Target feeding zoanthids/palythoas?

blueblue48

New member
I just moved tanks and decided to use my old 10 gallon as a little frag tank. ive already gotten a couple little rocks in there with some zoos and a rock with some yellow button polyps, id like to know how to target feed because ive seen alot of good growth with that and would definatly like to get in on the action. can anyone give me a step by step guide on how to do it and what to use? like specific brand names so i ACTUALLY know what to buy at the store :D . Thanks
 
get frozen mysis or brine shrimp and target feed with a turkey baster...even though they dont need to be target fed, you can if you really feel the need
 
alright well i just thaw it out and suck it up?? Alot of people have either said it doesnt need to be done or they like to so i figure might as well just try it and see if i get any good growth out of it.
 
For me what you feed depends on the size of head/mouth you are dealing with. I feed brine/mysis to paly's like Tyler said and it is a lot of fun because they close up around it. Sounds like you are talking smaller. If so, may not do much good but you may try phytoplankton like DT's or reefnutrition and use something smaller than turkey baster-- a pipette or syrenge from test kit. Just turn pumps off and let currents in tank settle and squirt food over colony and let it settle over smaller faces. They will suck it up.
 
some of my palys ans zoas like bryne shrimp but most dont take it. My green nuclear palys love it and since i have been taget feeding them they have grown about 5 or 6 pollyps.
 
Alright well i have some filter feeding invert food its like phytoplankton by kent marine or something, should i feed that to my zoos? Now on to the yuma ive got, can i use phytoplankton or mysis shrimp for that??
 
Many zoanthids will not ebenfit from target feeding. In particular the smaller more clustered polyps found in the hobby often won't exhibit any prey capture. For "palys" that do exhibit prey capture I like cyclopeeze and feel mysis is too large even if they polyp will consume it. Also, brine shrimp is pretty poor in nutrition so I'd skip that. Lastly, phytoplankton is not coral food and very very few corals will receive any direct benefit from it!
 
This is my feeding tube. I use it to feed just about everything something. For zoas mine love the frozen cyclop-eeze. They multiply fast.
179993Feeding_Tube.jpg
 
For large palys(larger than a nickel) I use the Hikari Frozen Bio-Pure Mysis. The normal size which is smaller than other brands and will still work with the tube above. I think they just came out with a large version so watch that you get the normal ones.
 
I target feed my grandis (polyps are like a 50 cent coin in size!) mysis shrimp and they eat it up like nobody's business
 
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