how exactly do you feed corals?

[sinful]

I was reading on the nano polyp pack at live aquaria they should be fed micro-plankton or baby brine shrimp. how exactly do you feed them and keep the fish from grabbin it?

 

[Don Lino]

with a turkey baster, it serves as both a feeder and a bat!

 

[sinful]

what you just shoot it at em? how often?

 

[Don Lino]

No, well yea, Kinda...You just place the food on there mouths, thats what I do. I feed atleast every other day, but Im an overfeeder anyways.

 

[mflamb]

...make sure you put a bib on them first or they will get it all over themselves...

 

[sinful]

ya'll gonna laugh at me but.....they have mouths???

 

[Acolin]

Blowing food at soft corals cause them to retract their tentacles, making feeding difficult. I find that using a large tube to target feed specific corals works better. I hold the large tube over the target coral and drip the liquid or prepared coral foods into the top of the tube. The weight of the food causes it to slowly sink down towards the coral. The fish attack the tube, but can’t get at the food. The food descends until it floods the mouths of the corals. Since this practice requires some time and patience, I usually fed only on the weekends. On the other coast of Florida, I also got 90% fresh ocean water changes every 3 months or so. The water changes made the corals open up like daises on a sunny day. My feedings did NOT.

With a mud filled macro algae refugium, I did NOT target feed at all. I did add small drops of food into the display tank.

 

[Don Lino]

LMAO at mflamb...pretty good! Yea, I really havent tried any other way, I used this method for my Paly's, blastos, frogspawn's, RBTA's and sun corals and they all did great.

 

[Don Lino]

sinful, this can paint a picture for you...
see the mysis??

Now u dont...

Paly's eating Brine shrimp:

 

[alizarin]

For the past couple months I've been doing what melevsreef suggested (http://www.melevsreef.com/food.html) - blend up some frozen seafood and cyclopeeze and feed the whole tank. It makes a cloud of fine to medium particles so it feeds EVERYTHING, and the many of the pieces are small enough to get in the mouths of corals. My nitrates/nitrites have been fine and I've noticed more growth in the corals (LPS and soft).

...Also, you should feed phytoplankton... DT's is the usual.

 

[playa0069u]

SINFUL pm me when your ready for some zoas and shrooms. I might have something for you. wink wink

 

[mflamb]

melev seems to be one sharp dude...if he recommends it, I would do it.

 

[playa0069u]

what frozen phyto would you all recommend?