Feeding Corals??
- Thread starter LiVEWiRE
- Start date
I turn off ALL pumps during feeding time. It just makes it so much easier to "target feed" if I need to. I have everything on a controller so I push one button and all pumps and power heads turn off for a predetermined amount of time then back on. This way I don't forget and leave them off which is NOT a good thing. In my office I don't have a controller but I have all of my pumps on a simple appliance timer that has 24 on/off switches. I have ALL 24 set to "ON". When I feed there I roll the manual switch to "OFF" and feed. This way if I forget to turn it on the longest it will stay off is 60 minutes. Actually I don't turn it on ever.. I just leave it off and allow the food to just float around.
Well I target fed my first coral and that was one of the wildest things I have ever seen. I is cool how something that looks like a flower can eat something. I placed a small piece of krill near the mouth of the main polyp the first piece one of my 3 peppermint shrimp took but I got another piece there and fed the other shrimp so that they would not take it again.
The other polyps are kinda sideways so I cant place anything on them without it falling off. So if I target feed the center one will the others also grow? Also how often do you target feed your corals?
The other polyps are kinda sideways so I cant place anything on them without it falling off. So if I target feed the center one will the others also grow? Also how often do you target feed your corals?
JT101
Member
Most polyp corals are actually communities of individual entities. As such, they need to be fed individually. A polyp that is never fed directly which is right next to one that is fed daily stays unfed.
With most polyps such as palythoas you can get away with very infrequent feeding since they manufacture their own food internally via light exposure (of course you need good lighting) but they definitely benefit from target feeding.
If you have a sun coral you MUST feed EACH polyp. These corals have no photosynthetic capabilities whatsoever and if you don't provide some form of external nutrition they will starve to death. I feed mine defrosted Cyclop-Eez and defrosted mysis shrimp when I have more time.
When feeding, I shut off my skimmer and rear-chamber pump and only leave my two Koralia Nanos going.
I love feeding my corals and watching them eat. It's amazing to see something that appears so plant-like to move so quickly!!
MFSullivan
Member
My sun cluster eats like it's going to the gas chamber...
The pumps MUST be off so you can actually hit the target without watching a mix of food get swept away. They'll engulf and ingest a particle of food quickly and reopen if they want to consume more. (or at least mine do)
I'm now targeting the sun, multiple zoas and a frogspawn (recently) and their reaction is very entertaining. The venus fly trap has nothing on them.
I've been using a mix of brine, cyclop-eeze, flake, (virtually anything I stir up into a small mix) to blow across the tenticles and they will grab it all up.
Do you have a suitable clean up crew to collect up the scraps that the tentacles don't grab? I have a bunch of various shrimp that will pull food from the tentacles at first, then will lay back and wait for scraps...
When the feeding tube goes in, my clowns will actually sit down-current, wait, and eat like kings.
Feeading time at the zoo has become quite entertaining........
The pumps MUST be off so you can actually hit the target without watching a mix of food get swept away. They'll engulf and ingest a particle of food quickly and reopen if they want to consume more. (or at least mine do)
I'm now targeting the sun, multiple zoas and a frogspawn (recently) and their reaction is very entertaining. The venus fly trap has nothing on them.
I've been using a mix of brine, cyclop-eeze, flake, (virtually anything I stir up into a small mix) to blow across the tenticles and they will grab it all up.
Do you have a suitable clean up crew to collect up the scraps that the tentacles don't grab? I have a bunch of various shrimp that will pull food from the tentacles at first, then will lay back and wait for scraps...
When the feeding tube goes in, my clowns will actually sit down-current, wait, and eat like kings.
Feeading time at the zoo has become quite entertaining........
Wolfgang8810
Active Member
im thinking about adding a sun coral to my tank later on. Is it relativly hardy? I dont mind target feeding at all I have plenty of time. I have 64 watts of pc over my 24 gallon tank 1 32 watt 10k 6.5k bulb and one 460nm 420nm actinic bulb. ( im thinking later on when im more experienced but i would like to start studying now . )
Yeah suncorals actually grow in caves and under over hands where there is little to NO light. Some people report they do better in similar environments in the home aquarium but I know several people who have theirs in medium light areas and they do well. But like mentioned above, they get 100% of their food from feeding and each head on the coral has to be fed directly. They are lovely corals but I just can't dedicate myself to that much hands on feeding while fighting with my piggly wiggly shrimp. I am a Sun Coral failure 
Wolfgang8810
Active Member
im sorry but on one answered wether they would be hardy or not.
