Sun Coral

[jehuggin]

Does anyone have any experience with Sun Corals?

I have been doing some reading up on them and would like some of your thoughts on them.

Is it true they mainly come out in the evening?
Do you need to specially feed them?

Any additional thoughts / opinions are welcome.

Thanks!

 

[moebious]

Is it true they mainly come out in the evening?
Yes but you can train them to come out during the day if you feed them.

Do you need to specially feed them?
Target feed with brine/mysis shrimp each head. I was also told they like cyclopese. The more you feed the faster they grow, but it will also depend on how happy they are in your system.

Their natural habitat is the ceilings of caves. So they like the shade. In most aquariums i see them on the bottom under an outcropping.

I only have one mouth to feed and most of my information is based on online research. It seems to be happy but i have seen no growth yet.

 

[jehuggin]

Thanks moebious, do you have the black or orange variety?

Btw, were you at Rit's on Saturday?

 

[moebious]

Yes i was at Rit's on saturday and i have an orange one. I wish i had a handful but they cost a handful of cash.

 

[jehuggin]

Thanks for the info. I was the last guy at Rits when you left.

Thanks again.

 

[slinky]

Which one is more rare: yellow/orange/black?

 

[thanh386]

I have never seen a black suncoral....

 

[moebious]

Thanh386;556791 wrote: I have never seen a black suncoral....

Me neither... only pictures.
Someone in the club has yellow. It was just up for sale a couple weeks ago and didn't last long.

 

[jehuggin]

They have black ones at Warehouse Aquarium....the Alpharetta location.

 

[crewdawg1981]

The orange ones have the pink/purple tubes correct?

 

[jehuggin]

Crewdawg1981;556798 wrote: The orange ones have the pink/purple tubes correct?

Yes.

 

[crewdawg1981]

jehuggin;556804 wrote: Yes.

Then ... I'll be in the market for those shortly. I've always thought they were a cool addition... even if they do require feeding. I didnt get into this hobby just to sit back and watch ... I like messing with the tank.

Glad you started this thread.

 

[weaglereefer]

Blacks aren't "rare" that I'm aware of. Had a black branching piece that has green heads. Very hardy if fed on schedule. Sadly both my black colony and orange colony were lost when temps in my tank hit 87 for a few days this summer...not much I could do but sit and watch...

 

[tehawesome]

I have black sun coral that I got from Rit, I got like 6 heads for $5, but he also has the white kind. I feed mine maybe twice a week and only one head since it is a colony they share the food. It grew 2 more heads, so I figure I'm doing something right. I feed mysis.

 

[coolsurf]

I have orange sun corals and they do mainly come out in the evening. I feed them cyclopeeze daily. They are not photosensitive so placement gives you a lot of options.

 

[rbredding]

I've got a colony of them that can be seen (closed) in the picture below.. I feed them directly maybe once a week (to 10 days) and they all seem to be doing very well..

mysis/brine in a syringe, just a glob for each head..
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[jef4y]

Here's the blacks I bought from Rit a month or so ago:

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I've kept suns for over a year. Had a beautiful orange colony that didn't make it through the move (not sure why, think it could have been the sponge that smothered it). Want to pick up another orange colony and find a pink colony.

You do HAVE TO feed them. It's an absolute must. I feed mine mysis (along with the other corals) every 6 days.

I set up my tank to have shaded areas for corals like this, and the suns are out almost constantly because of it.

 

[slinky]

how do you frag a colony? is it easy?

 

[strapingyunglad]

dont know if this has been said already but they dont have a preference to shade, they simply grow slower than most coral so cant compete with faster growing variaties and mostly grow were other corals dont. (caves)