Feeding Palythoa?

[Tennyson]

Hello everyone

So I bought a small frag for a piece of nuclear green palythoa, and would like to feed it to help its growth.
I have read that they will eat small amounts of food and was wondering what you would suggest?

I tried feeding small pellets, and it swallowed them whole, but I was wondering if there was something better I could try? I read that most zoanthids dont really react to large foods, if thats also the case what could i feed it instead?

Any suggestions are appreciated, thanks!

 

[flyyyguy]

my favorite means of feeding the polyps that will eat food like protopalythoa, duncans, and lps is a 50 ml syringe(give ro take...I use a 50) with a coupel of feet of tubing(like what is on your ro/di filter) glued to the end. Mix up some cyclopleeze, coral frenzy, or any of the smaller feeding concoctions like that, turn off all flow, suck tht stuff into the syringe and you can feed the polyps you want accurately without even hardly getting your hands wet.

yes they will eat larger stuff, but more benefit is gained by the smaller IMO

here is the type of tool I am talking about. works great for kalk paste for nuking pests too

 

[IridescentLily]

Is it a riddle Bill?
Is it bigger than a bread box?

 

[flyyyguy]

did I forget something??

my connections sucks and digging through old photobucket albums can be kind of imposible sometimes. I bet most can imagine what a syringe with a piece of tubing on th end looks like anyway

 

[Guygettnby]

i have never spot fed palys since i started this hobby and i have always had great growth/color.. everything in my tank gets fed when i feed the tank. i simply turn off my return pump and allow my power heads to move the food around for about 15min before i turn the pump back on. there is no need to spot feed palys what so ever. but if you want to then Flyyyguy gave a perfect solution for it.

 

[sweet d]

i spot feed to make them bigger

 

[Guygettnby]

i spot feed to make them bigger

can you provide some form of proof that this in fact makes them larger? i know several people who have never spot fed a day in there life and there growth is unnatural to say the least. i have heard many mixed feelings on this subject through out the years.

 

[flyyyguy]

protopalythoa IME are one fo the few things that do in act show a fairly signifigant increase in growth when spot fed regularly

that said, I rarely feed mine anymore and they grow just fine, but I used to

 

[sweet d]

protopalythoa IME are one fo the few things that do in act show a fairly signifigant increase in growth when spot fed regularly

that said, I rarely feed mine anymore and they grow just fine, but I used to

agreed:fun4:

 

[Guygettnby]

i think i will do some experimenting on this. my nuclear greens and purple deaths are pretty big right now. i also just happen to have 2 different purple death colonies that i can try this on.

how long did it actually take before you noticed the difference?

 

[sweet d]

sorry i dont have pics of before and after but i fed normal brown button palys mysis shrimp everyday or every other day and within a couple of weeks they were noticibly bigger.

 

[Tennyson]

Wow thanks, this is realy helpful

Well I just tried feeding some mysid and brine, and pellets.
I've tested it out and it appears the mysid is the best so far for large foods, but in very small cut up pieces, no bigger then the size of their mouths. After eating mysid, the entire colony looked alot fuller and expanded slightly more..or maybe thats what im forcing myself to think lol.
I'll have to take pictures before and after and compare, and see how much they grew at the end of the month, and compare to my other nuclear green frag with no feedings.

I'll have to try out cyclopeeze as well, and coral frenzy

Another question, is feeding everyday too much?

 

[sweet d]

i say no everyday is not to much turn off all power heads and only feed the palys what theyll eat let them close up and turn power head back on.

 

[euromomtx]

sorry i dont have pics of before and after but i fed normal brown button palys mysis shrimp everyday or every other day and within a couple of weeks they were noticibly bigger.

me too. my brown/green buttons love frozen food and they grew ginormous once I started target feeding them.