Sun Coral Advise

[Clown2020]

Hi

Thought I would try sun coral as I have a dark spot in one corner. So I have had the coral below for 5 days now but have not been able to get it to open. I also noticed beneath the tubes are pale and lightly covered in green algae.

Day 1 I let the coral settle in. Day 2 spot fed in the tank days 3 and 4 took coral into a bucket and fed extra heavy for 30 minutes. From today am going to try the bucket feeding twice daily

Any advise would be appreciated

Attached are some pics one from day 1 showing the green on the base and two from today just after bucket feeding in the morning this is the most I have got it to open all week.

Thanks

 

[oceanleaf]

I might give it a bit more time to settle in. When I got mine, it took about two to three weeks for the polyps to come out consistently at the feeding time. However, your colony seems to be in a pretty bad shape, so it is possible that it might not make it regardless.
Maybe dosing a bit of amino acid might help too. Tubastrea might be able to utilize that as it settles into the new environment.

Also, make sure you check out this great thread.

My colony right after feeding.

 

[Clown2020]

Thanks will keep going with the feedings and will try adding aminos to the bucket too

Good thread when I have been bucket feeding I kept stirring the the water every 10 minutes which probably wasn’t helping so will try not stirring up the water this afternoon and see what happens


here is a link to the other sun coral the lfs is selling to give an idea of the condition it was sent in. what do you think in rough shape to begin with? Also coral is sent overnight shipping so added stress for coral there too

Lfs other sun coral

Thanks

 

[mdb_talon]

Parts of it are definetely in rough shape but you should have no issue nursing it back to health. I have nursed back sun corals in mich worse shape. Even when all flesh is gone on the outside of the skeleton you can often get it back and yours is nowhere near that on most polyps. Sun coral is in my experience very easy to keep alive and have thrive if spend a lot of time directly feeding it (and can do so without causing tank nutrients to spike).

If you are feeding in a bucket i would definetely stir frequently. Sun coral like a good amount of flow and much more likely to open up in flow than stagnant water. Personally i would try to find a way to feed it in tank using sofa bottle/tupperware/etc (unless you are concerned about too much nutrients in tank).

Try to feed at the same times each day. It can be trained to open during the day, but especially if it is not opening yet it is better to feed during dark cycle. Once it gets healthy and opening regularly then can gradually start shifting feeding time to when you want it.

 

[reeftwincities]

I've only had my sun coral frag for 1-2 weeks so don't want to claim expert advice. I generally feed the whole tank which "wakes" up the polyps, then use a pipette to target the coral and blow directly on the polyps. I try to make sure most polyps are fed and will do this 2-5x per evening when I noticed the polyps seem to have digested the food. I'm guessing since my coral was fragged, it was pretty consistently fed before I received it which has made its care level a little easier. I would keep trying to target meaty/smelly food its way.

 

[Clown2020]

In the tank I feed reef myst (coral food like reef roids) daily and dose amino acids daily.

Only reason I am bucket feeding at the moment is I can feed 5x as much until it comes back to health and have no fear of too many nutriants

currently no3 is around 3-5 and po4 0.2-0.5 and have a 32 gallon mixed reef sps lps and softies.

I think at this stage at least for the next three days I’ll keep at it with the bucket feedings. But certainly do want to start target feeding in the tank eventually

since I’m bucket feeding 2tice daily in the morning I’ll feed before lights on so coral gets a dark feeding and second feeding I will do when I feed the rest of the reef.

or should I try limit bucket feeding is the moving of the coral 2x daily going to put more stress in the coral. I suppose the debate here is stress vs starvation?

Thanks again

 

[julesbrown00]

Parts of it are definetely in rough shape but you should have no issue nursing it back to health. I have nursed back sun corals in mich worse shape. Even when all flesh is gone on the outside of the skeleton you can often get it back and yours is nowhere near that on most polyps. Sun coral is in my experience very easy to keep alive and have thrive if spend a lot of time directly feeding it (and can do so without causing tank nutrients to spike).

If you are feeding in a bucket i would definetely stir frequently. Sun coral like a good amount of flow and much more likely to open up in flow than stagnant water. Personally i would try to find a way to feed it in tank using sofa bottle/tupperware/etc (unless you are concerned about too much nutrients in tank).

Try to feed at the same times each day. It can be trained to open during the day, but especially if it is not opening yet it is better to feed during dark cycle. Once it gets healthy and opening regularly then can gradually start shifting feeding time to when you want it.

hello I have a sun coral which arrived two days ago but is showing purely a white smelted but flesh two days ago also the polyps have melted partly water parameter are fine do you have any advise on whether it probably completely dead or not and whether I should contact the shop to get anew or refund

 

[mdb_talon]

hello I have a sun coral which arrived two days ago but is showing purely a white smelted but flesh two days ago also the polyps have melted partly water parameter are fine do you have any advise on whether it probably completely dead or not and whether I should contact the shop to get anew or refund

Not sure I understand completely, but if the flesh is rapidly going away/peeling off/etc that is usually related to an unhealthy or very stressed coral. As long as it has any flesh inside it is at least possible it comes back but I would say unlikely in that scenario. If it is more of a starvation scenario where the flesh has slowly receded then in my experience it is much easier to bring that back and get it healthy.