Sun Coral

[1460sun]

How do u feed a sun coral and keep the critters away long enough for them to consume some of the shrimp? Makes one wonder how they survive in the wild.

[::pete::]

One way is to cut the top off a soda bottle and place it over the coral when feeding.

[GaryP]

Feed them at night when the fish are more dormant.

[Reef69]

How do u feed a sun coral and keep the critters away long enough for them to consume some of the shrimp? Makes one wonder how they survive in the wild.

The food attatches to the polyps, once the coral gets a hold of the food, the polyps contract immediatly.

[CD]

How do u feed a sun coral and keep the critters away long enough for them to consume some of the shrimp? Makes one wonder how they survive in the wild.

I've often wondered how they survived in the wild myself. As Gary suggested, the best thing to do is wait until the lights are out and the fish have settled in for the night, however (in my case anyway) there will still be hermits, snails, and cleaner shrimp (if you have any) that will steal the food right out of the mouth of the coral. I generally just stand there with a turkey baster in the water and shoo the other critters off with gentle jets of water. It can be kind of a PITA, but that worked for me. I tried removing mine and doing the "feeding it in a bowl" method, but I never could get it to eat that way. If you have the coral in a place where it is easy to place something over it, I think one of those little plastic baskets that you get berries in at the grocery store would protect it from most of the other hungry mouths in your tank.

W. :)

[jaded]

I just blend up krill (maybe add some cyclopeze) and shoot in directly at the polyp with a 60cc syringe attached to a piece of ridgid airline tubing. The other fish will attack the food thats floating around leaving plenty for my suns. BTW the sun corals are pretty fast. They get a piece of food and retract then are back out for more in about a minute unless the piece they have is to large.

[1460sun]

Thanks for all the suggestions. The coral still looks great especially after the lights go out. So maybe there getting more than I think. But I'm going to try the syringe and tubing. Sounds like the perfect tool since I have them under a ledge mostly out of direct light.and while most of the fish can't get to them neither can I without standing on my head. thanks again!

[jaded]

Dont forget that you can simply heat up the ridgid line and bend the tip to help get the right angle... it helps me out a lot

[1460sun]

another good tip, thanks!!!!!!!!!

[vic318]

I've found that if you cut off the top half of a soda bottle and place it over the sun coral (placing food inside) works best. Once you get the sun coral used to the routine you can get them to open more during day.