question about sun coral

[jessinator752]

Hi all, I'm new to the saltwater world, and I have a question about sun coral. In a moment of weakness I bought some sun coral without researching first, now I have a beautiful bright orange piece and I'm not sure if I'm caring for it right. The gal at the fish store said I can take care of it just as you would any other coral, the liquid feed you put in the water is good enough you don't have to do anything special for it. When I got home with it and was acclimating it to my tank I thought I'd do a little research on it, and everything I was reading was talking about "dome" feeding and using an eye dropper. My question is what is the proper way to care for it? Is the liquid feed in the water enough? What exactly is "dome" feeding? I saw a picture of the polyps eating shrimp so how can I use an eye dropper if they eat meaty foods like that? Any advice would be great. Thank you, Jessica

[caferacermike]

Not a photsynthetic coral. Thes corals prefer darker areas of your tank. Cyclops is a good choice for feeding. The dome method is referring to placing a cup over the coral and squirting a bit of food under it. The bets way I've found was to add a bit of food to the tank in the evening when the lights go out. When I see the coral polyp I target feed them with a squirt from the turkey baster.

[jessinator752]

Thank you. I knew they didn't like light, so I have it hiden in my rocks. I just wasn't for sure what to feed it or how.

[Texreefer]

yes, must be target fed and each polyp needs to recieve food they are not "connected" so feeding one ore two polyps will not work.

[jessinator752]

So as long as I get a good amount of food over the whole rock it's sitting on it should be good? I don't need to take an eye dropper and put a drop or two over each polyp?

[LoneStar]

Melev has a nice write up on Sun Corals:

http://www.melevsreef.com/suncoral.html

Not to mention the rest of the site is pretty handy as well...

[jessinator752]

Thank you. I did find that site when I was researching. You are right, it is very nice and informative. I was just confused because so many sites counterdict what the other says, so I wasn't sure what was the "right" way. I don't want to under feed but then I don't want to over feed either.

[gcantu]

"Dome feeding" can be referred to as cutting a 16oz plastic bottle of soda about 1/4 to 1/2 the way down from the spout end. Cover the coral with spout end up and insert the food with a turkey baster. This should keep the food from swirling around the tank and around the coral instead.

[Ram_Puppy]

I remember reading either here, or on reefcentral a year or more ago about a homeade 'bell' used for feeding.

The user bought those glass beads you can get at Michaels or any crafts store, and siliconed them to the 'bell' to give it weight. then fed airline tubing through the bell/bottle, and had a syringe attatched to the outside end of the tubing.

Then, they would add the food to some tank water in a small cup place the bell over the sun coral/dendro, and then add the food in a controlled fashion (i.e. giving enough time between each 'pulse' of the syringe for each polyp to consume it's previous feeding.)

Now, my personal feeling w/ the 'bell' method is that it only works well if your suncoral is on a rock, on your sand bed. if it's in the rock work, then shrimp and agile fish can get right past it because it won't form a good seal.

If i want to target feed something in my tank, I use a joes juice syringe and some airline tubing. works perfect.