Macro time lapse video of zoanthid feeding behavior

[SpaceGhost]

Hi! I am working on getting my laboratory ready for some zoanthid feeding behavior experiments. This was just a camera test, trying the lens I made out of borosilicate. Nothing should be derived from this experiment. Tank was fed before camera was setup, and the Mohawk morph polyp was target fed my custom food recipe at the start of recording.

Subsequent test will be preformed with controls. Food will be of a single variety, instead of a blend. The full process from capture, consumption, digestion, to expelling of waste will be recorded along with tank parameters. The purpose of these test will be to first find which variety of food each morph prefers, and then subsequently which blend of food is preferred. These results will be used in the food formulation for food vs no food growth tests. I thought you might like to see this video in the meantime. Thanks for looking. Ps it is best to watch the video at high quality, by clicking on the video and then setting the quality to the highest available.

http://youtu.be/y4YtDbVYBlM

 

[accordsirh22]

so it didnt actually eat it?

 

[A. Grandis]

That's great! I like the subject!!
I begin my participation here posting the video directly:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/y4YtDbVYBlM?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

My observations feeding zoanthids are already posted.
Here are some of the threads:

Article on zoanthids feeding behavior.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2180156

Who said ALL Palythoa spp should be "fast eaters" (VIDEO)?
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2404206

Artificial food study for corals.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2167572

What additives do you use on your ZOAS' tank?
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2386542

Basically the threads will let you know about the food particles I've tried and how.
There are lots of info there.

I would suggest to stop the pumps and take advantage of that to feed/film the polyps. That would make a nicer video and actually would prevent the water flow removing the food particle from the polyp.

Also, you need to use the right food, not any food.
Would be great if you could post all the info here, so we know what's going on in the video, like what food you're using and how long was the real time of the filming, what species of zoanthids, etc.

We could learn lots from your experiment, if you have enough time and available food particles to try.
Thanks for your effort! I appreciate!!

Grandis.

 

[A. Grandis]

so it didnt actually eat it?

Nope, the polyp didn't eat.
Two options:
a) The food offered wasn't the right food for that particular species.
b) The current didn't allow the polyp to swallow the food.

Grandis.

 

[accordsirh22]

looks more like option a. it seemed to take it in then reject it

 

[A. Grandis]

looks more like option a. it seemed to take it in then reject it

Yes, I agree. But still the water movement helped.

The polyp can grab the food particles, but if it doesn't feel the "right taste" it will by all means reject it. Then the current will help...

If there is no water motion, the food particles fall from the polyp. I strongly believe the food offered in the video wasn't the right food for those polyps.
By the way, what is that food in the video?

Some people often mention that the "best for the polyps is fish poop". That is actually the best example I have for that type of rejection. I've tried to feed my fishes different foods and many times offered the fishes' feces to the more active zoa eaters in my tank. Guess what? All rejected no matter what type of fish poop I gave. I'm convinced that "fish poop" isn't what the zoanthids would ingest. They don't even grab. Just try it yourself!

There is truth to the extra fish food, enriching the nutrients in the aquarium water as a whole, therefore also through absorption, transferring some of those nutrients from the water to the zoas, but not the fish feces themselves!!

Extra feeding the tank is a dangerous way to offer more energy to the zoas, once the excess of nutrients could many times lead to algae blooms and also require more maintenance to keep things neat and healthy. Very hard to find a balance there in the long run.

Not to mention "dirty water"!!!! By the way, every time I ask what the term exactly means to those who uses it, people just don't know. Dirty water could have thousands of meanings, my friends... Most of them wouldn't be a good way to keep most marine systems with zoanthids!

C'mon guys, please enrich this thread!!!
I want to learn from you!!! :bounce1:
I'm sorry, but I get excited with some of the subjects.
So much to learn and so little time...

Grandis.

 

[A. Grandis]

Any video/info updates to post here?

Grandis.

 

[tallball158]

Very cool, I can't wait for some updates!

 

[SpaceGhost]

Hi,
So the food I made by food processing 14 different kinds of dried seaweed from the Asian markets, 3 kinds of nori, to that I add the following Fauna Marin foods: ultra marine base color, ultra soft clownfish food, ultra marine soft spirulina, ultra clam, special food, ultra marine base energy, then I add new life spectrum marine fish formula. This all get food processed for a while, then I add some more of the pellet type food at the end. This is my general food for the tank. I broadcast and target feed it several times a day. There is something for everyone in there. I also feed my refugium with this food and the pods and mysis will take the particles in holes in the live rock like ants coming out for more. Then the pods get eaten by corals with their guts loaded. I really only care about increasing growth rates of corals and morphing corals, I am also interested in tides, surges and recently have been experimenting with growing corals in vitro.

The above was just a camera test with the new lens I made. I will try to setup another experiment with hungry ones and see what happens. I am planning on trying 1 food at a time to determine ideal blend for growth rates. This was strictly a test of capturing a Marco shot of a single mouth eating. The shots are very time consuming to setup because as you can see in the video the depth of field is so tiny and everything must line up.

Check out this other video I made. Be sure to click to upgrade it to full quality by clicking the gear so you can see what is going on. You can see the space monsters behind the green blastos regularly expelling waste pellets (poop), blastos too. Zoanthids and playthoas both regularly consume my food mix. I think it was just full, then I kicked the pumps back on. I will try to setup another shoot soon.
http://youtu.be/G6toN9w83V0

 

[Da Maui life]

Very cool, thanks for sharing.

 

[SpaceGhost]

http://youtu.be/GpkHK1KffXY

http://youtu.be/wDabUHE73PY