Need a SUNCORAL expert

[cornetet]

DOES THIS SUNCORAL LOOK HEALTHY TO YOU?

Its 2 months old and I cant decide if its OK or slowing dying

My concern is that its tentacles rarely come out during the day or when my overhead lights are on. Everything is retracted and drawn-in.... most of the day the entire suncoral has ITS LITTLE MOUTHS WIDE OPEN AND NO TENTACLES ARE OUT

Tank specs:
40gal, pH 8.3, ammonia ~0, nitrate ~0, nitrite ~0, specgravity 1.021~1.022

Current procedure for CARE:

1) I put it in the shadest part of my tank
2) I put it in the highest flow part of my tank (my skimmer outlet is flowing water directly down on it)
3) I direct feed it CYCLOPEZE once a week by putting a clear plastic cup over the suncoral and squirt the cyclopeze thru a small hole in the cup and leave the cup there for about 1 hour for it to feed

[Twitterbait]

Sun coral does not use light to feed. It is a strict filter feeder. you will only see the tentacles coming out when there is food present or if the coral is looking for food. yes your sun looks fine but you may want to feed it more often.

[Caoineag]

Do the tentacles come out at night? My brain (rose) coral feeds at night so as long as they are coming out sometime, you should be good at that score. Actually, just researched, its nocturnal feeder so that is a good sign.

Second, is it growing? Most things that grow or develop are healthy, things that don't grow or develop at all are usually hanging on but not thriving so that is one check for you.

From what I have seen though, you probably should be feeding it meaty bits, this isn't photsynthetic, its a meat eater so you might want to step up the targeted feedings a lot. Everyone with ones over a year are feeding theirs shrimp pieces...

[cornetet]

Three small "pods" on this suncoral DIED (not shown in picture) when a thumbnail size of waste/crap unknowning covered the pods..... by the time I discovered and removed the waste (a week of time prob past) the three pods were an EMPTY SHELL (no suncoral 'flesh' inside the pods)

QUESTION: will these three pods ever regenerate or are they gone forever???

[dobejazz]

do the tentacles come out at night and when you are feeding?

[dobejazz]

If it is down to the white skeletin I don't think they will come back

[Petunia]

It looks fine to me. Here's a little info form liveaquaria:
"It is one of the few corals that does not contain a symbiotic algae, so it must be fed vitamin-enriched brine shrimp or micro-plankton from an eye dropper directly to each one of its polyps. It will usually only expand its polyps in the evening or when it is hungry."

[Petunia]

i agree with the white skeleton comment. good luck!

[cornetet]

If the three polyps (that are white skeletin empty shells) are GONE forever.....

Should I just leave them alone???

Or can I cut them out using an Exacto-Knife????

Or with me using the exacto-knife, disturb the suncoral and may kill it???

questions, questions, questions.....

[dobejazz]

I think I would leave them be rather than risk disturbing the rest

[Twitterbait]

leave them. the best way to feed is to spray a fine mist over the colony first then wait until all the polyps come out. then feed each polyp with mysis or cyclopeeze. I would leave the dead part as the living will eventually grow over it. feed it like you would feed fish. every other day or so.

[110galreef]

Ditto on all above..it's good and leave the dead stuff alone.

[cornetet]

Thanks to EVERYONE for their help....

[Caoineag]

looks good, just feed more often and more of it...

[Twitterbait]

that looks fine for feeding 3 times a week. keep in mind that they will prefer MEATY stuff. DT's is more like soup. Cyclopeeze is like chicken nuggets, and frozen mysis is like steak! in the end the feeding will depend on the size of the colony so a size reference will be needed.