biggles
Premium Member
Some of you might have noticed my sudden macro mania with the iPhone videos and pics lol but i thought since i was filming acro polyps catching and consuming different foods it would be a good excuse to see how polyps react to different food types that i've been adding specifically for the SPS.
I target fed a green acro mysis pulp, cyclop-eeze freeze dried and reef roids so far and witnessed the following.
Mysis pulped into small pieces is readily caught and consumed by the polyps, even large or whole mysis are caught and held for a minute or two until the polyp releases them being unable to fit such large prey in it's mouth i assume. They don't seem to close on a food item and remain closed unless the entire particle will fit inside the closed polyps.
Cyclop-Eeze freeze dried powder soaked in water was caught numerous times by the polyps but released withing 5-10 seconds every time with no attempts to close on the food item even when in a perfect place on the inside surface of the polyp to close and consume the food.
Reef Roids powder was totally ignored by the polyps, i watched many fine particles literally bounce off the polyps with zero reaction at all.
I've set up two acro frags close to the glass in the sump for macro videoing and i'm going to video the frags being target fed these foods again with the pumps off this time and they'll basically be covered with a cloud of the foods to film the individual polyps reaction clearly. I'm beginning to think that these SPS powder foods are not being consumed by the SPS at all but rather turbo charging the micro life which in turn populate the water with microscopic juvenile life the SPS polyps are consuming. No idea really but if the acros don't eat the food i cover them in i think that's pretty conclusive proof that they don't benefit the SPS directly through actual particle capture and digestion.
These are the two test subjects who remained after all the other frags took a big step back........
The macro videos will be this close so any individual polyp reaction will be recorded easily.
Hopefully some of you find my 'speriments' of some interest as there's only so much you can learn from :reading: Sometimes you just gotts get down and dirty with your acros to get to the truth.........
I target fed a green acro mysis pulp, cyclop-eeze freeze dried and reef roids so far and witnessed the following.
Mysis pulped into small pieces is readily caught and consumed by the polyps, even large or whole mysis are caught and held for a minute or two until the polyp releases them being unable to fit such large prey in it's mouth i assume. They don't seem to close on a food item and remain closed unless the entire particle will fit inside the closed polyps.
Cyclop-Eeze freeze dried powder soaked in water was caught numerous times by the polyps but released withing 5-10 seconds every time with no attempts to close on the food item even when in a perfect place on the inside surface of the polyp to close and consume the food.
Reef Roids powder was totally ignored by the polyps, i watched many fine particles literally bounce off the polyps with zero reaction at all.
I've set up two acro frags close to the glass in the sump for macro videoing and i'm going to video the frags being target fed these foods again with the pumps off this time and they'll basically be covered with a cloud of the foods to film the individual polyps reaction clearly. I'm beginning to think that these SPS powder foods are not being consumed by the SPS at all but rather turbo charging the micro life which in turn populate the water with microscopic juvenile life the SPS polyps are consuming. No idea really but if the acros don't eat the food i cover them in i think that's pretty conclusive proof that they don't benefit the SPS directly through actual particle capture and digestion.
These are the two test subjects who remained after all the other frags took a big step back........
The macro videos will be this close so any individual polyp reaction will be recorded easily.
Hopefully some of you find my 'speriments' of some interest as there's only so much you can learn from :reading: Sometimes you just gotts get down and dirty with your acros to get to the truth.........
I believe it's a Trapezia septata living in piece of blue polyped acro, i normally see this species of commensal crab living in seri's and stylos.
I should point out i did the test 3 times and it wasn't Jerry making the polyps close, the same reaction occurred without Jerry going nutso.......
