Sun Polyps "Tubestrea"

[fellers]

Well I really tried my hardest not to post this. I have read I think everything possible on trying to get suncorals to eat or open up for that matter.
I have tried in the tank with all water circulation off, small circ on. Did not work. I then tried a food bath in a seperate tupperware container after the lights go out. I feed mysis, blood worms, brine shrimp, and krill all mushed up. I have also tried oyster eggs and cy-clopeeze.
I never ever expose the coral to air. I use RO/DI water only and my parameters are spot on. I did have a heater issue for around 13 hours where it stuck on and water heated up to 87. That was taken care of as quickly as possible. No corals were hurt as I caught it in time.
Just 2 fish loss. Did a water change etc. But that is my story.
Anyone have any tips to getting this thing to open so I can feed it. I can only get it to bulge and barely show the ends of its yellow polyps.
Any advice is welcome. I will beat this stubborn ace coral. I bought because it would be a bit of challenge so I read. Being a recently retired 75th ranger I spend all my time at home. So i do not neglect my tank.

 

[DaveK]

Here are a few of my thoughts on the matter. I don't know if any will actually help.

Generally when a coral will not extend, it is unhappy about something. Since Tubestrea does not require light, light isn't the issue, unless you over do it by putting it under some really powerful lighting.

The other reason is water quality. This is more likely to be the problem area. Are you using a top quality salt? Is your tank close to being overcrowded? Are your nitrate and phosphate readings extremely low? Is the tank well established?

Look at your livestock. How are your other corals doing? Do you have any livestock that is bothering the corals? How long have you had the coral? Could other corals be engaged in "chemical warfare" with the Tubestrea? If that is the case, more and larger water changes and carbon filtration may help. So may some of the other chemical media, such as pollyfilter pads.

Lastly, don't think that you will "beat this stubborn ace coral." In the end, you will adapt, so the coral is happy, extends, and feeds.

 

[fellers]

Hey Dave, I run carbon refreshed every two weeks. My tank is def not overcrowded. All my livestock is extremely healthy. my hard corals, my goniopora, green star polyps, hammer coral and frogspawn are all doing extremely well and growing right along. All of my mushroom coral is growing rapidly are very big and very healthy. I have plenty of spacing between the corals. There is nothing near the tubestrea and it is under an overhang in the rock work. I have that specific coral for about 5 days now. My tank has been established 14 months. I have plenty of copepds and isopods all over in there. The tank is actually pretty healthy. I am home all of the time and all I do is watch my tank and test the water and clean it. No chemicals, just dry microfiber towel for glass, and wet and dry rag for rest of surfaces.

 

[smoothie]

Mine seemed to open better at night which was fine for me because it gave me something to feed when I got off of work.
Also try about 20-30min after you have fed the fish in your tank. They may be more open then.
They would be sensitive to the big heat swing you mentioned. I had a hydor theo heater wipe my tank out once. They just now did a recall on a bunch of them from that company.

 

[fellers]

I was thinking the heat swing would of stressed them but when I tried over the last hour to get them out after my lights shut off at 9 they would bulge and partially open. Very tiny bit. I can't get them to open fully to feed. I have it 6 days tomorrow. I have read of other peoples experiences sometimes taking ten days or so to open. I am just worried about it starving since it gets no nutrition unless each individual polyp is fed a tasty meaty meal

 

[Martian]

I think mine is Dendro, but same applies. It took 2 weeks to get reliable feeding for the first polyp, 5 weeks for the slowest, but all are fine now. One was 50% regressed to stone but is now out most of the time and has a tiny bud showing tentacles too. Persistence is all, started with tiny brine shrimp, now it will try to eat a finger and fight a clown for food. See "Feeding the Sunflower" on youtube.

 

[mikes68charger]

I had mine in a cave with very low light, and it did not come out very much. I have since pulled it out more into the light, put it on a rock, all by it self, so its about 1in above the crush coral. So yes its low light, but it needs at least 1 wat per gallon. So its on the bottom, but off to the front of the tank, so its not under the light so its getting light, just not a lot.

Before I turn off my light out at night, I feed my fish, and make some food for my Sun's and a few non light corals. I hit the suns with some Oster Feast, then turn off the lights.

Then by the time Im ready to go to bed (30-40min), All my Sun's will be exstended. So I feed them the rest of the food, and hit the sack.

So some light needed, and it takes a while before they open.

 

[bigpapaoffive]

This might help ya, it works great for both of my colonies, I dose the tank with Phytopheast 20 min before feeding the tank, I then feed the tank, wait ten more min and my suns are all the way open by this point light or no light. Hope this works for ya.

 

[Poriferan]

I went about a week before mine began to open. Did all the same things moving it around etc. Likes to be in light flow and seems to care less about placement as longs as it's off the sugar sand. Lights out (even at odd times like water changes) 20 mins later all polyps are open and ready. I noticed the last few mornings that they are still open in the morning just before/at sunrise.

I did find that getting them to open initially has helped by feeding the rest of the tank 1st.

In fact I just took this lights out about 15mins before