New coral (pics)

[Brad]

Can anyone give me the details on this beautiful coral? My assumptions are that it doesn't need a lot of light and that it probably needs to be fed.

What food do you recommend?

Boy, I really struggle with that 100K photo size limit. I start with a really nice photo and everytime I reduce it to 100K or less it looks like #$^$#!

[Edmonton Eskimo]

looks like a tube coral. If it is then it does require feeding. Vitamin enriched brine or plankton. You'll have to target feed each polyp. And no it actually prefers lower light. That is a beautiful coral

[XXFirefighter]

looks like a flower pot coral...
those arms should come out about 2 inches...
real hard to care for....
lots of feeding and medium light...

[Fluff]

sun coral. tubastrea faulkneri
It's a hard coral. Doesn't require any significant light and actually prefers to be under a ledge out of direct light. And, it needs to be spot fed meaty foods 2-3 times a week.

[ellisz]

I agree on the sun coral ID. Seems to be the new thing around here. The LFS's here always have them.

[lando]

Yes, that is a sun coral. I have one as well. They are not hard to keep, just require a bit of attention. They do not use light for an energy source so they must be target fed at least three times a week. Yu will notice it will expand in the morning and at night when the lights go out. This is a good time to give it some food. I feed mine a mixture of mysis, krill and DT's live plankton. It is a great coral and worth the extra work. I have a pic of mine in my gallery.

[Bouch097]

Is that really a sun coral? I have a very small one (4 tubes) growing off of a rock that use to have a carnation on it and I was told they were growing carnations.

[Fluff]

Bouch097, I'm positive it's a sun coral. Do you have a pic of your coral? I'd be interested in seeing it.

[revhtree]

Wow, everybody is right on!!!

[Bouch097]

Sure thing... I still haven't quite figured out the best camera setting for taking aquarium pics, but this is the best I could do... It's only about 3/4" wide.

[Bouch097]

Sorry.. Didn't mean to post the same pic 3 times... I was trying to figure out how to get the pic attached. Here's another non-related pic of my lawnmower blenny taking a nap on my leather toadstool... It's a little blurry and the flash spooked him before I could try another, but I thought it was a cool shot.

[klam]

Bouch - they look like sun corals to me.

I've read that you can train them to open up when the lights are on by feeding them during those times.

I've heard the frozen cyclop eeze is a good food source they will accept.

[lando]

Yup, yours is a sun coral as well. You can train them to come out during the day. Mine do when I add water or do a water change and stir things up. They also will if they detect a food source. This is not a colonly coral, they are individual corals living together, so each one needs to be fed in order to survive.

[Fluff]

I agree as well, what you have is a sun coral. Very good advice ^

[Bouch097]

Thanks for the advice everyone... I keep them in the shade and they seem pretty content where they are and are open most of the time, even during the day.

A couple other unrelated questions though. I tend to have few problems keeping my corals alive, with the exception of cynarinas for some reason. I typically place them low in the tank w/ low-moderate water flow. I tried once, on someone's advice, placing it high in the tank b/c he told me it likes more light, but that didn't work either. As soon as it hits the water, the tentacles come out for a while, it never opens, and eventually dies. Any suggestions?

Also, I just got a great looking blue-tailed wrasse a couple of days ago. I have only seen him at night, so I'm assuming he stays buried while the light is on. Does this pass once he becomes more accustomed to the tank, or is there anything I can do to help the situation? Thanks again.

[lando]

You can leave the sun coral in the shade as long as it is in a place with high flow. There natual spot in reefs is under over-hangs and in cave opendings. In a tank, however, this type of positioning is not ussually possible as you want it in an area of high flow. Med to high light will not hurt this coral, but it may be happier in low to moderate light.