Sun coral care.. it's not opening?

[Rick's Reviews]

I introduced my sun coral beginning of October (6th), it was acclimated and added to my aquarium successfully.

It's still alive now but it will not show it's full flowers for feeding?

Originally I placed under an overhang/ shadow with small waterflow/ near to a dead spot in my aquriam but keeps getting nudged around at feeding times, so I'm constantly placing it back.

I have tried various foods to get it to open up, I have done this in the day and also at night.

Any advice would be much appreciated to help me
I'll post pics, it seems to open up a mouth to take all food in but no flowers, could it be too young or wrong type of food?

I tried bottle feeding method (removing frag and feed in a confined space)
its still alive but just seems open mouthed, I'm sure you can not overfeed these corals

 

[vetteguy53081]

I introduced my sun coral beginning of October (6th), it was acclimated and added to my aquarium successfully.

It's still alive now but it will not show it's full flowers for feeding?

Originally I placed under an overhang/ shadow with small waterflow/ near to a dead spot in my aquriam but keeps getting nudged around at feeding times, so I'm constantly placing it back.

I have tried various foods to get it to open up, I have done this in the day and also at night.

Any advice would be much appreciated to help me
I'll post pics, it seems to open up a mouth to take all food in but no flowers, could it be too young or wrong type of food?

I tried bottle feeding method (removing frag and feed in a confined space)
its still alive but just seems open mouthed, I'm sure you can not overfeed these corals

Sun corals do best in a shaded to near dark area with moderate to medium flow and feedings 2-3x a day with food such as mysis shrimp and Phyto. They remain closed as long as there is light. They dont favor high phosphate or nitrate either however need and relish vitamins and amino acids in the water column

 

[Kellie in CA]

I find that the longer these go without eating, the harder it is to get them to open. Sometimes you really have to baby them in the beginning. I would not move it for feeding. What I would do is anytime you see a hint of feeder tentacle popping out I would take a long tweezer and gently stick a mysis shrimp on it. It may take a while, but eventually they should start to open up and take food easily. But yeah.... they are a bit of a high maintenance feeder, you really have to assure every polyp gets fed.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I have a black sun coral and have had other species as well and I can tell you that flow is very important from my experience (at least in the beginning when training it to eat) also, try getting up in the middle of the night to check on it and see how open it is...sometimes even shaded areas aren't dark enough at first. Once it starts eating though they seem to catch on to the schedule and get easier and easier to feed

 

[biophilia]

They will do just fine even in direct light in my experience. I’ve had them grow, spawn, and planular larvae settle right next to acropora.

Medium-high flow is good. They can be slow to train to open if they’ve been starved while in wholesaler systems/transit so being patient over several weeks is key — especially while training them to open during the photo period. Try to feed at the same time every day if you’re able to. Ideally earlier in the day like right after lights on if you’re enticing them to stay open.

Chumming the water with calanus gives the strongest feeding response in my experience

 

[Rick's Reviews]

I find that the longer these go without eating, the harder it is to get them to open. Sometimes you really have to baby them in the beginning. I would not move it for feeding. What I would do is anytime you see a hint of feeder tentacle popping out I would take a long tweezer and gently stick a mysis shrimp on it. It may take a while, but eventually they should start to open up and take food easily. But yeah.... they are a bit of a high maintenance feeder, you really have to assure every polyp gets fed.

Thank you, it's still young in my aquriam and I asked Seller before buying about feeding habits, they suggested leaving 2 weeks then feed brine? It's still tiny on a frag plug, I think 5 heads(plus 2xnew)
I got no problem with maintenance/ feeding but it will not 'flower', should I keep removing from aquriam open up?to feed?

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Thank you, it's still young in my aquriam and I asked Seller before buying about feeding habits, they suggested leaving 2 weeks then feed brine? It's still tiny on a frag plug, I think 5 heads(plus 2xnew)
I got no problem with maintenance/ feeding but it will not 'flower', should I keep removing from aquriam open up?to feed?

I it's mouths open soo much I'm unsure to feed more or not? It's not opening its hands as such lol