Sun Polyps-Does this coral get absolutely no benefit from light?

[carey]

Wow, those are awesome looking! I have baby brine shrimp I'll try that next. Thanks!

 

[Gregcoyote]

Gosh, if they don't eat those, I would see if I could get some live plankton mail order. I bet they would eat live Rotifers. They are defiantly filter feeders and get little or no advantage from light.

 

[Sqasnatch]

If you can get your Hands on the august 2011 tropical fish magazine there is a very detailed article about sun polyps in there. It basically says that sun polyps require no light but can thrive in daylight hours no problem. It depends on what time it usually gets fed. You can train it to open during the day. Requires high flow. Many people say it needs to be in a cave, however this is not the case. You can have it right in the open with the other corals. What I did was put it in my sump for a couple of weeks and fed it during the day with the pop bottle method. After it started opening during the day I put it in my main tank and now I just squirt a bit on the polyps with a turkey baster when I feed the tank. Being in a high flow area it does receive lots of good stuff from the water column as well. And if you feed it when you feed the tank the fish and inverts seem to be distracted and leave it alone. Hope this helps...... Oyster eggs are a good one as well. I would swear my corals start crawling when I feed that stuff

 

[Gregcoyote]

Did you read this?

http://aquadaily.com/2008/11/26/saving-a-starving-sun-coral/

 

[Sqasnatch]

On another note. I have a mated pair of green mandarins and they have been thriving for a year now. They don't eat frozen foods. But they have no competition for the pods and worms. And I do live brine about 3 times a month. Tank is a 125 gal. With a 30 gallon sump/refugium

 

[Sqasnatch]

Did you read this?

http://aquadaily.com/2008/11/26/saving-a-starving-sun-coral/

That is an interesting way to do it. Lots of work to do a tub feed tho

 

[Moose72]

We feed our sun polyps cyclop-eeze every day and they love it. Just put a little in the tank and wait about a half hour for them to open up, then use a turkey baster to target feed them. Everything else in the tank loves them too.

 

[carey]

I'll try to cyclops, they still havent opened lately that I've seen. It's been about 4 days since I fed them last as I can't seem to catch them open. lol

 

[Moose72]

Yeah, ours acted that way too, once we caught them a few times with cyclopeeze they started coming out as soon as they knew it was in the water.

 

[Gregcoyote]

Seems they like to catch a whiff of the food before opening up. My understanding is there is a variety that looks just like these, but are photosynthetic. If I remember right, they were expensive though. Super something's....

 

[carey]

I fed the fish and about an hour later they opened up. I fed with a small bulb baster the cyclops, and it looks like some actually ate as they closed up some.

That is normal I presume? I'm still so new to these.

 

[Moose72]

Yep! They close up and ingest them, and then open up again. I've heard that only experienced aquarists should undertake sun polyps, but I've had mine since I started just over a year ago and they are doing great. I just feed them nearly every day.

 

[carey]

I'm pretty new to corals too. At least the more complicated ones. lol

I've been feeding them every other day is that ok? I don't wanna overfeed them but I dont want them to go hungry either.

 

[Moose72]

I'm sure every other day is fine. Everything else in our tank eats the cyclopeeze too so that's why we tend to feed everyday.

 

[carey]

I so far only have a tiny clown goby. he doesnt eat much and with the tank being so tiny I hesitate to add more nutrients to the water.

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[Gregcoyote]

When they say difficult, it is because 99% of the reef keepers aren't dedicated enough to keep a schedule like you guys are. Myself included. I would eventually drop the ball on vacation.