Your Sun Coral feeding schedule???

[Whoyah]

I picked a nice frag of sun corals today from the LFS. A little on the skinny side but lots of heads. The LFS was target feeding DTs and considering moving it to a bright spot so it would "plump back up". Ugh. O well, I got a good deal on it.

I used a half of the 2-liter bottle tonight to target feed it and keep the shrimp away. It looked like all of the heads opened but the tenacles were kind of small. I was curoius what kind of feeding schedule everyone uses and any preferred foods. I will post a picture tomorrow.

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

Susan had great luck with hers, I fed mine brine shrimp and mysis just before lights came on.

[Sweetpea]

Mine loved cyclopeeze and (the bigger polyps) brine shrimp. I fed every evening around 9pm, about 2-3 hours after lights out. Sadly, all but one polyp died while we were on vacation back in the spring and my mom was looking after things. She didn't kill it... it was just that it was "trained" to eat at night, and my mom doesn't drive at night. She tried really hard to entice it into opening during the day for her, but it wouldn't.

The polyp that survived stays open almost all the time. I do not target feed anymore. It catches what it can when I feed the tank... usually every 3rd night. I feed a mix of oyster eggs, daphnia, cyclopeeze, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, and squid.

I do not have a shrimp in this tank, which I think really makes the difference here and is why the polyp does so well without daily target feedings. It can eat however much it wants and take as long as it likes to eat without being disturbed. HTH.

[Whoyah]

Awesome, thanks for the input. I have dried cyclopeez that I normally add to the frozen food when I am thawing it. It seems to add alot. Mine is certainly looking happier today after a good feeding last need. The orange is so bright, it is kind of crazy. I will get those little guys fat and happy.

[seahorsedreams]

If your tubastrea is failing you need to feed it every day. I feed mine the same days I feed most of the predatory fish... Monday Wed Friday. Whatever the tank is eating they eat.... mysis, black worms... whatever. It may take awhile for the polyps to come out full length. If there is one little tentacle out on a polyp you can stick a mysis on there and it will come out to eat it. Here are some pics of mine. I have two others that I don't have pics for yet, including a black one, but when they move to a better place to be photographed I will catch some shots of those.

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

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

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

We even have one with a talking mouth....lol.

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

If you stuck something in there it would BITE and hold on tightly....

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

[Reef_Angel]

Suncoral is one of my favorite corals in our tanks. I feed them daily. They are in my Seahorse tank, so everytime I feed my ponies, my Suncoral opens up immediately just waiting for another bite to eat. I really get a kick out of coral, because they catch that scent in the water or your presence by the tank, they suddenly open up and hint that they're hungry. To me, that's what makes reefing so much fun!

Seahorse dreams, your pictures are very beautiful! I would love to see your black ones open and ready for food. I had no luck with the black coral I had. They looked healthy when I bought them, and they were in the same conditions my yellows are in, but they never polyped out. Eventually they slowly died off no matter what I tried to do. I look forward to your pics!
.....Angel :angel1:

[lReef lKeeper]

we feed both of ours every other day, unless it is looking particularly skimpy. it will eat about anything we put in the tank including cyclopeeze (LOVES it), mysis, brine, oyster eggs, and squid !! when we pour the left over food (from non target feeding) they open up and try to get whatever they can !!

[Suzy]

We have black, orange and yellow. Once they are well fed, they pretty much stay open all the time. I find it hard to keep them in a community tank, but in our planted, they thrive.

[Whoyah]

Thanks for the input. It sounds like feeding every other day and meaty food is the trick. Those are awesome pictures. The tenacles on mine look a little skimpy right now compared to those. Probably due to being underfeed. Will the polyps repopulate the empty structures on the frag given proper care?

[seahorsedreams]

Will the polyps repopulate the empty structures on the frag given proper care?

Yup. Yup. They will indeed.

They can eat pretty large food items.

[Reef_Angel]

Whoyah.... yes, they can and will populate the empty wholes. I propagated mine, and they are spreading on each frag and building new skeleton as they grow. It was an experiment I did that didn't bite me in the butt! lol
....Angel

[jojo22]

Angel you got any pics I think that would make a nice log watching a lps after fragging for all of us who don't frag yet.

[Whoyah]

Here is a picture. It looks pretty good tonight. Pretty amazing how fast it has started responding to some good feedings. I threw in a picture of my new Randal goby too.

[seahorsedreams]

Great pics. He is nice and healthy looking.... he will do well for you.