tubastrea -- sun coral

[Freckles]

I bought a sun polyps coral yesterday. The guy fed them for me & the polyps came out. Today, I fed them & their polyps came out very nicely. Question: I bought frozen plankton & mysis shrimp. I thawed it in a plastic cup with water ...... How much water do I put in the cup? I then fed them with a squirter & what ever remaining I had left in the cup, I emptied in the tank, which delivered it to the polyps and other corals. Here's a pic of it from yesterday.

I almost bought another open brain, but when I saw these, I chose to get them since I already have a brain. Oh & the brain liked the mysis.

[Alice]

Add just enough water in the cup for the food to thaw and to allow you to get a good amount of food in each baster/syringe full. You might want to add Selcon to the frozen shrimp to give it added nutritionally value. You can also use thawed frozen cube foods, Formula One and such, or make your own "blender mush" for feeding.

Tubastrea will come to anticipate "dinner time" and open at about the same time every day, ready to feed.

Alice

[Freckles]

You can buy frozen mysis cubes? I didn't know that. I think that would be a lot easier than breaking chunks off. Thanks for the advice on the selecon! The polyps were open when I was feeding them ..........If they close up, what does that mean? I have a few that closed up....... Do I do another feeding today? I have heard some feed more than one time a day.

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by Freckles
The polyps were open when I was feeding them ..........If they close up, what does that mean? I have a few that closed up

Many species of polyps pull their tentacles in and appear to "close up" when they open their oral opening to consume particulate foods. This prevents them from loosing the water they have trapped in their mesenteric cavity. Many polyps will still deflate to some extent after opening their "mouths", both due to the loss of pump pressure (siphonoglyphs take care of this function) and also to bring the mesenteric folds into contact with the food itself. Much of this will depend on the genera of the Cnidarian, but for the most part, a good number of polyped creatures do this. It is normal.

[R1Bill]

Freckles,

Hope you are really good at feeding them. They don't have symbiotic algea and really depend on frequent feedings. Some folks even take them out of the tank and put them in a container in the dark for 1/2 hour with phytoplankton to feed them. I just made blender mush and feed it to the entire tank a few minutes before light out every night. All the fish love it also.

Pulped in the blender:

flake fish food
selcon
ESY spray dried phytoplankton
white fish
clams
shrimp
oysters
mussels
sea weed
carrot

I feed my 180 about 10ml every night.

[Freckles]

I fed them twice today. So, it won't harm them by taking them out of the tank? You mean feed them like people feed clams, right? I didn't think of that......... I will have to try that tomorrow night. It's a small colony & I have a big enough container to put them in.

[R1Bill]

freckles,

i used to put them in a big jar underwater, pour out some of the water and float the jar in the tank to keep the temp the same. then i would feed mysis and phytoplankton with a baster and let it set 30-60 minutes (in the dark) and then pour everything back in the tank for the other coral. now i just feed the entire tank blender mush.

bill

[Alice]

Freckles;

I think as long as your are able to target feed them they will be fine without having to remove them to a container at feeding time. If, however, you're noticing an increase in cyano, hair algae or other signs of overfeeding the tank, it may be best to feed them in the container part of the time to keep the rest of the tank from getting overloaded.

Just my 2 cents on that one

[tdwyatt]

Ditto what Bill said on the feeding requirements. It is usually not necessary to remove them from the tank, just target feed them at lights out with a turkey baster. They are primarily nocturnal feeders in nature and occupy dark niches and underhangs. By the same reason that they are asymbiotic, they also lack much in the way of photoprotective pigments. Placement should be out of direct lighting. Kewl creatures, but I do not currently keep them in my systems as I already have too many critters that require speciallized feeding. You may want to find some black ones as well if you are committed to hand feeding them on a regular (READ THIS AS DAILY) basis...

HTH

[Freckles]

Next question: how do you tell they are getting enough food & are healthy? I was looking at the stalks of the polyps & they are nice & fat!

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by Freckles
Next question: how do you tell they are getting enough food & are healthy?

As long as they have a feeding response and are well attached to the rock, they will be healthy. Failure to expand for several days after the lights go out is definitely a bad sign.

[R1Bill]

freckles,

the stalks will get skinny and coraline algea will take over when they don't get enough to eat.

bill

[Freckles]

Thanks, everyone! I appreciate the info. I forgot to mention that mine eat during the day, too.