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

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carey

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So I have a nice frag of sun polyps I picked up about a week ago. I currently have it in my 4g Pico.

Does this coral get absolutely no benefit from light? I've been feeding it every other day tiny pieces of mysis shrimp. Do I need to get every single polyp with food? I just fede one polyp now and the other ones that were open kinda closed.

Also, not all of the polyps have opened for me to feed....getting kinda worried.

I have them under a medium flow right now, I had them under no flow but when I moved them just now to a higher flow area they opened up more.

I'm just kinda confused with these guys. My first attempt even though I've been eying them for months. LOL

Anyone else have these and what have your experiences been with them?

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Not much. Only light needed is for you to see the coral. This coral is hard to deal with as each individual polyp needs to be fed. It has to be fed frequently and lighting and water column does not help. It wore on me so that I traded it to someone else who had the time.
 
Hmm Ok. I have the time these days. lol So each polyp individually fed, got it. Does it mind a higher flow do you think? I'm just thinking placement now. How often were you feeding yours?

Thanks for the response
 
I fed my sun corals a few hours after 'lights out'. If the polyps weren't already extended I'd feed some of my other LPS corals mysis shrimp (to get the scent in the water) then wait for the sun coral to 'bloom' (which usually occurred within 10min).

While polyps will disseminate a portion of the nutrition they obtain to adjacent polyps as long as there is interconnecting tissue, feeding each polyp is perhaps ideal. I'd turn off all circulation and feed as many of the polyps as possible (all of them if I were able), one to three mysis shrimp each.

Frequency of feeding: 3-4 times weekly (every other day would be good if you can do it). This coral is non-photosynthetic so it does not require light. I preferred turning off the circulation during feeding because the flow would sometimes wisk the mysis away from the tubastraea's grasp.

The way I fed this coral was somewhat time-consuming (fed each polyp mysis shrimp with a tweezer), which took about 30-45min (however I preferred target feeding over broadcast feeding). For smaller sun coral polyps I'd squirt cyclopeeze directly on them with an eye dropper.

Yellow/Orange sun coral (tubastraea sp.) & branching black sun coral (t. micrantha):

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Thanks very much for the response. I guess I'm doing ok then. :)

Just waiting on the biggest polyp to open finally, havent seen it open yet.n The others I've been able to feed at least.

thanks again! Hopefully mine will look as awesome as yours one day!
 
Some people use a bottle method to feed they cut a plastic bottle and slip it over the coral and put the food in the top to keep other little critters from taking food away from the coral. They leave it on for 30 minutes to an hour.
 
I dove the wreck of the Rohne a few years ago (the one used in the movie The Deep). In the daytime the interior was pretty plain, but at night it was covered in orange polyps. I mean covered. There was no natural light, so I assume they need none.
 
No light. They usually live in caves.

Ime they are for experts or dedicated tanks. Like mel said, they wore on me. I eventually traded mine too.

But, I fed mine after lights out. Each polyp. Had to pour a little shrimp water in to let them know the shrimp were coming. Eventually I stopped feeding my tank because too much food was used trying feed this critter.

There is a photosynthetic coral that looks identical to a sun coral. Its called a super max or something like that. Terribly expensive if you can find one.
 
If you are dedicated, non-photosynthetic corals and draggonets can be kept alive, but it requires real dedication that most of us can't generate over years and years.
 
Actually I've been quite dedicated with my dragonet with good results. I hope to be as successful with the coral.

I've been feeding mysis is brine also good to feed?

Thanks so much for the input guys. :)
 
I would only use mysis or cyclopeez. Brine has low nutirents compared to other foods. More of a treat.
 
As I said, if you can keep it up, it may work out fine. You can fortify the brine shrimp if you are raising them (not frozen).
 
So I've had the sun polys for a couple weeks now and I;m not sure its doing well. :-(

I have them off to the side without direct light and have fed them every other day but now they haven't been "blooming". Are they supposed to fully open everyday? Or is that only when they are hungry?
 
Mine would always open up about a half hour after I fed the tank. When you feed the tank check about that time afterwards and see if they are open.
 
Ok. cool. I've only been feeding the tank every other day since theres just one itty bitty fish and some inverts. I will try that tomorrow as I just fed yesterday.
 
..Are they supposed to fully open everyday? Or is that only when they are hungry?

They should bloom daily (typically at night as they usually nocturnal feeders). Mine would start to extend their feeder tentacles about 30min prior to end of the photo-period.

What have you been feeding them?
 
Mysis, brine and some suspension coral food. I try to stay with the mysis though as people have said that has the best nutrition. :)
 
Man, that's dedication Carey. I am impressed. I thought raising baby parrots was a pain...
In the wild they inhabit areas of low current generally, like the insides of ship wrecks. They seem to feed on the "soup" that flows thru the wreck. I haven't tried to keep them in a aquarium setting, but I think it may be time for live Rotifers or enriched baby brine shrimp. I don't think they will eat frozen or dried plankton, but I am sure there are answers put there. Good luck. I attached a shot of a bunch of wild ones I saw one night.
 

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