What do people feed their sun corals? Baby brine or Mysis or Cyclopeze or a combination of the three? Would love to get some advice here and see what others are doing! :thanks:

Because of the nature of your question, I think you already know that Sun Corals are totally dependent on targeted feeding but, maybe some others aren't aware of that. That's why I mention it.

I think the three food items you mentioned would be good. Plus there are other frozen foods like reef plankton that would suffice. In the case of live baby brine, I think you'd need to place a feeding capsule over the coral to contain the live brine around the coral. A 2 liter pop bottle cut off and inverted over the coral works good for that purpose. You then squirt the LB into the top of the bottle and leave it est for awhile. Practice will teach how long to leave it and also how much to feed.

Post pics when you have a Sun Coral and let us know how it goes.

We feed our tubastrea mysis. We have bunches of them.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y248/seahorsedreams/Our%20Corals/index.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y248/seahorsedreams/Our%20Corals/newguy.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y248/seahorsedreams/Our%20Corals/smaller.jpg

We even have one with a mouth... some sort of bivalve.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y248/seahorsedreams/Our%20Corals/fullanimation.gif

I use a cap in the reef the keep the shrimp and foxface out!

And if you put something in there it BITES!....lol

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y248/seahorsedreams/Our%20Corals/bite.jpg

:wow: wow! NICE photos ! :wow: How did you get them to start feeding? Was it the Mysis?

If they won't open up for me I use DTs or sometimes a little mysis juice. I stopped with the mysis juice though after reading a recent article in Coral magazine... seems that were all the bacteria like to live. After awhile they will come out when you feed the tank. THEN they be out for most of the evening just waiting. But sometimes to start them off they need a little convincing. Phyto frozen or live would be your best bet.

I'd like to know what you shot those closeups with. Beautiful.

I have had a sun coral for about a year and have always offered it whatever I was feeding my fish. Mostly a mixture of mysis, brine, emeral entree, etc. Mine open off and on all day and would probably eat any time I offered it. I have to feed my fish on the opposite side of the tank first or they'll snatch the food away.

I wish they would grow some more polyps. When I bought this piece, it had quite a few dead skeletons on it. Is there a trick or a supplement to help it spread?

A bit off the subject - but what supplements do those of you use who are great at growing corals. I've recently started getting a few and want to encourage them. I already lost one acropora to bad advice and nitrates. I'm working on that right now.

Thanks - Pam

Not quite sure but that photo may have been taken with either the canon 350D or the 20D. But it was definately with the Macro 100mm 1:1 f/2.8 macro lens. I took a shot of the whole coral and then cropped it. Thanks BTW.

The way mine grow is through feeding mysis. Each polyp can eat 3+ mysis easily. I do a little phyto and frozen cyclopeeze a couple times a week.

They grow best when they are somewhere they cannot be pestered. I was growing tubastrea frags in the sump and they took off beautifully.

i want some sun corals too. but LFS rarely have them!!!! is it that rare?

i want some sun corals too. but LFS rarely have them!!!! is it that rare?

they aren't rare, but they require TLC. they can't simply be chucked into a holding tank. as you've no doubt read they MUST be target fed about every-other day (we feed ours daily) or they starve. i've seen lots of sketchy Tubastrea in LFS that don't take the time to feed them, but i've also seen gorgeous specimens in a local shop that takes time with them.

you can ask if the LFS will order you one specially. they might accomodate you if they know they don't have to care for it.

another thing to note is the more you feed a Tubastrea, the more it will stay open.

I feed mine Baby brine once a week and a bit of ZooMax every night about 6pm, that little coral has now become a clock, 5:15 starts to open, 5:45 fully open, 6:15 looking fat and happy with it's trained human.