I think I’ve finally gotten the hang of feeding the sun corals. Because I’m still nursing a gravely ill rescue dog I have plenty of syringe-type applicators which I’m now using to target feed the sun coral. I can hit each polyp with mysis, rather than hit the whole colony using a turkey baster. I’m still feeding with zooplex alternately with mysis. Have done some daytime feeding, too because they’ve been open for short periods, some days.

The only problem is the shrimp, Kalimba and Tam, who attempt to steal the mysis. I hold them off waving the syringe. I’d read about shrimp stealing food from corals, but I thought, no prob: I don’t have any corals! Now I do and where is the most algae-free area, low light, the place they open and seem happiest? Right on the doorstep of the shrimp’s condo cave!

So, mealtimes are interesting. In the wild this would never work, but I’m the coral’s advocate and food source, so it works. Also, the shrimp have plenty of shots at food pellets Kyo let’s go by, so it’s not like they have to have mysis. I haven’t been hand-feeding them lately because there’s enough to scavenge.

Elle gets a bit of zooplex and microvert now and then when I’m feeding the coral, so she seems to be doing well. She closed the one type I tried to feed her mysis.

Cortez was against the front glass and I was surprised at how big he looks. Calypso seems to have stopped growing. I may need to find some slightly bigger shells for Cortez.

Yesterday I did about a 1 1/2 gal water change and the usual clean-up. The cyano is back, but I want to remove it by hand for now instead of using chemicals. I did a 1 qt water change in the picoreef. It’s got what look like a slight rusty diatom thing a bit on the glass and a little on substrate—until I cleaned it up. Looks much better with the glass clean, but the barnacle shell is really covered with algae now. Good for the amphipods, but not terribly attractive. Only 1 snail popped out that I could see. Stealth snails.

Made up a fresh batch of water. I seem to be going through it a bit faster lately.

Kyo was skittish during feeding both morning and evening today, darting into the macroalgae mid-feed, as if startled, but coming back out after a minute or so. I have no idea what spooked him. Maybe I moved my hand or arm differently? He still has a healthy appetite and doesn’t stay freaked out for very long, which shows that he’s pretty secure with his habitat. [end]