Sun Coral (Tubastraea)

Two different types of sun coral (yellow and black) growing adjacent to each other. With no lighting requirements the polyps of these sun corals normally expand between dusk and dawn as well as times of feeding. I briefly turned on the tank lights for this footage which was shot after midnight. These corals require frequent feeding and nearly every polyp is provided mysis, cyclopeeze or live brine shrimp every 2 or 3 days.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• sun
• coral
• reef
• aquarium
• tubastraea

[just6970]

What are steps in caring these type of corals. cause im working in one of the aquarium showroom in qatar. But i never saw it open like yours in the video.

[y2kenny]

@just6970 regular feeding (3-4 times a week minimum) and feeding as many of the polyps as possible. Each of the larger polyps would take 2-4 mysis shrimp per feeding session. This coral consumed more food then the fish I had. This coral typically extends feeder tentacles at night. I turned on the tank lights to take this photo.

[landenblocker11]

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[Nanovirus5995]

Umm, Thats beautiful but can I ask has anyone been stung lethally by a coral of some kind before? Like is it possible? Or do they usually just give high signs of irritation?

[MissXMarlboro]

These aren't doing well in my tank. My tank is two years old, the numbers are 0 0 0, no phosphates, 450ppm calcium, 76degrees F, and perfect salinity... Gah! these things are so picky...

[penpen132]

I seen them for the first time at the fish store yesterday, they are so cool looking!

[y2kenny]

@shoopdawoop3 Well the particular tubastreaa in this video never delivered a painful sting whenever the back of my fingers got too close (the feeder tentacles would sometimes latch on). The corals in my aquarium which seem to have the greatest stings (toward other corals) are my euphyllia's, acanthastrea's and hydnophora. The large range-ball Pseudocorynactis (in my other video) is the only sessile organism that I take particuliar care not to get in contact with.

[shoopdawoop3]

@y2kenny not really ive touched them on numerous dives the second you get out of the water your skin begins burning

[y2kenny]

@shoopdawoop3 Fire coral is pretty rare in the hobby, but they're definately called fire coral for a reason (serious pain with those). The nematocysts (stinging cells) that the sun coral has, however, doesn't seem to pack much of a punch to human skin. A little sticky but no pain.

[shoopdawoop3]

@y2kenny 90% of coral is fire coral meaning if you touch it its like a chemical burn for anyone unless you have gloves on