feeding coral help please

Fatmike92 · Oct 2, 2012

ive never fed anything before and I would really like to start.

How do you get corals excited so you can feed them?

ive mainly got chalices. a torch, zoas, yumas, and one SPS

any help would be appreciated.

SeahorseKeeper · Oct 2, 2012

Personally, I do not target feed my corals. I just heavily feed my tank. Maybe some others will chime in.

Fatmike92 · Oct 2, 2012

ya I have always heavily fed also but I was thinking about trying it for a month or so and see how it works

Pkunk35 · Oct 2, 2012

Out of those you listed the only one I would try to target feed is the chalice and they generally only feed at night.

You could try using cyclopeeze in the water column, sometimes triggers feed response. You'll probably have better luck waiting an hour or two after lights out to feed chalices tho.

Also i've noticed from my short experiences with chalices, not all are equal in terms of appetite. Some are pigs while others will not ever eat or show feeders.

Sometimes i just broadcast feed some oysterfeast or rotifers at night to try and help the chalice feed if i cannot target them. This will at least help feed microfauna which coral will feed on even if they do not feed on the products themselves.

jaguars4263 · Oct 2, 2012

I use coral frenzy and target feed with a turkey baster

Aznyoyoboy57 · Oct 3, 2012

i like to feed mine with mysis shrimp (Chalice, lobo, candy), make sure u turn off all flow. If u have fish, do it at night so they are most likely be hiding. And for Zoas and SPS, just use reef snow or Marine snow, use a turkey baster to pop at them with the flow on.

mcarroll · Oct 3, 2012

SeahorseKeeper said:
Personally, I do not target feed my corals. I just heavily feed my tank. Maybe some others will chime in.

The sort answer is that if you have fish then you are feeding your corals. Fish poop - especially when blown around into bits by your pumps - is the #1 favorite coral food of all!

Pkunk35 said:
Out of those you listed the only one I would try to target feed is the chalice and they generally only feed at night.

You could try using cyclopeeze in the water column, sometimes triggers feed response. You'll probably have better luck waiting an hour or two after lights out to feed chalices tho.

Also i've noticed from my short experiences with chalices, not all are equal in terms of appetite. Some are pigs while others will not ever eat or show feeders.

Sometimes i just broadcast feed some oysterfeast or rotifers at night to try and help the chalice feed if i cannot target them. This will at least help feed microfauna which coral will feed on even if they do not feed on the products themselves.

Well said.

To the OP, if you're not seeing tentacles from those LPS, they're not going to feed. If you're dead-set on target feeding, you'll have to establish a routine of feeding at the same time (night/day is not as relevant as consistency of time) to get them to tentacle out. It's possible due to other issues that they still won't tentacle out. Once they are out (or if they're already out), you can generally feed anything meaty that will fit in their mouth (which is usually pretty stretchable). I would not bother trying to feed anything that requires small non-meaty foods like SPS. IME, non-meaty foods (powdery or liquidy types) can be useful to elicit a feeding response, but that's about it. Go very light on them.

Personally if I were going to take action of some kind beyond feeding the fish, and if I were already seeing tentacles at night and wanted to help them with minimal impact to the tank (target feeding usually ends up adding lots of excess nutrients to a system), then I would just have an extra feeding for the fish (with the resultant poo) or belay one of the daily feedings until "tentacle time." ;)

-Matt

P.S. Used to be from the East Side. Where you at? :) (PM if you want.)

YVR · Oct 9, 2012

I feed my corals 1-2- times per week. Zooton . I target feed my LPS corals thawed and rinsed frozen mysis in the evenings when their feeding tentacles are out. I feed the whole tank 1-2 times per week in the evening alternating with frozen oyster eggs, frozen Cyclops, Tropic Marin Pro-Coral Phyton and TM Pro-Coral. I’ve noticed much better polyp extension in my corals after using the TM Pro Coral foods.