Coral Feeding

[mojoreef]

LOL I have gone through a few blenders over the years. I hear ya again on the inexact science, I have widdled down my ingredients to just salmon, shrimp and scallops as far as seafood is concerned in my mush. All three are loaded in aminos and protiens and have the least ammount of the nasties.

thanks for the talk

mike

[dgasmd]

So guys, what does your fish/coral mush contain?? How often do you feed it? How often do you make it? Do you always use the same ingredients?
I pretty much burn a blender with every batch I ahve made so far. I am going to begin including the cost of the blender in the final cost of the food. It is not coming out cheap anymore and Hamilton is getting rich off of me.

[mojoreef]

LOL Alberto I hear ya. Lots of folks use all sorts of different stuff in thier mixes. I believe Erik B has about everything bt the kitchen sink in his .
I keep mine pretty simple (because i am lasy). Fish/corals/inverts and such have basically the same needs chemically (yes certain species of each can have special requirements if so then just add it to the mix) To give them this I use shrimp, scallops, salmon, nori and selcon. The contents of these basically provides all they need. The main thing you want to do is to make sure you have the right size particles, specially when it come to corals. So when making the blend make sure you get a good selection from fish size chunks to microscopic. For my tank I feed one ice cubes worth a day. For my tang I have to throw in about a quarter of a head of lettuce a day, but that is a different story. .
You will find that enriched blend like this will be far superior to any live food you could use.


Mike

[mojoreef]

Oh yea on the blender my came with an attachment. I think for making coleslaw??? it works great and dosent smoke the unit. I will try to find out what it is called.

MIke

[dgasmd]

Lettuce? Why you feed lettuce to your fish? They have a lettuce deficiency? I guess your tank doesn't grow it like the ocean does ah? Just kidding, although I still wonder why you add lettuce for vegetable matter when you can use cheap nori.

I guess I have been overdoing my blend since I add probably everything under the sun to it andyet I am at least 47 ingredients short of Eric B.'s receipe. Mine includes even 3-4 different flake foods, pelet foods, children multivitamins, selcon, and all the seafood I can get my hands on. This last time I even added cyclo-peeze to it.

I wonder about the "red meat" fish. I always add the white meat fish because I think the red ones like salmon has a lot of fat content in it even if you get the skin off. Maybe I am looking too much into it.

That attachment is probably a food processor. Most people use them to chop vegetables.

[mojoreef]

Thats what it is Alberto a vegi chopper. yep Blender mush has gone from something simple to some pretty creative mixtures, lol
This vlamingii that just crested 12 inches is a pig and will eat almost everything EXCEPT nori, I wish it wold but it wont touch it. I freeze the lettuce and only use organic type.
When it comes to making a your own food you just want to put in what the things you are feeding need, this is why I just use what I have in my and nothing more elaborate. Instead of looking at it like shrimp/clams/fish and so on, just look at it like protien/ammino acids/lipinds and so on, it makes it easier, lol.
The reason I like salmon over white fish is that salmon has a ton of fatty acids and amminos and it also has a protien that helps with fish coloration (cant remember the name for the life of me).

Mike

[Maxx]

Mike (Mredman),
I love the pics of your Dendro! I know Travis takes great pics, but I've always loved the look of the Dendro corals. Do you feel that your feeding continuously and heavily , (as Dendro's require being non photosynthetic) is something to pay close attention to with regards to excess food not being consumed by the corals and then spoiling in the tank? I'm just concerned that these corals and their heavy feeding requirements makes them a candidate for a larger tank, or a tank w/ a monster skimmer. I asking you this becasue in all honesty your the one person I've spoken with who has had some measure of success w/ these animals. ( I would definately count reproduction as a success!) Where did you get your Dendro's from?
Mike's (Mojo and Mredman) and Alberto,
Thanks for all the info on feeding these animals. I have alot of experiance w/ fish, but my knowledge of corals and inverts was pretty limited until I discovered the online forums like this. Until recently I'd only been feeding my tank Phytoplex by Kent. You guys are definately helping me and others overcome the pitfalls and chasms of ignorance , (lack of knowledge), and inexperiance by posting up what has and hasnt worked for you guys and why .
Thank you so much!

Nick

[dgasmd]

Well, tonite I was taking some shots of the corals and fish after feeding and some came out nice. I figured since we were talking about feeding, I would post a couple that relate to that. They are the product of feeding the tank and fish.

Look at this first one. The brains tentacles are all out ready to catch food. I do not feed any coral directly. This is the result of them "knownig" food made it in.

[dgasmd]

In this one, you can see sweeping tentacles coming out already. Both of my brains have tentacles that are up to 7 inches long

[dgasmd]

This last one is an outstanding representation of what food availability will do to corals that will amke then react. This coral is completely closed at all tiems except for the following 3-4 hours after feeding the tank/fish.

[mredman]

The one mystery about buying carnation corals (dendronepthya) is that you don't know at what depth the specimen was captured. For all I know, I may have a specimen that came in shallow water and someone may follow the same husbandry practices as myself and fail.

I bought my dendro from Global Fish & Pets in Houston, but I have seen this species in three different LFSs in the Houston area.

My dendro is very deep in the water column (about 50 inches under the lights), partially shaded, and is maintained at a temperature not exceeding 76 degrees.

The dendro has two feedings per day - one is the general fish/invert feeding at 9 in the morning. In the evening, I feed again, but also hit the the dendro with a turkey baster with the "witches brew" followed by cyclop-eeze.

The dendro is normally in full bloom 12-18 hours per day. It is not a morning specimen. After the lights are turned on in the morning, it shuts down to about 2 in the afternoon. However, sometimes it opens in the morning around feeding time (9 am), then shuts down again for its siesta until the early afternoon.

Mike

[mojoreef]

Alberto great picture buddy, thanks for sharing.

Mredman very very solid post, great information for folks.


Mike