Do you need to feed your corals?

[brojj]

Came across this article & I remember that a reefer once ask in this forum whether he needs to feed his SPS which he has just put inside his tank. This is the answer i caame across just now.

It has always surprised me the lengths aquarists go to devise various simulations of natural reef processes. The amount of ingenuity, effort, and expense spent on various aquarium devices and products is almost beyond belief. Aquarists hinge their belief that some bottle of trace elements or some new color temperature light bulb will increase the health and growth of their corals, despite scanty or non-existent evidence of it being true. Of all the many things that can potentially increase respiration, photosynthesis, and calcification - and have been show again and again to do so absolutely- feeding and water flow are the major players. Light, of course, is critically important as well, but aquarists by and large can and do provide enough quantity and quality of light for corals. Period. Phytoplankton, while a very beneficial addition to aquaria, does not feed most corals (Borneman 2002). Something as significant as zooplankton to both coral and coral reefs would seem worthy of the highest efforts in trying to produce, add, grow, substitute or in some way provide to tanks. I cannot think of a single greater accomplishment and advance for aquarists than to provide by whatever means (higher export and higher input, larger refugia, purchase, plankton tow, culture, etc.) significantly greater levels of zooplankton or zooplankton substitutes to their corals. I hope I am being dramatic enough by writing this, for this is among the most important steps that must be made to realize the majority of those lofty goals and ideals that are so often stated and desired by those keeping corals in aquariums. Similarly, I very much hope that the information in this article, and provided in additional works in the bibliography below, gives the slightest inkling of the predatory capabilities and importance of feeding in all corals.

"

The quality and fates of coral primary production imply that zooxanthellae provide "junk food" to their hosts, and beg the question of nutrient limitation of coral growth rates under conditions of adequate light…On present evidence it seems clear that all corals need to supplement their diet (with food) from outside the symbiosis (heterotrophy) in order to meet these requirements.

"

Hatcher, 1988

• This is only the conclusion part. For more info, the link:
• http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-12/eb/
• Any thoughts on this?

[Evolutionz]

I feed my corals daily with zeovit coral vitalizers, 3 to 4 times a week with reef roids or oyster feast. And once a week with frozen rotifers. I target Feed and with the oyster feast I noticed they respond pretty well with twitching of their polyps.

[brojj]

Bro, any signficane improvements to your corals, in particular, the SPSes after feeding zeovit coral vitalizers? I feed daily with reef roids, polylab acid & plus, 3-4 times oyster feast. My zoas reproduce faster, more colorful, fatter. My SPS, hmm... does not look excited at all. Maybe they ate enough already, from the fishes poo... I have a shallowtail angel that eats a lot & poo a lot, his fav poo poo location, in front of the SPS at the top. Read somewhere fishes poo are the best food for SPS. Worried about my NO3, but still within range, 2 to 5. By the way, juz stopped feeding coral vitalizer because of some issue.

[solasido]

Ever since seeing how coral polyps including SPS eat food, I got addicted feeding them (but got to watch out NO3 and Po4 level). I feed my corals (sps and lps) on chopped market prawn. Simple, cheap and good. Prata grows very well with feeding. Pink stylo, pink pocci, lumi pocci seem to grow better also. Once a week, feed with oysterfeast. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Slayer213]

I feed my acans, scoly, chalice, cynarina, duncan, plate with fauna marin LPS pellet food, seems to be doing very well. I find feeding with fresh seafood (market prawn) a bit troublesome... Having to buy, deshell, cut, store, feed... So i bcame lazy and just feed with the pellets, so far the response is good. Its actually up to ur preference as to what u want to feed, personally i feel that pellets has a broaser spectrum of nutrition. In any case, do feed sparingly as undigested food will rot in the corals guts, killing it in the process...

[brojj]

I feed my tube anemone with big fish pellet too. Drop pellet somewhere near & watch it catches the pellet & put into the mouth. I am wary of pellets feeding SPS although i had seem them being fed with fish pellets, crushed into fine powders and using wavemakers to boardcast feeding. IMO, still feels that oysterfeast & reed roids or those corals food will be better choices for corals.

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[gambitz]

I did not see any reaction from SPS when feeding oyster egg...any idea?

[Evolutionz]

Bro, any signficane improvements to your corals, in particular, the SPSes after feeding zeovit coral vitalizers? I feed daily with reef roids, polylab acid & plus, 3-4 times oyster feast. My zoas reproduce faster, more colorful, fatter. My SPS, hmm... does not look excited at all. Maybe they ate enough already, from the fishes poo... I have a shallowtail angel that eats a lot & poo a lot, his fav poo poo location, in front of the SPS at the top. Read somewhere fishes poo are the best food for SPS. Worried about my NO3, but still within range, 2 to 5. By the way, juz stopped feeding coral vitalizer because of some issue.

zeovit CV not much difference after dosing for a few weeks. right now i got myself a bottle of Polyp-lab polyp booster and will dose this instead of CV. See how it goes.. u mean you feed daily 3 - 4 times with oyster feast?

[PordingPrime]

I did not see any reaction from SPS when feeding oyster egg...any idea?

oyster egg and oyster feast same?

[CFOh]

oyster egg and oyster feast same?

oyster feast = oyster egg + oyster ovarian tissue (1-200 microns). Cheers..

[CFOh]

I did not see any reaction from SPS when feeding oyster egg...any idea?

Need to take note on water nutrient level and avoid over feed.. Cheers..

[evomclaren]

I don't really feed. So far so good.

[chriskessha]

I have a frag of a blue bird nest in my tank. Tank is not really a sps ready tank. I feed with oyster feast and I see all the poltoday extend. Surprising

[chriskessha]

I have a frag of a blue bird nest in my tank. Tank is not really a sps ready tank. I feed with oyster feast and I see all the polyps extend. Surprising

[brojj]

Oops, Bro Evolitionz, sorry, should be 3-4 times of oyster feast per week.

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[Keith khoo]

use market prawn to feed produce lesser no3 /po4 ?

[epicfish]

use market prawn to feed produce lesser no3 /po4 ?

quite the opposite...a market prawn is still a dead prawn. i rarely use it for feeding purposes.