Artemia nauplii for SPS food
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will sullivan
New member
Tim Wijgerde's article, "Nourish Them And Watch Them Grow", about coral feeding, shows seriatopora caliendrum are able to consume about 10000 artemia nauplii in 15 mins (must be in high concentrations for at least 10 mins), also recent experiements conducted in Italy showed that a concentration of 2000 artemia nauplii per liter (7600 artemia nauplii per usa gallon) is optimal for rearing small pocillopora damicornis fragments! hope this helps!
LeopoldoFreitas
Member
Weekly I feed my corals (sps dominated tank ) with artemia nauplii and certainly I say to you that the SPS can eat them. A detail that can be relevant is that I add the naupliis soon after hatching of the cysts, when they still are to small.
ousnakebyte
New member
Neither of these statements are true. They absolutely will capture and ingest newly-hatched naups. They do not feed on phytoplankton; they feed on zooplankton.
Yes. They have mouths, stomachs, digestive enzymes and stinging cells for a reason - to capture and eat food.
Yes, and decapsulated naups are a good thing to feed. In fact, I recommend decapsulating the cysts since many animals will not find the brine cysts palatable, and you can still feed out your mixture if you don't have a good hatch rate.
A good, easy sps mixture to use is decapsulated and newly-hatched naups, frozen and/or live rotifers, oysters eggs, and cyclopeeze.
I just received some "Coral Frenzy" and some "Chaete Treat (two sizes)" and will be incorporating those into the mixture as well.
Your sps will not eat phytoplankton. However, the 'ol tale is that phyto will feed your other organisms (pods, etc.) that might then feed corals, etc., etc. - the whole food chain/web theory. I don't know - I go back and forth here, unless you have clams that might benefit.
What....? A few fish are somehow going to ingest 10,000 newly-hatched naups before hundreds or even thousands of coral polyps get them?? Those are some seriously over-achieving fish.
Moreover, you should ideally be feeding this mixture out at night, when most coral polyps are fully extended. Ever turn a flashlight on your tank a few hours after the lights are out and all the sps corals look fuzzier than normal? This is an evolved response to the most active time for the daily migration of plankton on a reef - night.
If you want, set up a drip system so the slurry drains into the display for a few hours at night.
The main key here is to not overload your system so much that you deteriorate your water quality. If you ramp up feedings, you may have to ramp up your maintenance - skimmer cleaning, water changes (definitely here), filter sock changes, etc., etc., whatever you do.
Cheers
Mike
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Whisperer
New member
What is a decapsulated nauplii? The eggs are decapsulated. Once they hatch, there is no capsule. So, what are you talking about?
Do you have proof that nauplii is ingested? Yes, they can be captured and stung by the polypsbut likely released after due to it's size. Yes, fish are able to capture most of the nauplii. Try it in your tank and see.
ousnakebyte
New member
Decapsulating refers to burning off the outer "shell" of the Artemia egg.
All you ever wanted to know about decapsulating brine
I don't always have sodium hydroxide, so I simplify the process by soaking about two tablespoons of the eggs in a liter of DI water for about 30 minutes. Then, I put the hydrated cysts in a liter of bleach for about 1.5-2 minutes. After they turn an orangish color, I rinse in water for another 2-3 minutes.
Here are two photos of juvenile Acropora capturing and ingesting newly-hatched naups:
The circled polyp continued to ingest that larval brine before we could get another photo. But, I did physically see the artemia disappear and the polyp then reset to continue prey capture.
Here is a paper from 2008 that discusses the benefits of feeding newly settled corals:
Petersen, D., Wietheger, A., Laterveer, M. [2008] Influence of different food sources on the initial development of sexual recruits of reefbuilding corals in aquaculture. Aquaculture 277:174-178.
If you can't get the paper, let me know, and I will copy the abstract and paste any insightful details.
I don't say this to mock or tease but rather an honest question. Are you sure you know what the nauplii are? They are not the large, adult brine shrimp. They are the larval phase of the adult and are about 400-500 micrometers in size - that's 0.5 mm.
Yes, planktonic-feeding fish such as anthias will consume the naups. However, I cannot possibly envision, let's say, a 100-200 gallon aquarium with, hypothetically 10-15 fish, consuming all or even nearly all 10,000 food items that are 1/2 a millimeter in size. But, I have no papers disproving this, so I guess we can disagree.
If it were 10,000 ADULT artemia, then, perhaps I could see the arguement, since the larger size is more easily seen and captured.
Of course, you will lose food to the filtration system too.
However, as I stated above - it is likely best to feed corals a few hours after lights out, due to the natural timing of the polyps' feeding behavior. Though, I would not say this is a necessity necessarily. I think you just increase the likelihood of more efficient prey capture. Furthermore, if you are concerned by fish competition, they should have turned in for the night - unless you have a tank full of cardinals or other primarily nocturnal fish...
Cheers
Mike
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ousnakebite-
you said-
"don't always have sodium hydroxide, so I simplify the process by soaking about two tablespoons of the eggs in a liter of DI water for about 30 minutes. Then, I put the hydrated cysts in a liter of bleach for about 1.5-2 minutes. After they turn an orangish color, I rinse in water for another 2-3 minutes."
do i need to be concerned with temp or ph for the first "dip" (rodi)?
straight bleach for the second "dip" ?
can i store after that (salt water in brine in fridge per the article), or immediatly hatch?
i assume i "hatch" them the same way as normal after using this ?
thanks agian!
you said-
"don't always have sodium hydroxide, so I simplify the process by soaking about two tablespoons of the eggs in a liter of DI water for about 30 minutes. Then, I put the hydrated cysts in a liter of bleach for about 1.5-2 minutes. After they turn an orangish color, I rinse in water for another 2-3 minutes."
do i need to be concerned with temp or ph for the first "dip" (rodi)?
straight bleach for the second "dip" ?
can i store after that (salt water in brine in fridge per the article), or immediatly hatch?
i assume i "hatch" them the same way as normal after using this ?
thanks agian!
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ousnakebyte
New member
I don't turn off my skimmer (mostly b/c I am lazy and also forget to turn it back on...), but I know others do.
Re target or broadcasting - that's really up to how motivated you are and how practical it is for your application. If you have a tank packed full of corals, then it might not be feasible. However, I typically will target feed small colonies or frags and leave the larger colonies to fend for themselves - assuming since they are larger, they have a higher percentage chance of catching food on their own.
Remember - these are colonial organisms. Assuming there is tissue connecting the various polyps, if one polyp catches a prey item, the entire colony will benefit.
No, I don't adjust for pH or temperature. The best way to hydrate and decapsulate is if you have a magnetic stirring plate (beaker with magnetic on the bottom that spins when you turn it on). Most labs have them, but not many homes. The next best thing I have found is to use a very gentle bubbling from an air pump - really, you just want the cysts to stay churning gently.
You will find that the bleaching of the cysts is exothermic, and will produce heat. It is going to "froth and foam" and look like the head of a mug of beer.
You can do either - place in hatching container immediately (after you have rinsed off the bleach) and/or store in the fridge in your hypersaline solution.
Or, you could just decapsulate enough for that one batch and repeat a few days later. If you are not making that much, you can tinker with the amount of bleach used to decapsulate.
Yes, you would hatch them the same way (salt-fresh water ratio).
Just your regular aquarium salt.
Cheers
Mike
