Sun coral turning white

[seamonkey]

My sun coral is starting to lose its color. I take it that this is a bad thing to have happen. I have been target feeding and trying to help it get better but it seems its getting worse. Any ideas what to do to keep the coral from dieing?

[SouthernReefer]

how long have you had your sun coral? i just picked up black sun coral (tubastrea micrantha), and i am waiting for the polyps to open. all i wanted was a small frag, and they sold me the whole piece for 1/2 price.... its 8" in diameter, so i plan to bust it up into small pieces, for better placement in my tank.
sun corals are heterotrophic azooxanthellate critters. they are best kept in a nutrient rich enviroment, and are best fed a meaty substance insuspension. at some point you may need to take the coral out of the tank and place it in a bowl for hyperfeeding, or use the top portion of a 2 liter coke bottle to encompass the coral in the tank, this will help keep the food suspended around it.
hth,

[Tpeck]

such big words.....

[SouthernReefer]

end i spell'd dem korreklee

[ShirleyM]

Ditto what Cromagnum said. They like to live in dark places. We took ours out every night after dark, target fed it in a bowl, then put it back. It finally opened up on it's own in the tank and we could feed it nightly in the tank. We did this vor a couple years and then they both (yellow and a black one) failed to thrive.
They were castaways in a reef shop when we rescued them for something like $5 each.
Shirley

[seamonkey]

The lfs gave me the coral for free because it came in injured and they refuse to sell anything that is not in perfect condition. The coral is about 4and 1/2' in diamiter and I have been on advise from trt making mush to feed it. I use any thing on the lines of shrimp, oysters, crab meat and so on that I get from the local food store and doing the bottle technique to feed it. The coral does open up on a daily basis for about 3 to four hours and when it does is very beautiful to look at. The coral is in a low lit area of the tank with a moderate water flow going by it witch in my opinion it seemed to like better than a slow water movement like I put it in first. Along with the mush I make for the coral it also gets to eat on the food for my other corals. I feed marine snow to the rest of the corals.

[Buddha]

I feed my zooplankton and brine shrimp. The dam thing is growing soo fast and is fat as albert.

[Doug1]

Best time to feed would be when polyps are out. Also remember most corals seem to prefer food items of a particular size so maybe you can try letting the blender make fine pieces. I would also add a drp or two of Selcon, it adds missing vitamins and amino acids and usually helps to increase feeding response.
Is it showing any signs tissue necrosis or is it just fading it color?

[seamonkey]

Its fading color and spitting out orange things from its polyps.

[Buddha]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! HA!

Your suncoral is now reproducing. They reproduce by releasing free-swimming planula larvae into the water and the adult usually dies shortly thereafter. The larvae swim around in the aquarium for 2 to 4 days, then settle down on a suitable surface. After a few months, numerous lentil-sized miniature colonies are an indicator of successful reproduction.

[icebear]

how are the little tiny ones fed?

[seamonkey]

I am torn between being happy and sad on this. I was hoping that the coral would live alot longer considering it was a freebie but yet The knoweldge that I may have many more sun corals show up in the next few monts is actual making me happy.

[Buddha]

I would imagine that the little tiny ones will eat phytoplankton.

[icebear]

yes, but how do you direct feed something the size of a lentil?