Need tips on Sun Coral feeding

[dekay]

Picked up a Sun Coral at J&L yesterday and one of the guys recommended me to feed it with Cyclop-eeze. What he told me to do was to soak it in a cup for 20 mins and just dump it into the tank. But recalling from what I've read, I thought most ppl fed each polyp one by one? Anyways, plz give me some tips and directions. I'm also not sure if I'm suppose to crush the flake into little bits (which I did last night). Appreciate the help.

And if anyone's interested in this coral, J&L still has 3 of them as of yesterday.

[Samw]

All I do is thaw a bunch of frozen brine shrimp in a cup, pour a bit of shrimp in the tank to get the smell of food into the water, turn off my lights for an hour, turn them back on (polyps should be extended now), and squirt the shrimp directly on the polyps with a turkey baster and turn off the lights again (so that the fish won't wake up and eat the food).

Did J&L get any new SPS or colored clams in this weekend?

[Son Of Skyline]

Hey Sam. Do you find that turning the lights out actually helps to get them to open up, or do you just turn the lights off so the fish won't get to the food?

[dekay]

I don't keep SPS and clams, so I'm not sure what's new or old. But if I recall correctly, they had 2 tanks w/ SPS corals right now. And I think there was only one or two clams in the acrylic tank they use to have near their old store front. Problem is they haven't set up the lights yet, so the clams aren't getting any light.

Few more question regarding the sun coral. Are they sensitive to light (closes when it sees light)? Is that why I should keep it in a shady spot? It's currently located in the middle level of the tank and has decent flow, but not really a dark area. All the dark areas I could think of are the caves, but then it won't have much of a flow . I was waiting for the coral to open up last night. Started to extend at 1am and didn't fully open till 4am. I don't want to make this a habit by any means.

[Samw]

I found that my sun coral polyps retract when I turn my lights on. If they smell food, they come out a bit. At night, they are always out even if I'm not feeding the tank. It became much easier to feed them after I turn out the lights. But since I can't see in the dark, I have to turn the lights on briefly and then turn them back off.

[Delphinus]

How often do you feed them, Sam?

[Samw]

To get them really healthy, I was feeding them every night. But I'm not doing that anymore and will see how it goes. Now, I feed them about once a week. Basically, I was feeding everyday before so that I could get them fat and healthy so I could sell them and get rid of them altogether. Now, I'm seeing if they could survive without target feeding. If so, I'll keep them. If they can't survive without manual feeding, then I'll get them fat and healthy again and sell the rest of my frags.

[1628]

use a half-cut coke bottle to feed so the food won't escape and it's dark inside for it to open and every polyp can grab the food without the food floating elsewhere