Orange Sun Coral (Tubastrea faulkneri) Spreading question

[numisticman]

Hello,
So I have a question about my Sun Coral. I have had this wonderful coral for about 1-1/2 years! and it is awesome! About 6 months ago I noticed another rock that is 2 feet away with with what appeared to be a sun coral polyp? It now has 5 polyps and it is diffenately a Sun Coral!

Within the last month I have now noticed four more rocks all with in 10" of my Sun Coral with new sun coral polyps on them! 3 of the 4 only have 1 but 1 rock has 5 polyps in different locations!!

So my question is... Has it just taking this long for my live rocks to start to produce Sun Corals or is my Sun Coral somehow spreading???
If it is spreading how does this happen?

Thank you for reading & (replying)
\Ray/

[reeffanatic247]

I am not sure how long it takes them to start reproducing, but once very well acclimated some corals can start spreading buds and the corals near by are growing because of the closest distance of the seeds traveling, maybe im wrong...

[Loverotties]

I never hurd them do that?I'm riding on to here some answers! Bump.

[nemmy]

To be honest this coral can be a pain in the butt.I've had mine for 3-4 years and every 5-6 months it goes into reproductive mode.You'll notice it looking abit sulky even when fully open and the mouths will open up wide.Then it will start spitting tiny replicas of itself into the water current which circulate all over the tank.These can number up to about 50.They look like tiny round blobs but when they land on something they like, they attach,and open into a single mini suncoral polyp.

[numisticman]

nemmy,
thank you for your reply!
I just jove my sun coral!and I am happy that it is reproduceing to other rocks!
Thanks again for the information!
Do you know if these single suncoral polyps will continue to multiply on the rock? or will it stay a single polyp?

[ScruffyRubicon]

They should continue to multiply from a single polyp to many if you can keep the conditions right.

[nemmy]

You need to feed the polyps and on a regular basis with small bits of meaty foods or they'll just fade away.They grow pretty quick and soon take bigger stuff and bud more polyps around them.My own reef tank is full of tiny podlife in vast abundance so these tiny suncorals seem to survive on catching this alone.

[numisticman]

Thank you ScruffyRucicon and again nemmy,
Yes I do feed them regularly!!! They all seem to love Cyclopeeze!! This feeding happened by accident buy my large Sun just eats it up. So now I aim a little at each poylp with a small syringe.