Non-Palyotha Zoos--Phyto or Zooplankton? Absorption or filter feeding?

[babyblues71]

Re: Advanced feeding question concerning Zoanthid corals

Although I do realize that light (And, of course, current) seems to be the most important factor in Zoanthid development/health/reproduction, after reading several technical papers on this particular species it also states that these organisms do not solely get all of their nutritional requirements from light alone. Therefore, for my particular Zoanthids, I was wondering what you suggested as far as a feeding regiment is concerned. None of my species are apparently Palyotha, as when larger (Or even smaller, really) food particles pass by them they close up and seem a bit ticked that anything touches them at all. Therefore, at least as far as I'm concerned, when their mouths "are" puckered out from time to time I'm thinking they're directly drinking in whatever is in the water (Not sure if it's via absorption or filter feeding), indicating that whatever they are inhaling can't be readily or at least easily seen with the naked eye. In addition, I seem to be getting conflicting reports on, if these particular types of Zoanthids actually aren't just drinking excess dissolved organics that is, whether they would be better suited to phytoplankton or just extremely small in micron (Or possibly purified) zooplankton. Any additional information you could supply me with would be greatly beneficial--thanks!

Sincerely,
Brent Taylor

 

[CoralNutz]

IME, I have never seen a zoanthid eat before.... I have seen several paly's on the otherhand. (often they are interchanged in the hobby)

Zoanthids get most, if not all of their nurishment from the algae growing within the cells of the corals. (As most corals do)

I am not saying that NO zoanthids eat or that they don't absorb stuff out of the water colum... But IMO unless it's paly's that you can see eating the food I don't waist the effor feeding them. If they are absorbing stuff from the water column you probably have enough in the water already from feeding fish and whatnot that you probably don't need to add more... Adding phyto your tank isn't really to feed the corals themselvs... the phyto is for your micro fauna that will eat it, grow up and then feed then be eaten by corals....

 

[babyblues71]

Actually, that's why I was needing to feed. My tank setup is a mini reef and contains no fish. It's an all-Zoanthid tank, and although I do get some growth, and have for the last year I've had it set up, I'm trying to boost the rate a bit....
Tried to up the lighting but that actually had detrimental effects and a lot of things started to pull back and/or fry, even when I went back on the photoperiod. So I went back to what I had before and everything is recovering nicely. Still have 14.4 watts per gallon, though. All PC's. And the turnover rate of my pumps are 210 gPH. May not sound too impressive, but that's in a 2.5 gallon tank...all by means of 3 separate pumps on a wave timer going at random. So...it sounds like I need some kind of liquified zooplankton or something. Something that can be broken down rather easily and blend in with the water, yet is not "overly" high in phosphates. What would be ideal for me would be to be able to put some kind of food (Enough to last 7 days without major effects--that's about how long my RO resovoir lasts) so that it would somewhat dissolve within a container of RO water, and my top-off system (Yes--still need one, even with this small of a tank) could just supply my reef tank its water and food all in one without me having to bother with anything except for the weekly RO container switch and the film cleaning of the front glass. Overall, it's a pretty maintenance-free tank now and, with a year going strong and twelve different colonies (But WAAAAY too small in number), apparently I must be doing something right. But I just want to see some more results so that my rocks are more covered. Everything is realtively happy and surviving just fine, but apparently not enough to reproduce at the rate others' tanks are. And, after reading reports of how Zoo colonies are also beginning to be EXTREMELY present near industrial run-off plants (Indicating their need for organics), I'm thinking my water needs to be at least a "little" more nutrient-rich. But how to do that without a major phosphate increase? Impossible?

Brent

 

[omni2226]

No idea how to do a time release feeding. Mmmm.

One theory is that Zoas filter feed on bacteria somewhat the way featherdusters and fanworms do.

What you could try is to take one small raw shrimp and puree it into liquid form,mix it with a quart of tank water and dribble a little bit in every other day for a week and see if they "perk" up.

They may not actualy eat the shrimp but increasing the bioload a small amount may boost the bacteria count a bit.

 

[babyblues71]

I might give that a try--thanks!