when are coral hungry?

[munki]

hi-
how will i know if softies or LPS corals are hungry?

thanks-

[charlesr1958]

You won't know that for sure, but since corals eat each and every day for hours on end, it would be safe to say that they are always hungry. The larger polyped corals may not eat the constant zooplankton flood that their smaller polyped counterparts may, but I would target feed any of the "LPS" at least every other day.

Chuck

[BigAl07]

My suncorals seem to do well with 3 times a week target feeding but I try to get them to eat almost daily but they aren't always open so I guess each polyp is getting food 3x a week. The other ones I have just get left overs from what I feed the whole tank.

Allen

[blue_eyes53813]

Be careful not to over feed too. Corals will feed off of other things in the tank, Like fish waste, I feed my blender mush to the tank once a week. And im sure they may get some of the other food like cyclopeeze which is twice a week.

[BigAl07]

Yeah I am sure they get some of the cyclopeeze as I think EVERYTHING gets some of that goody.

What do you put into "blender mush"?

Allen

[munki]

do i feed the coral the day that i introduce it to the tank? soft or lps coral show no signs of hunger? so i could just add some zooplankton to the tank at anytime every 2-3 days??

[Techno-Vicki]

Just begin a regular feeding cycle and you will be fine. Yes, what is 'your 'mush'?

[munki]

i just read on reedpedia that It is not necessary to feed Euphyllia spp. (i was thinking about getting some frog spawn)

[Melanie]

I am very new to the hobby (reefing for 2 months) and I haven't fed any of my corals directly yet. They all seem to be growing so they must get some of the food I feed the fish. I feed mysis in the morning and mix it up at night - most of the time Cyclops.

[michael_cb_125]

I feed my LPS (except the Euphyllias) Silversides or Whole krill, once a week. This is a big meal but they all seem to love it. They are trained to know what day and what time I feed. My Acros and Montis get what my fish dont.

[JT101]

My sun coral seems to like to open up as soon as my Daylight PCs go out (leaving the blue Actinics on for another hour or so). At that time I feed it with a contraption I made out of a clear plastic container and a plastic tube. It keeps the fish away from the food while the sunny eats.

I want to train it to open up during the day but so far I haven't tried that.

The other reason I do this type of target feeding is because I was told recently that a sun coral needs so much direct feeding that the amount of food I'd have to put in the tank directly would wind up "killing" the rest of my tank.

[BigAl07]

Originally Posted by munki

i just read on reedpedia that It is not necessary to feed Euphyllia spp. (i was thinking about getting some frog spawn)

No you don't need to feed them. They will get some food from the tank but the mojority of their food comes from photosynthesis (light loving coral). I love my FrogSpawn, Hammer, and Torch Coral.

Originally Posted by JT101

My sun coral seems to like to open up as soon as my Daylight PCs go out (leaving the blue Actinics on for another hour or so). At that time I feed it with a contraption I made out of a clear plastic container and a plastic tube. It keeps the fish away from the food while the sunny eats.

I want to train it to open up during the day but so far I haven't tried that.

The other reason I do this type of target feeding is because I was told recently that a sun coral needs so much direct feeding that the amount of food I'd have to put in the tank directly would wind up "killing" the rest of my tank.

Yes the Sun-Coral is NOT photosynthetic and needs to get fed because it relied 100% of it's energy from the food it "Captures". I target feed mine because my shrimp are greedy and would steal every morsel of food in the tank if I didn't guard it with the bottle method.

Allen

[reefracer]

Interesting topic on coral feeding, what other corals are photosynthetic and won't depend so much on "direct feeding" anyone?

[lcstorc]

Most of the coral we keep are primarily photosynthetic. That is why we have to have the strong lights.
Many of them will also filter feed as well so they eat when I feed the fish and when I clean the glass etc. Anything that is floating around is free food.

[reefracer]

Thanks Lynn, that's what I kinda thought but then you see lots of reference to direct feeding using meaty foods etc., I would prefer to have corals that either filter feed or photosynthetic since I still don't have any feed to feed, do have some liquid coral food I put into the water.