Coral Of The Week - Tubastraea, Sun Corals

[seffieuk]

Coral of the week - Tubastraea, Sun Corals​

Roll up, roll up and let's be having

all your photos and experiences​

Who will be first?​

Archived Coral of the Week Threads

 

[seffieuk]

Come on folks, I know several of you have had or do have a lovely sun coral lurking in your tank..............

 

[Trod]

I shall be first then.

I have had mine for several months now, It took a lot of encouragement to come out, I used a cut down coke bottle and turkey baster, I fed it every night just after lights out, eventually it started to come out in anticipation of food, it now comes out whenever I feed the fish, but I also use the coke bottle occasionally just to give it a good meal
I have found that it prefers to sit on the sand at the bottom of the tank.

The all important picture

 

[wackystarfish]

These are my favorite coral, they are absolutley radiant in colour and shape Deffinetly one that i will be having, maybe a couple, in my tank Have no experience with them, just thought id say!

 

[tropic_john]

They come in wbhite, orange, yellow and black I'll defo be having at least 1 black and 1 yellow sun coral. Also seffie, well done, your cotw threads have been pinned and archived

 

[seffieuk]

They come in wbhite, orange, yellow and black I'll defo be having at least 1 black and 1 yellow sun coral. Also seffie, well done, your cotw threads have been pinned and archived

Thank you - they are about us salties pulling together as a team and sharing - I just start them everyone else makes them what they are

Seffie x

 

[Buddyboy67]

Your wish is our command nanna seffie..lol.

these corals are axooanthellae, meaning that they carry no algaes to produce food and are therfor not light dependent..they prefer dim lighting, but, contrary to popular belief, are happy in light as long as being overgrown by algae isn't a problem.

These guys also therefor must be spot fed, at least twice a week, with a mix of brine, mysis, diced krill, diced fish,etc...I also add a little marine snow to my mix when feeding.

When well fed and in suitable conditions they can breed asexually, ask big C..his did, by producing planulae , or offspring, which will pop up around the tank as small yellow individual polyps, looking not unlike little yellow aiptasia. These young and adults alike prefer a good flow around them the carry in food and flush away any waste products they produce....

growing over oyster

before feeding

feeding happily

 

[TigerIssey]

Mine is a very new addition, has fed only once in 3 days so far. Once settled I am sure it will be feeding more.

It is a little different in colour to normal, mine is a much more deeper orange than the normal peachy coloured ones.

Looks a little different under lights as you can see from the pictures. I chose to place mine a little more like Buddboy has done, its so beautiful, I wanted to make sure I could see it at all times.

 

[TigerIssey]

Opening a little more now

 

[daveo_irl]

Looking good!
Do sun corals only open when they are being fed?

 

[lizvenables]

Mine use to open every night, they are not photosynthetic so they dont really like a lot of light. So if you have strong lighting you might find they will only open when they are being fed.
If you want to see them out more then I suggest placing them under an overhang or somewhere shaded in your tank, and because they dont use light at all they need to be target fed all the time otherwise they will starve and die, but with plenty of food they will grow and multiply well.
If you cant get it to eat try blowing some water with a hint of food over the coral then waiting about 5 mins till the arms extend then target feeding.

 

[TigerIssey]

Opening much more

Used a few tips from Buddyboy, squirted some of the water from defrosting the food across the polyps before feeding. Used the top off a pop bottle to prevent the shrimp from pinching it and the squirted food into the top of the bottle at each polyp once opened.

Worked a treat.

 

[seffieuk]

Tina

Could we have the picture of your sun coral with the feeding bottle over it with Ceaser inside, pleeeese?

Seffie x

 

[TigerIssey]

Ok Seffie Just for you

Caesar inside the feeding bottle, the sun coral is being fed.

Once fed the pictures in the post above were taken.

 

[TigerIssey]

Sun Coral feeding on Brine / Mysis mix