Sun Corals are NON photosynthetic – meaning that they do not need sunshine for life – but they must have meaty foods & flow.

Sun Corals are some of the coolest corals available within the coral market because they will eat and eat, and once they are in the habit of eating at an exact time, they will extend their “fingers” at the exact time EVERY day!!  It is easier to train a sun coral than some children!!

My sun coral is pretty accustomed to eating every day around 9:30pm. However it will extend whenever you put any food in the tank. I blend up some mysis shrimp, krill, blood shrimp, cyclopeze, vitamins, HUFA and turkey baste it on to them with the pumps OFF. I usually leave the pumps for about 1-1.5 hours. Just don’t forget to turn them back on!  🙂

You can also feed them defrosted mysis shrimp with the turkey baster or pieces of silver sides. They LOVE to eat.

Please remember when you are feeding sun corals, anything that is not eaten will break down into YUCK – which if left in your tank will raise your nitrates, phosphates and cause issues.  So… make sure you have a good protein skimmer and plenty of clean up crew to remove leftover food & waste.

Here are the easy steps to follow:

1. Tempt the coral with a VERY diluted mixture of mysis shrimp (just the liquid from the shrimp) no actual shrimp.  Defrost the mysis shrimp in saltwater and then using a turkey baster gently blow the liquid around the sun coral.  Do not remove the coral from its place in the tank – which is why I say dilute the liquid mysis very heavily.  Do this every day at the same time for 2-3 days.

2. By the third day, you should see the coral beginning to extend it “fingers” – they are sticky and will catch meaty substance for eating.  You can begin to add some pieces of mysis into the water mixture – I generally slow the current down so that the coral has ample opportunity to catch the food.

3. Feed daily at the same time – if you want the coral to be active and pretty in the day time – make it a noon feeding time.

Position in the tank: they like moderate flow (to catch stuff as it goes by) and LOW light. On the reef they are under ledges, etc….

Check Out this Neat Guide we put together:

Love Your Sun Corals – Feed Them

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