New Sun Coral ID

TheCheeseWizz · May 24, 2015

I just got this sun coral at my LFS. The picture was taken the same night I acclimated it to its new tank after I used the bowl method to coax the polyps out. I would say its doing really well considering some of the polyps are opening up. I was able to get a few of the polyps to eat.

I know getting a species identification on sun corals is difficult, if not impossible, but if anybody could help I would really appreciate it. This sun coral seems to have more pink to it than others I have seen (except for corals which are all pink) and the tentacles seem to be extra short.

steve&mari · May 24, 2015

Very nice pick up really good tissue and extension for just being added keep feeding and it'll be beautiful and full. Can't help with the technical name sorry.

cloak · May 25, 2015

It just looks like your run of the mill Sun coral to me. (Tubastrea sp.) I'm sure the color probably varies a little bit from piece to piece as well.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+321+3032&pcatid=3032

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

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

TheCheeseWizz · May 26, 2015

Thanks for the replies. That is good to hear. I checked in the middle of the night and the tentacles were fully extended and looking healthy. So I gave them some food and most of them ate.

steve&mari · May 26, 2015

Very nice looks very happy keep up the feedings and they'll even extend during the day if shaded some we've had one like it and a black Sun coral that were pigs n grew well opened a lot of the time. Definitely be added to our new setup at some point.

Maroon clown · May 27, 2015

mac-reefer · May 27, 2015

Might be a noob question, but what is the bowl method. Seen one at my lfs and was thinking of picking up one. Always thought sun corals were hard to keep.

TheCheeseWizz · May 28, 2015

mac-reefer said:
Might be a noob question, but what is the bowl method. Seen one at my lfs and was thinking of picking up one. Always thought sun corals were hard to keep.

The bowl method is placing the coral in a bowl with tank water and food in order to coax out the polyps. Its a way of feeding them without shooting food into each polyp individually.

Sun corals are very hard to keep because of their feeding. You need to isolate them from the current in some way. I've started to place the top of a 2L bottle over them and shoot the food into the bottle. Its working really well but it is still a lot of work.