Corals

[crashoverride]

Hello, I was wondering, what do corals eat? how do I feed them? how often? What kind of corals can I purchase for my JBJ 24G Nano Cube DX? Do they need special attention? what do I need to purchase to keep them healthy and thriving? Sorry if I have many questions, I just want to do a good job.
I've had my nano running for 3 months now and have 2 black/white clown fishes which seem to be doing very well. I do 5g water changes every week. My paremeters are fine. I would like to start adding corals now.
Thank you.

 

[Rosseau]

Well the most important thing for corals and their food will be the amount of light they receive.


Corals have different types of plant cells (algae basically, known as zooxanthellae) living on them and within many of their cells. These algae create food for the coral by using light energy. This is their primary source of food.

You can however supplement the corals with food. What to feed, how often and how to do it depends very much on the specific type of coral you have. In general you shouldn't have to feed most corals for them to survive and grow.

For some beginning corals I would recommend mushrooms, zoanthids and maybe ricordea. They are pretty forgiving corals that can tolerate a wide range of water parameters as well as require less light than some of the other corals. Furthermore, they are pretty easy on the wallet.

If you don't already, you should get yourself a good SW test kit as your clowns are much more tolerant of water quality than corals will be.

Welcome to the addiction!

 

[Rosseau]

.. Sorry, I see you have a test kit and all that. Someone will probably be able to help more specifically with what to feed, though I don't think it's necessary for most corals - especially in a small tank (easy to pollute water).

Corals will eat mysis shrimp, brine shrimp etc. Really whatever they can get a hold of.

 

[crashoverride]

Cool, thx. I have been feeding my clowns that type of food and I soak it with garlic. What about candy corals and frogspawn? I was thinking about gettng mushrooms and open brain corals, would that be ok for my set up?

 

[Rosseau]

What is the lighting set up in that tank? I don't know off hand.

 

[PSam]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9757330#post9757330 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by crashoverride
Cool, thx. I have been feeding my clowns that type of food and I soak it with garlic. What about candy corals and frogspawn? I was thinking about gettng mushrooms and open brain corals, would that be ok for my set up?

Caulastrea and euphyllia will both take larger foods (i.e. bits of squid, cyclopeeze / zooplankton, mysid, pods, and the like).

 

[crashoverride]

The lighting I have is 2 36W CF 50/50 10,000K lights. I hope that helps.

 

[Illuminati]

Both candycanes and frogspawn would be good choices. With the frogspawn I just shoot pieces of mysis into the center of it with a turkey baster. The candycane will expand sweepers at night, you can gently shoot mysis into the sweepers and it will eat.

I have a lobo (open brain), it takes up a lot of sandbed space.

 

[crashoverride]

Thx Colin, how have you been? Haven't heard from you in a while. I feed the clowns during the light hours. So when I get corals I should feed them when the lights are off? When I see the sweepers expand, just feed them with a turkey baster? wouldn't that produce to much ammonia with me feeding the fishes during the day?

 

[Illuminati]

Just take a razor and cut the mysis cubes into 4 equal parts and use 1 or 2 parts to feed the corals at night and leave the other pieces in the freezer.

You also don't feed the corals every day. Twice a week is plenty.