Spot feeding Zoas and palys

Bonvivant

Bonvivant

New member
Hello, I'm new to Zoas and Palys. I have had some for about a month now. I was told to spot feed so i have been doing so 2 times a week. I use cyclopease (sp?), phyto and lps pellets. the problem is that they don't seem to be eating it. I turn the main return and the skimmer off but I keep the vortechs on. Should I turn them off too? I have high flow in my sps dominant tank. How do you know if they are actually eating? Sorry for the basic newbie questions!
 
i have found trying to spot feed my zoas and palys pretty much pointless... some will catch the food while other will not. i find that when i feed my tank the ones that will catch the food just catch what i put into my tank. we also add coral frenzy twice a wk and ours are growing like crazy! hope this helps.
 
I find the best way to feed my ZnP's is feed my fish or live stock thier waste feeds the znp's and everyone leaves the theater grinning.... .

theres a thread about this somehwere buried in this forum. HTH :beer:
 
Agree with above statement. Feed the fish and they feed the reef. I don't spot feed any of my zoas and they spread like weeds.
 
I only spot feed my larger PE type and they eat it up like candy. I actually have a giant mat of DingDangs I need to trim back.
 
I havn't had the best luck feeding zoo's, but Palys are a different story, essecialy purple death and nuke greens. They will eat like champions.
 
I add cyclopease, let the pumps stir them up in the tank and then shut everything off for about an hour. Works great for me.
 
I hand feed my Agaves a couple of times a week. They tear up Brine and Flakes! After they reopen they swell so big that their skirts hang low....
 
I am a believer in feeding my Z&P's individualy. I use a syringe and put it right above the mouth and as it closes around the syringe give it some food I have some armor of god palys (2 to start out with) and within a month I had seven. Also, some ding dangs that have gone from 3 to 7 in the last month the bigger the actual polyp the better luck you will have with it.
 
naubound said:
I am a believer in feeding my Z&P's individualy. I use a syringe and put it right above the mouth and as it closes around the syringe give it some food I have some armor of god palys (2 to start out with) and within a month I had seven. Also, some ding dangs that have gone from 3 to 7 in the last month the bigger the actual polyp the better luck you will have with it.
Click to expand...

Now that's dedication! If I tried that it would take me three weeks to feed them all:)
 
Bonvivant said:
Hello, I'm new to Zoas and Palys. I have had some for about a month now. I was told to spot feed so i have been doing so 2 times a week. I use cyclopease (sp?), phyto and lps pellets. the problem is that they don't seem to be eating it. I turn the main return and the skimmer off but I keep the vortechs on. Should I turn them off too? I have high flow in my sps dominant tank. How do you know if they are actually eating? Sorry for the basic newbie questions!
Click to expand...


Spot feeding twice a week is great if you have 20 or 30 polyps, but if you have a tank full of polyps that could easily range in the hundreds if not thousands, it could take the better part of a day to feed them individually j/k. Light, current and fish poop is great, but if you choose to feed them, I'd suggest turning everything, including skimmer and return pump off as suggested above. I'd leave on some internal tank flow during feeding to circulate the food. Allow the internal flow to disburse the food, then turn it off and allow the food to settle naturally onto the polyps.

Just because a polyp does not exhibit a prey/capture response, doesn't necessarily mean it isn't feeding. After 10 or 15 minutes or so, and depending on what you're feeding and how long it takes to settle, I'd turn the internal flow back on to recirculate the food for a minute or so. Once the settled food is kicked up into the column, ( a minute or so ), turn it off again and allow it to settle. You don't have to sit there and watch it, you can walk away and do other things. Then turn everything back on and your fish and invert will scavenge what's left or your skimmer with help remove it.

I suggested this to a friend with a tank full of polyps as he to was spot feeding which took all of 45 minutes to an hour. It worked great for him, give it a try and see.

Feeding lighter is better than feeding heavy especially with meaty foods which can settle in crevices and decay which can cause spikes in your tank.

Good luck.

Mucho
 
Great idea! I am going to try it at my next feeding. I feed twice a week. Sort of heavily. I usually just turn the return and skimmer off but leave the internal flow on. However, I am intrigued by your idea. Its so great to have a good resource for newbies!
 
I only have a 20 gallon tank with about 50 polyps and feeding one usually results with feeding 5-10 with the pieces that the one you are feeding doesn't latch on to. good for small tank that you do relatively light feedings. I only have three fish (2 clowns and a mccoskers wrasse) and a peppermint shrimp. So they don't require much they get whatever is left.
 
I have to many Zoas and Paly's so I broadcast feed. I turn off everything but power heads and add about 30ml sometimes more sometimes less. I always see most of my Palys with theres mouths open. My Palys always want food lol they are super healthy please the other corals benefit from me broadcast feeding as well
 
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