the suncoral update:

We currently have 9 frags and one main colony. The main colony has about 28 polyps. The small ones each have 1-4 polyps each with more appearing every couple of days.

We're hoping to have them ready for sale/trade by the next frag swap.
-Catherine & Donovan
 
Here you go! Mind you it's daytime so they're all closed up. Suncorals grow slowly but they make lots of polyps fast (that then grow really really slow :p)
-Catherine
 
http://www.melevsreef.com/suncoral.html

Those little babies are adorable on your substrate. I bet you are going to have gorgeous pieces in 6 months. The trick is to stop the thieves from stealing food during meal times and to avoid polluting the tank.
 
Well, what we did was move all the frags and main colony from our main tank to it's own 20g tank. It had been set up for 2 months as a potential hospital but was never used :p The only inhabitants are 2 damsels, an orchid pseudochromis, and a baby lawnmower blenny.

None are theives (luckily!). We do water changes 2-3 times a week to keep the water from getting too polluted from feedings. My husband has a specific feeding regimen and spends quite a bit of time with them.

I'll post pictures monthly to show you guys how they progress! Hopefully the next set will be night pictures ;)
-Catherine
 
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