Mixed orange and yellow sun coral

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I purchased a sun coral which is has yellow polyps on one side, and
orange polyps on the other. I have been attempting to train it to eat
mysis, and brine shrimp every other night. The yellow polyps have
responded great, and extend way out and clearly consume food. The
orange polyps however just seem to mildly extend with just the tips of
the tentacles seen. It is not clear to me if the orange polyps are
actually consuming food or not. It has been two weeks so I am
concerned that the orange side will not make it. In a coral like this,
I understand that the polyps all are part of one organism. I know
there is disagreement whether it is necessary to feed individual polyps
or not. Are the orange and yellow polyps two separate organisms, or
are they connected inside. If they are connected, will the orange side
possibly survive due to the great eating by the yellow side.

[Marc Levenson]

Everything that I have learned about suncorals is on this page:

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

Marc


wrote:
> I purchased a sun coral which is has yellow polyps on one side, and
> orange polyps on the other. I have been attempting to train it to eat
> mysis, and brine shrimp every other night. The yellow polyps have
> responded great, and extend way out and clearly consume food. The
> orange polyps however just seem to mildly extend with just the tips of
> the tentacles seen. It is not clear to me if the orange polyps are
> actually consuming food or not. It has been two weeks so I am
> concerned that the orange side will not make it. In a coral like this,
> I understand that the polyps all are part of one organism. I know
> there is disagreement whether it is necessary to feed individual polyps
> or not. Are the orange and yellow polyps two separate organisms, or
> are they connected inside. If they are connected, will the orange side
> possibly survive due to the great eating by the yellow side.
>

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[[email protected]]

Thanks Marc: I actually already have read your page. I really enjoy
your practical experience which oftentimes is much more helpful than a
ton of theory. My sun coral continues to do well. In fact the orange
polyps are progressively extending with time. The yellow polyps extend
further than I have seen in any other picture. I feed them a
combination of mysis and brine shrimp. I use the brine shrimp because
I remove the coral from the tank, and place it in bucket and place an
airstone in to circulate the water. The mysis tend to just float on
the surface, while the brine actively circulate. That way, I can leave
the coral for a while and the brine shrimp get consumed, and just come
by every 15 or 20 mins to stir the mysis into the water so that they
get eaten too.

Quite frankly I do not know if I regret the purchase of this coral
because I do find it quite a bit of work to feed it. I like to let the
coral eat for at least two hours, so that is about 8 times at least
that I have to go check on it. Still I feel personally responsible for
this coral, and I would not just give it to someone who does not know
how to take care of it, or at least who is willing to learn how to take
care of it.

[Ann R]

I put mine in a large bowl and sit it next to me while I watch TV. The
polyps are so used to the routine they start to expand almost immediately
after they go into the bowl. .I use an eyedropper and squirt a grated
shrimp, fish, squid, clam mixture into the polyps for about 15 minutes and
then return them to the tank. By then they look like little swollen orange
sausages.

QUESTION - Do they also eat phytoplankton or DT's oyster eggs?
--
Ann R
> wrote in message
ups.com...
> Thanks Marc: I actually already have read your page. I really enjoy
> your practical experience which oftentimes is much more helpful than a
> ton of theory. My sun coral continues to do well. In fact the orange
> polyps are progressively extending with time. The yellow polyps extend
> further than I have seen in any other picture. I feed them a
> combination of mysis and brine shrimp. I use the brine shrimp because
> I remove the coral from the tank, and place it in bucket and place an
> airstone in to circulate the water. The mysis tend to just float on
> the surface, while the brine actively circulate. That way, I can leave
> the coral for a while and the brine shrimp get consumed, and just come
> by every 15 or 20 mins to stir the mysis into the water so that they
> get eaten too.
>
> Quite frankly I do not know if I regret the purchase of this coral
> because I do find it quite a bit of work to feed it. I like to let the
> coral eat for at least two hours, so that is about 8 times at least
> that I have to go check on it. Still I feel personally responsible for
> this coral, and I would not just give it to someone who does not know
> how to take care of it, or at least who is willing to learn how to take
> care of it.
>

[Marc Levenson]

If you look in this month's Coral Magazine, you'll see a picture of a
reefette feeding suncorals with what looks like Cyclop Eeze in a
syringe. I'm still using frozen mysis (Life Line, I think), and
occasionally live baby brine shrimp.
http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/food/bbs/how_to_bbs.html

I cover mine with a dome (upper section of a 2-liter bottle), and squirt
the food into the dome. 5 minutes later, I do it again. 5 minutes
after that I do it one more time. Using a timer really helps make sure
I stay on top of it. One hour later I pull the domes off the suncorals.

I was doing this every other day, but I've grown lacsidasical about it
over the past couple of months. Now I do it once or twice a week.
However, I think I'll resume this method next week again.

Since I feed my tank at 9:00 to 9:30 pm, this is 30 minutes before the
lights go out. At that time the suncorals open up. Food is still in
the water at that time, because I have the skimmer shut off for at least
from 10pm to 11pm nightly.

Marc


Ann R wrote:
> I put mine in a large bowl and sit it next to me while I watch TV. The
> polyps are so used to the routine they start to expand almost immediately
> after they go into the bowl. .I use an eyedropper and squirt a grated
> shrimp, fish, squid, clam mixture into the polyps for about 15 minutes and
> then return them to the tank. By then they look like little swollen orange
> sausages.
>
> QUESTION - Do they also eat phytoplankton or DT's oyster eggs?

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