Feeding a Duncan
- Thread starter rickh
- Start date
Tennyson
Active member
You don't need to feed any lps corals except a sun coral. But feeding will definitely make them look great and help them grow faster. I feed all my corals as often as I can, and they grow like crazy.
There were four babies on each head when I bought them and they are about twice the size of the picture now which was from two weeks ago. So feeding is definitely good, if you don't want them to grow so much, feeding maybe 1- a week is good.
But feeding also helps restore dead flesh or cure bleeching of a coral.
The food I am using is probably the best there is, beats mysid by a longshot. Its O.N food by formula one and can be bought at any lfs. It can be cut to any size you want and is so greatly accepted by my corals, they won't let got of it.
Heres a link to the page I found it on.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1310698
There were four babies on each head when I bought them and they are about twice the size of the picture now which was from two weeks ago. So feeding is definitely good, if you don't want them to grow so much, feeding maybe 1- a week is good.
But feeding also helps restore dead flesh or cure bleeching of a coral.
The food I am using is probably the best there is, beats mysid by a longshot. Its O.N food by formula one and can be bought at any lfs. It can be cut to any size you want and is so greatly accepted by my corals, they won't let got of it.
Heres a link to the page I found it on.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1310698
luke33
In Memoriam
It seems there has been some discussion about overfeeding these duncan's. If you feed them to fast they grow to fast and the skeleton can't keep up with the head and they end up dying off. I don't know if this holds true, but its worth looking into. I feed mine about once a week or every 10 days.
Mental1
New member
Here's Eric Borneman's answer about overfeeding duncan's
Every study I am aware of shows almost linear saturation ingestion curves for corals. The amount of food available on a reef far far far exceeds what would be given in a "nightly" feeding. Azooxanthellate corals are a prime example of how, even with constant feeding, it is not enough. Tubastraea exemplify the behavior well since they are easily observed. Feed them, they capture food, ingest, and reextend their tentacles over and over and over. Any unused food would be expelled or the coral, even theoretically, would simply contract and not extend its tentacles.
You say many animals will overeat. Are you aware of obesity (overeating) in wild animals? Not those that gorge because of scarce food availability. The only animals I know of that can become obese or overeat are domestic ones, and while you could argue that feeding in tanks is akin to feeding such pets or livestock since they will continue to eat and if corals with low metabolic rates or daily heterotrophic procurement needs are forcefully fed more and of wrong quality foods it is theoretically possible to create some sort of equivalent in terms of health. Unfortunately, again, food availability in the wild is more than a "nightly" feeding and corals could manifestly change their behavior to reflect metabolic needs, so we are talking the equivalent of a feeding tube into their gut cavity.
I also do not know of cases where the "tissue grows too fast for the skeleton to keep up" as this is generally called growth. Skeletogenesis and tissue growth can become uncoupled in cases like hyperplasia and neoplasia (tissue-skeletal anomalies) and coral polyp extrusion, but the description does not fit well. These are corals found below 20 meters, and 250 watt lights might be a lot more light than corals are getting if collected, like many in the trade, at 30-40m depth. It very much explains what was described.
The photos I see in that thread are mixed - some show tissue loss (bad), and some show extensive budding (good). The causes would be very difficult to parse out for those not doing well. As I said, if food was a factor, it is more likely to be what was fed than how much.
Every study I am aware of shows almost linear saturation ingestion curves for corals. The amount of food available on a reef far far far exceeds what would be given in a "nightly" feeding. Azooxanthellate corals are a prime example of how, even with constant feeding, it is not enough. Tubastraea exemplify the behavior well since they are easily observed. Feed them, they capture food, ingest, and reextend their tentacles over and over and over. Any unused food would be expelled or the coral, even theoretically, would simply contract and not extend its tentacles.
You say many animals will overeat. Are you aware of obesity (overeating) in wild animals? Not those that gorge because of scarce food availability. The only animals I know of that can become obese or overeat are domestic ones, and while you could argue that feeding in tanks is akin to feeding such pets or livestock since they will continue to eat and if corals with low metabolic rates or daily heterotrophic procurement needs are forcefully fed more and of wrong quality foods it is theoretically possible to create some sort of equivalent in terms of health. Unfortunately, again, food availability in the wild is more than a "nightly" feeding and corals could manifestly change their behavior to reflect metabolic needs, so we are talking the equivalent of a feeding tube into their gut cavity.
I also do not know of cases where the "tissue grows too fast for the skeleton to keep up" as this is generally called growth. Skeletogenesis and tissue growth can become uncoupled in cases like hyperplasia and neoplasia (tissue-skeletal anomalies) and coral polyp extrusion, but the description does not fit well. These are corals found below 20 meters, and 250 watt lights might be a lot more light than corals are getting if collected, like many in the trade, at 30-40m depth. It very much explains what was described.
The photos I see in that thread are mixed - some show tissue loss (bad), and some show extensive budding (good). The causes would be very difficult to parse out for those not doing well. As I said, if food was a factor, it is more likely to be what was fed than how much.
Logzor
New member
Eric's points something out that is true but it does not apply to duncans, in my opinion.
In the wild this arguement would make sense for filter feeder but the duncan has to actually catch the food. We turn off our power heads and jam food into it. I doubt that happens more constantly than nightly or twice daily feedings.
I believe you can over feeding, which I consider anything at or more than twice a day. I feel pretty save with daily feeds with something like mysis.
In the wild this arguement would make sense for filter feeder but the duncan has to actually catch the food. We turn off our power heads and jam food into it. I doubt that happens more constantly than nightly or twice daily feedings.
I believe you can over feeding, which I consider anything at or more than twice a day. I feel pretty save with daily feeds with something like mysis.
