Is it ok to feed my duncan coral once per day

[luconi]

Is it ok to feed my duncan coral one piece of mysis shrimp once per day to make it grow faster? I only have one head and want more as quickly as possible. This is the only coral in my aquarium.

 

[kingfisher62]

Yes I heard feeding them help them grow faster. I have had mine since Christmas and the heads have doubled without feeding. So either way they are pretty fast growers.

 

[Cptn Spaulding]

feeding corals is always a good thing. if they cant eat it they wont, so you cant hurt them by feeding them. duncans are awesome, but tempermental with alkalinity shifts ive noticed

 

[kingfisher62]

I do not usually test my alk but I too notice how tempermental they can be if if I let too much water evaporate before topping off.

 

[firebirdcrzy]

Feeding is a good idea to help growth. I started with 2 heads almost a year ago and now thee are over 40 heads that I can count.

 

[luconi]

Awesome. Thanks for your help everybody. I've noticed that it seems more open at night in the dark with blue moon lighting. Is this normal or should it be open larger during the brighter day?

 

[HndMafia]

I have 3 small colonies of duncans in my tank. They all seem to be open the most during daylight light settings. I've noticed mine are my first indicator of issues in the tank (rics being too close, doser not functioning properly) and they don't seem to like direct flow. One was a 3 polyp frag I brought home from an all day road trip six months ago and now has close to 20 heads.

 

[luconi]

I have 3 small colonies of duncans in my tank. They all seem to be open the most during daylight light settings. I've noticed mine are my first indicator of issues in the tank (rics being too close, doser not functioning properly) and they don't seem to like direct flow. One was a 3 polyp frag I brought home from an all day road trip six months ago and now has close to 20 heads.

Ok thank you.. I think the problem I might have had was it was receiving too much water flow.

 

[Muddy35]

I have 3 small colonies of duncans in my tank. They all seem to be open the most during daylight light settings. .

I would be very worried if my duncans wasnt open with the lights on since they are photosynthetic....

I started mine with 3 heads about 5 weeks ago, started feeding it 3 times a day almost immediately. Now at 5 weeks it has a total of 11 heads and is stil starting to pop off more around the base. Deffinately the fastest stoney grower that Ive ever had in my tank.

 

[Chato2701]

We've had a duncan for about a month or so and it has about 4 new heads already. I feed the corals and fish daily so maybe that is why. But I've also been told they are really fast growers in general.

Ours is always out when the lights are on and closed up when they are off.

 

[luconi]

We've had a duncan for about a month or so and it has about 4 new heads already. I feed the corals and fish daily so maybe that is why. But I've also been told they are really fast growers in general.

Ours is always out when the lights are on and closed up when they are off.

Since I've moved it to a new place in the tank ( I think there is less of a current there) it has seemed more open. Thanks :thumbsup:

 

[debt1978]

I just noticed something ate mine. Last week something ate my little acon frag too. Do u think it was my emerald crab or peppermint shrimp? Any help would be great as I'm playing detective here.

 

[Art13]

i'd be willing to bet money on the peppermint shrimp, i've seen the ones I've had tear through acans, he's also taken out a feather duster and with the tentacles i'd be almost positive it was him. i've only ever seen an emerald go after some of my sps, i got rid of those two, have two more in my tank now and its loaded with sps, a duncan, clams and a favia and they don't touch any of them.

 

[Jay_R]

My duncan is a proper eating machine! I give it a few mysis / krill and it's open again 10 mins later for more! Feed it.. it'll grow fo sho!

 

[scooter31707]

I agree with what has been said ^^^. I only feed mine twice a week, krill, Mysis, reef chili, and cyclopeeze.

 

[Tweaked]

To be clear, too many feedings can be bad in some corals. Dendros and the likes need to eat and poop it out before being fed again. The food can rot in the skeleton if too much is given too frequently.

 

[organism]

To be clear, too many feedings can be bad in some corals. Dendros and the likes need to eat and poop it out before being fed again. The food can rot in the skeleton if too much is given too frequently.

This, imo no photosynthetic coral should be fed more than once or twice a week. Also, duncans grow like crazy with or without food, the only difference is how much water quality you lose. I don't feed any of my LPS and they grow like crazy because the water is clean, when I fed more they grew more slowly because the extra phosphates slowed them down.