Feeding a duncan...

[spw4949]

What should I feed & how often?

 

[will16]

I feed mine mysis. IME, you really don't need to feed them although they will grow faster when fed. It's just fun to watch them eat. I feed maybe once a week.

 

[spw4949]

Thanks.

 

[abulgin]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14861898#post14861898 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by will16
I feed mine mysis. IME, you really don't need to feed them although they will grow faster when fed. It's just fun to watch them eat. I feed maybe once a week.

I disagree with a general statement that you don't really need to feed Duncans. Unless you feed your tank meaty seafood and do so often, such that your Duncan's can grab food that's floating around, you must feed them or they will die. I feed mine once or twice per week with Mysis or small pieces of Silversides that have been soaked in Selcon.

http://www.asira.org/duncans

 

[spw4949]

Thanks for the info abulgin.....

 

[will16]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14861991#post14861991 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by abulgin
I disagree with a general statement that you don't really need to feed Duncans. Unless you feed your tank meaty seafood and do so often, such that your Duncan's can grab food that's floating around, you must feed them or they will die. I feed mine once or twice per week with Mysis or small pieces of Silversides that have been soaked in Selcon.

http://www.asira.org/duncans

Well, I did say it was IME. I used to target feed them regularly and they did great. I then stopped feeding them directly, probably for about 5-6 months... and they did great. Probably about 8-10 new heads in that time. They are not like sun corals in the sense that they are also photosynthetic.

 

[Captinshinyside]

Mine was healthy when I got it and i didnt spot feed it. Almost died I now spot feed it atleast once a week to make sure it gets some food. Its now back to its former glory and looking realy good again.

I say spot feed if you can

 

[KarlBob]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14861991#post14861991 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by abulgin
I disagree with a general statement that you don't really need to feed Duncans. Unless you feed your tank meaty seafood and do so often, such that your Duncan's can grab food that's floating around, you must feed them or they will die.http://www.asira.org/duncans

I disagree with abulgin's disagreement. I'm not sure what the letters in asira stand for, but I'm not prepared to accept their vaguely worded care sheet as authoritative proof of anything regarding Duncanopsammia axifuga. I can find plenty of other care sheets online saying that as photosynthetic corals, duncans do not require feeding.

As someone else mentioned above, we're not talking about sun corals or azooxanthellate gorgonians. When you show me a peer-reviewed paper from a scientific journal demonstrating that duncans kept under well-specified conditions of light and water quality died, while a control group survived under under the same conditions plus feeding, then I'll believe it. Until then, I'm inclined to believe that duncans do not require feeding any more than other zooxanthellate corals.

Duncans are certainly easier to feed than many other corals. They have lots of long tentacles with strong prey responses. They'll eat day or night, and they're not restricted to microscopic prey. All of that put together still does not tell us that they will starve without prey.

 

[waxy]

I never feed my duncans. They're thriving like weeds.

Sometimes they get the pellets that float around, but that's once a blue moon an ant sized pellet lands anywhere near its tentacles.