When to feed zoas

P

Pool_shark

New member
I have heard more than one person on here say that Zs eat better at night. However, all of mine close up when the aquarium lights go out (moon lights stay on.) I've never tried to feed them in their closed up state after dark because it seems like it would be a waste of time. Is it common for the colonies to completely close up after dark, or should they still be open and feeding?

I have also tried to feed them when they are open during the day, but I get no feeding response from any of the three colonies that I have. I have tried to feed them Kent zooplankton, and Rods coral food with no luck. They seem healthy, so I guess they are getting their energy from 6hrs of MH lighting and 4 hrs of T5 every day.
 
You should feed them when open. I've had good luck with cyclops for the zoos and the palys will eat just about anything that fits in their mouth. I some times use small pellets and try to give most of the polyps a pellet individually.
 
StaghornE said:
You should feed them when open. I've had good luck with cyclops for the zoos and the palys will eat just about anything that fits in their mouth. I some times use small pellets and try to give most of the polyps a pellet individually.
Click to expand...

Wow, hand pellet feeding individual polyps... I have to say there is little to no chance that I'll be doing that. :hmm3:
 
With Zoas the most important concept is circulation. If they are in a nutrient rich enviroment (Nitrates above 0.0), and have good circulation they will feed continously and you will notice some close up for no apparant reason, this is when they have caught a speck of food. What i do is when i feed Mysis to my LPS and fish I save the brine from the cubes with all the tiny particles and hover a turkey baster over zoa colonies and slowly release the fluid near the colony. I do this with the pumps off and allow the heavy fluid to sink onto the polyps. If you are running a mixed tank and keep your Nitrates very low this feeding technique is more important and helps keep the beneficial bacteria more stable for the zoas, which is what is most important to them. Other than that i utilize Kent zooplankton at 5cc per 25 gal X2 weekly for all my filter feeders. This i do with the pumps on and do right before I feed my LPS, because this also stimulates the LPS to open up for a mysis feeding.
 
I've had much better growth with good flow and clean water than with feeding zoanthids, palys seem to grow a bit better with feeding but not enough to justify the compromised water quality. Just my 2 cents...
 
Through out my collecting, ive noticed that most zoanthids don't use prey catching ability for most of their food, but use sunlight for photo feeding... then for some they will engulf water to feed from particulates in it ( phytoplankton). But doubt that makes a majority of their food like Light does

But for Zoanthus Giganthus , Palythoas, Protopalys, Neozoanthus, Grandis, and other types of zoanthara ( http://actiniaria.com/ ). they do show more lively to feedings and show lots of prey catching abilities.

Not an expert just what ive seen and notice in my collection since the late 90's
 
Pool_shark said:
Is it common for the colonies to completely close up after dark, or should they still be open and feeding?
Click to expand...



some may stay open all night, i guess it depends on alot of different things like fish,inverts,health,tank conditions etc.


try obersving them in the night to see what makes them tick.

if the tank is too dark they may stay closed if they cannot get any light.
 
I've found that many of us have different/opposite thoughts about feeding zoanthids. By what many others have posted, their zoas growth rates are still "great" when they don't feed them. I don't really know what would be "great" because most of the time we don't post details of the growth and reproduction of the zoas we keep.

I believe that many of the people who say they don't feed and have that "great" growth didn't even try to feed for a significative period of time and check if their growth would be even greater!! But, most of the time they are actually happy with the growth, which is fine.

Some invert foods could contribute to really bad experiences with algae booms and that would be one of the main reasons why people avoid feeding their zoas (?)

Most don't have time to feed their polyps too. Well, I take less than 2 hours a month to do that. About 20 minutes, once a week. Worthy.

My experiences have shown me that when I didn't feed my zoas they weren't really healthy and their reproductive rates were way slow comparing to when I feed them. By saying that I mean that the polyps didn't show strong coloration and polyp structure similar to what we see in the wild. There is much more than feeding to the statement of optimal health/reproduction, but the feeding was the bottom line and ultimate action I took after all other params were in check.

It is true to say that if other physical factors and water chemistry aren't contributing to the zoas' health, growth and reproduction, feeding alone shouldn't be a substitute for those. It's the whole picture that brings the feeding to work IME. That said, feeding is to improve and not to depend on as the main source of energy.

Target feeding works much better than broadcast!!! No comparison! You can feed less times and have much more going in!! Besides, you won't waste the food and/or "pollute" the system. After all we don't want to feed the skimmer nor algae, but the polyps!!

Also, not only my Palythoas, Protopalythoas and Zoanthus gigantus are crazy for food, but all other zoanthids I keep are willing to close on coral foods as long as they are the right type of food and have the right size for them. They close, swallow, digest and poop them out. :D

Just my $.02.

Sorry, I've tried really hard to hold myself but couldn't take it anymore!!!
I just had to post here. This is one of my favorite subjects as one could say. :D

I'll be tagging along wishing for others' comments and exposing their thoughts, please.
I just want to hear from you guys...

Cheers,
Grandis.
 
A. Grandis said:
I've found that many of us have different/opposite thoughts about feeding zoanthids. By what many others have posted, their zoas growth rates are still "great" when they don't feed them. I don't really know what would be "great" because most of the time we don't post details of the growth and reproduction of the zoas we keep.

I believe that many of the people who say they don't feed and have that "great" growth didn't even try to feed for a significative period of time and check if their growth would be even greater!! But, most of the time they are actually happy with the growth, which is fine.

Some invert foods could contribute to really bad experiences with algae booms and that would be one of the main reasons why people avoid feeding their zoas (?)

Most don't have time to feed their polyps too. Well, I take less than 2 hours a month to do that. About 20 minutes, once a week. Worthy.

My experiences have shown me that when I didn't feed my zoas they weren't really healthy and their reproductive rates were way slow comparing to when I feed them. By saying that I mean that the polyps didn't show strong coloration and polyp structure similar to what we see in the wild. There is much more than feeding to the statement of optimal health/reproduction, but the feeding was the bottom line and ultimate action I took after all other params were in check.

It is true to say that if other physical factors and water chemistry aren't contributing to the zoas' health, growth and reproduction, feeding alone shouldn't be a substitute for those. It's the whole picture that brings the feeding to work IME. That said, feeding is to improve and not to depend on as the main source of energy.

Target feeding works much better than broadcast!!! No comparison! You can feed less times and have much more going in!! Besides, you won't waste the food and/or "pollute" the system. After all we don't want to feed the skimmer nor algae, but the polyps!!

Also, not only my Palythoas, Protopalythoas and Zoanthus gigantus are crazy for food, but all other zoanthids I keep are willing to close on coral foods as long as they are the right type of food and have the right size for them. They close, swallow, digest and poop them out. :D

Just my $.02.

Sorry, I've tried really hard to hold myself but couldn't take it anymore!!!
I just had to post here. This is one of my favorite subjects as one could say. :D

I'll be tagging along wishing for others' comments and exposing their thoughts, please.
I just want to hear from you guys...

Cheers,
Grandis.
Click to expand...



very well put:)
 
I have a 40B zoa/paly frag tank.....or collection tank:lol: I prefer to feed my tank weekly with mysis,brine,reef chili and cyclop eeze. I feed the tank twice weekly, and do weekly WC's of 10G's. I do add coral vite, lugol's and coral accel weekly as well. I used to use aquavitro fuel, but had issues with cyano and algae. I don't feed individual polyps mostly because there are too many, and I'm too lazy. I broadcast feed the tank, and see good growth overall. I've been doing it this way for over a year now.
 
I didn't want to add the "laziness fact" so I won't be rude. :D
The algae/ciano issues you had was probably due to the combination of "liquid foods" offered to the system, not only because of the AquaVitro Fuel alone. Also, the excess of mysis and brine shrimp is not a good idea. Lots of phosphates. Avoid brine shrimps. Try to do some target feeding and to offer mostly dry coral foods instead and you'll see the difference.
You can substitute the Lugol's dosage for some iodide product, like the Seachem's or Brightwells. Lugol's should be used more for dips.
Thanks for the comment!

Grandis.
 
A. Grandis said:
I didn't want to add the "laziness fact" so I won't be rude. :D
The algae/ciano issues you had was probably due to the combination of "liquid foods" offered to the system, not only because of the AquaVitro Fuel alone. Also, the excess of mysis and brine shrimp is not a good idea. Lots of phosphates. Avoid brine shrimps. Try to do some target feeding and to offer mostly dry coral foods instead and you'll see the difference.
You can substitute the Lugol's dosage for some iodide product, like the Seachem's or Brightwells. Lugol's should be used more for dips.
Thanks for the comment!

Grandis.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I should point out that the mysis /brine is not broadcast through out the tank. Cyclops eeze is allowed to go though out tank. I feed my sixline and yasha, then some palys. I've noticed the fuel only having that issue for whatever the reason? I use the lugol's for sick polyps and such, but have seen good extension and reaction from one drop weekly? I'll check into the other products though, as I'm always open to bettering my system growth and health. I don't want to derail this thread, but I recently changed salt back to RSCP from tropic Marin bio actif and saw improvement. I had a friend tell me it was great salt, but saw a decline in polyp growth and also the dreaded brown algae/fungus issues with polyps. This has all disappeared. I used tropic Marin for four months. I'm curious what do you prefer for food/additives if any?
 
A. Grandis said:
I've found that many of us have different/opposite thoughts about feeding zoanthids. By what many others have posted, their zoas growth rates are still "great" when they don't feed them. I don't really know what would be "great" because most of the time we don't post details of the growth and reproduction of the zoas we keep.

I believe that many of the people who say they don't feed and have that "great" growth didn't even try to feed for a significative period of time and check if their growth would be even greater!! But, most of the time they are actually happy with the growth, which is fine.

Some invert foods could contribute to really bad experiences with algae booms and that would be one of the main reasons why people avoid feeding their zoas (?)

Most don't have time to feed their polyps too. Well, I take less than 2 hours a month to do that. About 20 minutes, once a week. Worthy.

My experiences have shown me that when I didn't feed my zoas they weren't really healthy and their reproductive rates were way slow comparing to when I feed them. By saying that I mean that the polyps didn't show strong coloration and polyp structure similar to what we see in the wild. There is much more than feeding to the statement of optimal health/reproduction, but the feeding was the bottom line and ultimate action I took after all other params were in check.

It is true to say that if other physical factors and water chemistry aren't contributing to the zoas' health, growth and reproduction, feeding alone shouldn't be a substitute for those. It's the whole picture that brings the feeding to work IME. That said, feeding is to improve and not to depend on as the main source of energy.

Target feeding works much better than broadcast!!! No comparison! You can feed less times and have much more going in!! Besides, you won't waste the food and/or "pollute" the system. After all we don't want to feed the skimmer nor algae, but the polyps!!

Also, not only my Palythoas, Protopalythoas and Zoanthus gigantus are crazy for food, but all other zoanthids I keep are willing to close on coral foods as long as they are the right type of food and have the right size for them. They close, swallow, digest and poop them out. :D

Just my $.02.

Sorry, I've tried really hard to hold myself but couldn't take it anymore!!!
I just had to post here. This is one of my favorite subjects as one could say. :D

I'll be tagging along wishing for others' comments and exposing their thoughts, please.
I just want to hear from you guys...

Cheers,
Grandis.
Click to expand...

Simply squirting some food on something and having is close up doesn't mean that it's actually eating or benefiting from the practice. The fact remains that many of the popular zoanthids in the hobby don't exhibit true prey capture and therefore will not benefit from target feeding or even broadcast feeding.

Palythoas will benefit from target feeding, but I haven't seen anyone with true palythoas in a reef tank or even posted on this forum in years. Can we see yours? Protopalythoas will benefit. However, most of the smaller zoanthus species will not benefit directly from target feeding and you're just wasting your time. The extra feeding could be adding dissolved organic content to the water column which may be benefiting zoanthidsd with no prety capture, but if that's your goal you're better off feeding fish or something known to capture pretty more and not squirting food on some highly autotrophic zoanthids.
 
Some anecdotal experience -- I recently set up a new tank and bought some live rock with many zoa's -- I've been slowly piecing together a hood/better combo lights, but for the last couple of weeks, they have been under only a standard 20g florescent bulb -- not even sure of the watts but low intensity.

I've noticed the zoa's definitely close in on flake food but seem to still be growing despite the poor lighting conditions. (noticed new polyps) Obv not recommending anyone try to intentionally starve their zoa's but I will continue to feed when I get my new lights set up this week and see if they continue a feeding response.
 
Nanofreak79 said:
Thanks, I should point out that the mysis /brine is not broadcast through out the tank. Cyclops eeze is allowed to go though out tank. I feed my sixline and yasha, then some palys. I've noticed the fuel only having that issue for whatever the reason? I use the lugol's for sick polyps and such, but have seen good extension and reaction from one drop weekly? I'll check into the other products though, as I'm always open to bettering my system growth and health. I don't want to derail this thread, but I recently changed salt back to RSCP from tropic Marin bio actif and saw improvement. I had a friend tell me it was great salt, but saw a decline in polyp growth and also the dreaded brown algae/fungus issues with polyps. This has all disappeared. I used tropic Marin for four months. I'm curious what do you prefer for food/additives if any?
Click to expand...

My pleasure, Nanofreak79!!
I prefer to offer dry coral foods, like Reef Roids, Coral Frenzy, Fauna Marin, etc. I don't use liquid invert foods anymore for years as the main source of food for my inverts. Some times I do add some Microvore (Brightwell's), but it is not all the time.

Other additives I use are for coralline algae (calcium and alkalinity): Reef Complete and buffer. For the zoanthids I've tried many supplements in the past and today I add, broadcasting, only vitamins and amino acids (Brightwell's), plus the foods. I believe in the moderate addition of iodide supplements and use the seachem's brand for that. The salt I use today is the Red Sea. It does a good job. Stick with the things that works better for you!!

Grandis.
 
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