sun corals dyeing

[dputt88]

i honestly have no idea what is doing this. but they are starting to die off, as you can see the skeleton as the tissue starts to die. i have been feeding them a mix of frozen mysis brine and squid (my fish food), and i occasionally feed the tank freshly hatched brine shrimp. feeding was somewhere along the lines of every other day never went more than 2 days with out feeding and some times i would feed 2 days in a row. they had just enough flow that you could see it just sway slightly when they were open. as as we all know the lighting doesn't really matter, but in case you were wondering they were in a low lighting but not dark setting. why is my favorite coral dying. this was the only reason i went to the Lansing swap, was to get a nice frag of these for cheap.

water parameters

temp- bounces between 76 and 78 F
salinity- 1.025
pH- 8.4
calcium- between 460 and 480
KH- just above 9
nitrate- 0
phosphate- just hair above 0 but not even near .25 (api tests lol)
Mg- above 1280
ammonia- 0

sorry no nitrite test. if i ever start a cycle i can detect it with my ammonia kit. also water changes a very regular at 17% every 2 weeks.

[chadf]

They need daily feedings to every single head as well as kept in a dark place like a cave. I kept one very healthy for over a year but got rid of it because feeding is such a pain.

[katymunoz]

I had someone show me a cool trick with sun corals (even though I don't have any). They cut a bottom of the pop bottle off and then set it over the coral during feeding, push the bottle down in the sand. Put food in the open bottle top and then put the lid on the bottle. This will allow the food to
Stay all around the sun coral allowing them to eat as much as they want. I think 15 minutes or so should be all you need for them to eat, and you can repeat this as much as you need to.

[ReeferAL]

Ive been keeping a couple colonies of sun corals for a while now and they are one of my favorites too. I had a similar issue shortly after I got my first colony. heres a few things to keep in mind that might help you or someone else with these corals

They are nonphotosynthetic meaning they dont need light at all. This being said they can have a problem with to much light. Always start them off in a low light area. they do fine in areas that dont get direct light like caves or under over hanging rocks. you can aclimate them to stronger light just do it slowly and they should be fine. I have one of my colonies right next to a sps colony and they are both doing great.

I find my colonies do best in low to medium flow areas and can do well in high flow areas its just a bit harder to make sure they get fed with the higher flow. just dont put them in no flow areas.

keep the colonies out of the sand bed if you can. If you get sand or other debris between the polyps the tissue with die off under the debris pretty fast. its best to blow the colony clean on a regular basis to prevent this.

feeding is the most important with the corals. being that they are nonphotosynthetic they get all of their energy from whatever they get fed. these corals have a huge appitite and will usually eat way more than you think they can. you really have to spot feed these corals. general tank feedings wont be enough for these corals. I use a turkey baster to feed my polyps a mix of mysis and brine every day to every other day at the longest. one colony about 4 inches across can consume atleast one cube of frozen mysis a day. a good way to tell if you're feeing enough is to look at the polyps when they are closed, if they look sunken down into the skeleton then they need to be fed. if they are swollen up over the end of their skeleton then they have enough.

they are very hardy corals if they get fed properly, you can even train them to open during the day for feedings.

Hope this helps

[lemonjello]

i feed mine everyday twice per polyp by eye dropper. i feed mysis,rotifers and brine.mine live pretty much in the dark in the far back corner of the tank under the powerhead .

[dputt88]

well i guess i can increase my feedings but they are closed all day and only open up in the evening ( they are trained) and i have been using a pop bottle and turkey baster to feed them as i do other corals.

in sure my placement is fine its not direct lighting and it wouldnt be bright enough there to grow any other corals.

[dputt88]

well i fed them a bunch today. tried not to do too much. wasn't sure how easy it is to overfeed them like you can a fungia.

[Scuba do2]

I target feed them with cyclopeeze during the day and a couple of hours after the lights go out. They also did better not sitting on the sand.

[woods4542000]

I don't have a sun coral , but picked up a single head of dendro at flint swap . I placed it under an overhanging rock ,and never target feed, I might overfeed tank . That single polyp is 5 or 6 heads now , and is usually always open!

[dputt88]

im assuming that the heads where parts of the skeleton are showing are just going to die anyways? if so im only loosing 3 of 8 heads. they are being fed more. i was under the impression that 3-4 times a week was fine for them... **** this upsets me.

[soverjas]

Thanks for the thread. They are a beautiful coral. Sounds like way to much work though. Now I know never to get one.

[chadf]

Originally Posted by soverjas

Thanks for the thread. They are a beautiful coral. Sounds like way to much work though. Now I know never to get one.

Yep, I gave mine away.

[WillBattle]

Originally Posted by dputt88

im assuming that the heads where parts of the skeleton are showing are just going to die anyways? if so im only loosing 3 of 8 heads. they are being fed more. i was under the impression that 3-4 times a week was fine for them... **** this upsets me.

FWIW I have had my sun coral for around 6 months or so, and feed them around 2-3 times a week, once PE mysis and twice Pellets. It has went from 5 heads to 12+, and has also budded out a few babies 1/2 across the tank. From my experience if you have been feeding 3-4 times a week, and it is accepting the food, that should be totally acceptable, and I would start looking at other reasons, when initally placing this coral, I had to close to the sandbed, and quickly learned that it hates having sand anywhere close to it, it seems to do well epoxyed to the top side of a cave with little light, and medium flow. HTH -Will

[dputt88]

it was about 10" above the sand bed, in a shady spot. it is temp out of the usual spot for better feeding, although this spot is brighter.

would really like to know if they have the capability to regenerate lost tissue, or are those heads goners?

[katymunoz]

How are they doing? Curious if u figured out the problem