My sun coral!

[Marc Levenson]

A DFWMAS club member traded me his beautiful sun coral for a chunk of my
Hammer. Some might not think that is an equal trade, but as far as I can tell
we are both very very happy with our exchange.

The Hammer was quite large in my tank, with a thick trunk that I never saw for
the past few months. I pulled it out this morning to break off his branch and
found that each side was 4 heads still connected and very thick. Even the main
core was covered with tissue, but I had to get his piece. I pulled out the
coral and let it drip some fluid off into the tank, but I could tell that the
heads of each polyp were very heavy and I was afraid tissue damage would ensue
if I let gravity tug any longer.

I dashed to the kitchen, trying to fruitlessly catch the water draining from the
coral, to a spot that I had prepared. The bag was ready, a hammer and very
sharp chisel nearby. As I looked at the coral and the trunk, the typical option
was to hit it at the base, splitting it right through the middle. But what
would happen to the polyp heads enduring such massive force flat on the counter
during that sudden impact?! Instead, I laid it on its side, put the point of
the chisel in the center of the trunk where the blade ran parallel with the cut
I hoped to create, and hit it hard. CRUNCH! Not a good sound, as that meant
the heads were beginning to splinter on the areas that are most fragile, within
the polyp tissue. One more try, hitting hard and without reticence, and it
split perfectly down the center as planned. Quickly I put my half back in the
tank. The way it was split, the trunk was shaped like a spike and fit perfectly
into the spot were it was before. Matt's piece was put in a large LFS bag with
a ton of water, and very carefully lowered into my cooler to avoid hitting the
skeleton hard against anything solid again.

We met in Grapevine, where our exchange took place, and discussed the needs of
each piece and left.

I did stop at Petorama, and ran into four more DFWMAS members. :D Picked up
some Joe's Juice, btw.

Got home, and acclimated my new beauty in the sump. Here it is at 6:41pm today,
located in the side area of my 55g, out of the direct lighting (350w MH, 108w
T5):

http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/0604/sun_coral_641pm_060504.jpg

About 1.5 hours later, I fed the tank live baby brine shrimp, and the sun coral
was ready to eat too:

http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/0604/sun_coral_821pm.jpg

Once it was open and ready, I gently used a small turkey baster to drizzle
thawed mysis mixed in tank water over the coral. I took a cube of mysis from
the freezer, and with a knife cut thin shavings to speed up the thawing
process. It seemed to enjoy the mysis, opening some of the mouths quite wide
while other polyp heads were closed tight as if to keep the food from escaping!
Here's the coral from another POV at 9:14pm

http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/0604/sun_coral_914pm.jpg

And I just checked on it for fun, with a flashlight and it was FULLY open! I
had to use a flash so this looks a little washed out, but it looks great.
11:12pm

http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/0604/sun_coral_1112pm.jpg

Now I just have to keep up this process and I can enjoy my new bright friend. :D

Marc


--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

[Richard Reynolds]

> Some might not think that is an equal trade, but as far as I can tell
> we are both very very happy with our exchange.

sounds like a fair trade to me :D

great pics :D



--
Richard Reynolds

[david]

I did some diving in Borneo Sipadan Island under the overhangs there is so
much Sun coral it is untrue and at night the Whole wall just looked orange
with sun corals. But most were pointing downwards. Your coral meybe upside
down marc ??? :-)

looks good though

David

[Don Geddis]

Marc Levenson > wrote on Sun, 06 Jun 2004:
> About 1.5 hours later, I fed the tank live baby brine shrimp, and the sun
> coral was ready to eat too:
> http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/0604/sun_coral_821pm.jpg
> Once it was open and ready, I gently used a small turkey baster to drizzle
> thawed mysis mixed in tank water over the coral.

Pretty coral, nice bright color.

What is the long-term feeding strategy? Are you going to need to target
feed it (every couple days?) indefinitely?

-- Don
__________________________________________________ _____________________________
Don Geddis http://reef.geddis.org/
Twice five syllables / Plus seven can't say much but / That's Haiku for you.

[Marc Levenson]

Hi David,

(This is wierd, all of your replies showed up, but my original post didn't!
.....yet!)

Yes, I've heard they like to be in the caves upside down, or right side up
actually. LOL Mine is going to have to put up with a slight change in
position.

Marc


david wrote:

> I did some diving in Borneo Sipadan Island under the overhangs there is so
> much Sun coral it is untrue and at night the Whole wall just looked orange
> with sun corals. But most were pointing downwards. Your coral meybe upside
> down marc ??? :-)
>
> looks good though
>
> David

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

[Marc Levenson]

Yes, it is like a fish, gotta be fed every other day. I'm hoping that if it is
well fed for a long time and grows big and strong, if I have to leave town for a
vacation it can handle the lack of personal TLC for a few days.

Marc


Don Geddis wrote:

> Marc Levenson > wrote on Sun, 06 Jun 2004:
> > About 1.5 hours later, I fed the tank live baby brine shrimp, and the sun
> > coral was ready to eat too:
> > http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/0604/sun_coral_821pm.jpg
> > Once it was open and ready, I gently used a small turkey baster to drizzle
> > thawed mysis mixed in tank water over the coral.
>
> Pretty coral, nice bright color.
>
> What is the long-term feeding strategy? Are you going to need to target
> feed it (every couple days?) indefinitely?
>
> -- Don
> __________________________________________________ _____________________________
> Don Geddis http://reef.geddis.org/
> Twice five syllables / Plus seven can't say much but / That's Haiku for you.

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

[skozzy]

> Yes, it is like a fish, gotta be fed every other day. I'm hoping that if
it is
> well fed for a long time and grows big and strong, if I have to leave town
for a
> vacation it can handle the lack of personal TLC for a few days.

Marc, do you mean Every Day ? or Every Other Day as in once in a while ?,
and when you feed it how do you know what your giving it is actualy being
taken ? What do you feed it ? (home made food).

Since your good with the camera, maybe you could get a picture of you
feeding yours.

It has me interested as my first sun coral ( or something very similar )
lost it colour fast after going into my tank, and the LFS never told me
about special feeding, so maybe thats why mine died back fast.

[Marc Levenson]

I'm feeding it at least once a day now. I can buy something called Mysis
(shrimp) in frozen cubes. I thaw a cube in tank water, and using a turkey
baster, I gently release the cloudy liquid over the coral to let it know its
time to eat. After about 5 minutes, I can use the turkey baster to suck up some
mysis (meaty food in tiny bits) and blow a little toward each polyp head. The
food sticks to the coral's polyps, and it pulls the food into its mouth that it
opens wide.

I'm impressed, to be honest. Yesterday I turned off the pumps to do this, but
today I did the feeding twice with the pumps on and it still got fed.

One guy on RC says he feeds his coral 3 cubes per session!!!

I'd like to get this coral used to eating during the daytime, so it will make it
easier for me. Feeding every other day is usually sufficient, but daily seems
almost like a routine this coral can learn.

Marc


skozzy wrote:

> Marc, do you mean Every Day ? or Every Other Day as in once in a while ?,
> and when you feed it how do you know what your giving it is actualy being
> taken ? What do you feed it ? (home made food).
>
> Since your good with the camera, maybe you could get a picture of you
> feeding yours.
>
> It has me interested as my first sun coral ( or something very similar )
> lost it colour fast after going into my tank, and the LFS never told me
> about special feeding, so maybe thats why mine died back fast.

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

[Yukon]

"Marc Levenson" > wrote in message ...
> A DFWMAS club member traded me his beautiful sun coral for a chunk of my
> Hammer. Some might not think that is an equal trade, but as far as I can tell
> we are both very very happy with our exchange.
>
> The Hammer was quite large in my tank, with a thick trunk that I never saw for
> the past few months. I pulled it out this morning to break off his branch and
> found that each side was 4 heads still connected and very thick. Even the main
> core was covered with tissue, but I had to get his piece. I pulled out the
> coral and let it drip some fluid off into the tank, but I could tell that the
> heads of each polyp were very heavy and I was afraid tissue damage would ensue
> if I let gravity tug any longer.
>
> I dashed to the kitchen, trying to fruitlessly catch the water draining from the
> coral, to a spot that I had prepared. The bag was ready, a hammer and very
> sharp chisel nearby. As I looked at the coral and the trunk, the typical option
> was to hit it at the base, splitting it right through the middle. But what
> would happen to the polyp heads enduring such massive force flat on the counter
> during that sudden impact?! Instead, I laid it on its side, put the point of
> the chisel in the center of the trunk where the blade ran parallel with the cut
> I hoped to create, and hit it hard. CRUNCH! Not a good sound, as that meant
> the heads were beginning to splinter on the areas that are most fragile, within
> the polyp tissue. One more try, hitting hard and without reticence, and it
> split perfectly down the center as planned. Quickly I put my half back in the
> tank. The way it was split, the trunk was shaped like a spike and fit perfectly
> into the spot were it was before. Matt's piece was put in a large LFS bag with
> a ton of water, and very carefully lowered into my cooler to avoid hitting the
> skeleton hard against anything solid again.
>
> We met in Grapevine, where our exchange took place, and discussed the needs of
> each piece and left.
>
> I did stop at Petorama, and ran into four more DFWMAS members. :D Picked up
> some Joe's Juice, btw.
>
> Got home, and acclimated my new beauty in the sump. Here it is at 6:41pm today,
> located in the side area of my 55g, out of the direct lighting (350w MH, 108w
> T5):
>
> http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/0604/sun_coral_641pm_060504.jpg
>
> About 1.5 hours later, I fed the tank live baby brine shrimp, and the sun coral
> was ready to eat too:
>
> http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/0604/sun_coral_821pm.jpg
>
> Once it was open and ready, I gently used a small turkey baster to drizzle
> thawed mysis mixed in tank water over the coral. I took a cube of mysis from
> the freezer, and with a knife cut thin shavings to speed up the thawing
> process. It seemed to enjoy the mysis, opening some of the mouths quite wide
> while other polyp heads were closed tight as if to keep the food from escaping!
> Here's the coral from another POV at 9:14pm
>
> http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/0604/sun_coral_914pm.jpg
>
> And I just checked on it for fun, with a flashlight and it was FULLY open! I
> had to use a flash so this looks a little washed out, but it looks great.
> 11:12pm
>
> http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/0604/sun_coral_1112pm.jpg
>
> Now I just have to keep up this process and I can enjoy my new bright friend. :D
>
> Marc
>
>
> --
> Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
> Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
> Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com
>
>

Wow, that is one of the nicest colors I've seen! Good job! Tim

[Marc Levenson]

I took some new pictures of the feeding process, so here you go:

http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/0604/suncoral.html

Marc


skozzy wrote:

> > Yes, it is like a fish, gotta be fed every other day. I'm hoping that if
> it is
> > well fed for a long time and grows big and strong, if I have to leave town
> for a
> > vacation it can handle the lack of personal TLC for a few days.
>
> Marc, do you mean Every Day ? or Every Other Day as in once in a while ?,
> and when you feed it how do you know what your giving it is actualy being
> taken ? What do you feed it ? (home made food).
>
> Since your good with the camera, maybe you could get a picture of you
> feeding yours.
>
> It has me interested as my first sun coral ( or something very similar )
> lost it colour fast after going into my tank, and the LFS never told me
> about special feeding, so maybe thats why mine died back fast.

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

[skozzy]

Thanks Marc

"Marc Levenson" > wrote in message
...
> I took some new pictures of the feeding process, so here you go:
>
> http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/0604/suncoral.html
>
> Marc
>
>
> skozzy wrote:
>
> > > Yes, it is like a fish, gotta be fed every other day. I'm hoping
that if
> > it is
> > > well fed for a long time and grows big and strong, if I have to leave
town
> > for a
> > > vacation it can handle the lack of personal TLC for a few days.
> >
> > Marc, do you mean Every Day ? or Every Other Day as in once in a while
?,
> > and when you feed it how do you know what your giving it is actualy
being
> > taken ? What do you feed it ? (home made food).
> >
> > Since your good with the camera, maybe you could get a picture of you
> > feeding yours.
> >
> > It has me interested as my first sun coral ( or something very similar )
> > lost it colour fast after going into my tank, and the LFS never told me
> > about special feeding, so maybe thats why mine died back fast.
>
> --
> Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
> Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
> Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com
>
>

[david]

http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/0604/suncoral.html

hungry_mandarin.jpg great shot>