Yellow Tube Coral or Sun Coral (Tubastrea sp.)

Length in Nano Reef Tank

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Type, Care and Requirements

Sun Coral Keepers Thoughts

You can not deny that the Sun Coral (I’ll refer to it as a Sun Coral rather than a tube Coral as it just sounds nicer and the name does it better justice) is a good looking creature. But, what you need to know is that its care is similar to fish and that you have to feed it directly and encourage it to feed. This makes it a coral for those that have the time to care for it. A search on the internet will reveal that to keep it in good health, it needs to be fead directly. I also read that the only time it is hungry is when it has expanded its polyps. However, mine has thus far, has only shown its polyps when it can sense food in the water and not any food but only brine shrimp or mysis.

Sun Coral Feeding

At the moment, I have found as its new to the Nano Reef Tank, the best way to feed is to squirt a little bit of mysis or brine shrimp at it to encourage it to shows its polyps and then wait for about 10 – 15 minutes for it to extend the polyps. Place a bottle (a sparkling water bottle cut off at the neck to make a dome) over the top and then slowly squirt the food around trying to make sure that all the heads get some. The idea with the bottle is to keep the fish and clean up crew out of the way and allow it a chance to feed uninterrupted. As you can see from my picture, the hermits dive in to clean up the leftovers when you remove the bottle.

Sun Coral Concerns

Longevity or will I keep it alive? I think I will. What concerns me is the bio-load on the tank through feeding. The tank is 92 litres and my feeling is that the Sun Coral Specimen is just the right size, at the moment, for me to maintain water quality. The CUC obviously play a massive part in this but still the bio-load should concern you if you have a Nano Reef Tank that is smaller. I would probably suggest that you should source a Sun Coral with 3 heads per litre of water as this seems to be a good balance. Standard size tanks should be fine but keep a watchful eye on water quality etc.

If you have any questions drop a note in the comments box and I will give you my opinion (for what it’s worth!)