Is feeding your coral worth it?

TangAddict · Apr 10, 2020

So I have a 140 gallon tank and every Wednesday I feed my coral reef Roids. But lately I haven’t been feeding them, and have noticed tremendous growth. So do you think feeding coral really works?

Cwentz758 · Apr 10, 2020

Sooo I have a 60g and have never fed my corals. I have reef Roids coming today. I guess I’ll let you know. Lol

Cwentz758 · Apr 10, 2020

I also have never really dabbled in SPS so I have some sticks now along with some hammers and zoas. Guess we will see!

AcroNem · Apr 10, 2020

My simple answer is yes, it is, and yes it works.

ScottB · Apr 10, 2020

Not sure I could find the paper(s) again, but I have read a few scientific papers that used control groups on the subject of coral foods. They included 4-5 SPS species (monti, pocci, stylo, acro, I think) and several different popular foods and various concentrations. They measured change in volume displacement. Reefroids was a clear winner for all but one species.

In my own real world experience it would be impossible to separate out the effect of consistent feeding. (I do inconsistently dose Reefroids.) If I am disciplined about feeding, it is likely I am more disciplined with everything else required to maintain an optimal environment for my sticks. There is also (IMO) a lag between the changes to chemistry & nutrients and the change in coral response. The research piece also measured this lag.

Will see if I can google that paper. It was somewhere here IIRC:

Academia.edu - Share research

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www.academia.edu

ScottB · Apr 10, 2020

Found it:

Coral farming: effects of light, water motion and artificial foods

Improved coral cultivation will facilitate the reduction of wild harvesting, reef restoration, preservation of biodiversity, and the use of corals as model experimental organisms. In this study, we examine species-specific responses in growth and

www.academia.edu

It is a great read along with hundreds of other papers here. An amazing resource.

Angel_Anthias lover · Apr 10, 2020

The Shape of Corals is Linked to How they Feed | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

It’s been over 20 years since I started culturing corals in the ocean and in dedicated aquariums. I always believed that the shape of a corals was mainly determined by trying to expose as much surface…

reefbuilders.com

ScottB · Apr 10, 2020

Angel_Anthias lover said:
The Shape of Corals is Linked to How they Feed | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

It’s been over 20 years since I started culturing corals in the ocean and in dedicated aquariums. I always believed that the shape of a corals was mainly determined by trying to expose as much surface…

reefbuilders.com

Great read thank you!

EMeyer · Apr 10, 2020

Its an interesting contrast between the coral biology community and the hobby on this one.

In nature, its important for corals to feed. While the metabolic contributions of photosynthesis are important, and people looove to cite the paper that says up to 90% of a corals energy requirements *can* be met by photosynthesis (in some circumstances), the problem is that this is entirely carbohydrates. Coral biologists speaking informally about this at conferences refer to it as junk food - pure sugar. In nature, corals eat constantly, and need to.

Funny thing is how little effect feeding has on corals in our tanks. Yes there are some papers showing benefits of some foods for some corals. But the effects from published aquarium coral feeding studies are pretty underwhelming overall IMO. (Not a criticism of the experiments at all - I'm saying that I'm surprised the effects werent larger)

Personally I think it comes down to food quality. In nature they eat live zooplankton 24-7, then we put them in tanks that in relative terms contain almost no zooplankton, and try to feed them things like processed fish meal. Small wonder we end up debating whether feeding even matters

ReeferWarrant · Apr 10, 2020

I think with anything in this hobby, it depends on the coral. My Zoa’s exploded with growth when I started dosing minerals. My one candy cane has almost doubled in size and I feed it regularly, pellets and mysis. Then I have a hammer that refuses to eat anything and is as happy as can be. My candy canes seem to be the only ones that truly like the reef roids. The others just spit it out after too long...

Reef Chili had similar findings in an article from The University of Hawaii I read recently. Not sure if it’s above or I can find it.

Daniel@R2R · Apr 10, 2020

Very interesting discussion! Following!

mitch91175 · Apr 10, 2020

EMeyer said:
Its an interesting contrast between the coral biology community and the hobby on this one.

In nature, its important for corals to feed. While the metabolic contributions of photosynthesis are important, and people looove to cite the paper that says up to 90% of a corals energy requirements *can* be met by photosynthesis (in some circumstances), the problem is that this is entirely carbohydrates. Coral biologists speaking informally about this at conferences refer to it as junk food - pure sugar. In nature, corals eat constantly, and need to.

Funny thing is how little effect feeding has on corals in our tanks. Yes there are some papers showing benefits of some foods for some corals. But the effects from published aquarium coral feeding studies are pretty underwhelming overall IMO. (Not a criticism of the experiments at all - I'm saying that I'm surprised the effects werent larger)

Personally I think it comes down to food quality. In nature they eat live zooplankton 24-7, then we put them in tanks that in relative terms contain almost no zooplankton, and try to feed them things like processed fish meal. Small wonder we end up debating whether feeding even matters

I equate it to this simple fact, everything NEEDS to eat something to survive and thrive. EVERYTHING! So whether you believe it is only light and the 3 "main" nutrients (dKH, Mag, Cal) then have at it and be successful with that approach. If you believe that feeding your corals works for you and your time, perfect. Sometimes we forget it's a hobby and not a full-time job (although depending on where you are in the hobby it might be

)

I feed my coral just like I feed my fish. Haven't always feed my coral, but do see that certain coral thrive when being feed while others might not show much difference, so started just spot feeding those that benefit the most (my acans/blastos/torches/scolly). Once the power heads kick in and scatter it whatever else feels the need to eat can before it get skimmed out or filtered out.

I notice that my torches can deal with the amount of flow better now that I feed them weekly. In a different tank could be totally different and likely is.

What I've noticed is the longer I've been reefing, it gets easier and maintaining the tank take much less time allowing to do things like spot-feed coral to stay engaged with the system.

TangAddict · Apr 10, 2020

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

Rmckoy · Apr 10, 2020

Is dosing zooplankton often the same as feeding reef roids ?

RazorRamon · Apr 10, 2020

I notice with acans, blastos, chalices, torches, and frogspawn that reef roids works very well for growth and coloration. I can't really say I see a huge improvement with sps. aminos work better for sps specifically the redsea one and acro power.

josvanmeer · Apr 10, 2020

I dose Zooplankton, its cheap, do it twice a week, and my coral is growing pretty fast. It's what they naturally eat and thus it can only be excellent for them. Also dose phytoplankton, which they eat but its more for the copepods. Als keeps the tank clean.

ScottB · Apr 10, 2020

josvanmeer said:
I dose Zooplankton, its cheap, do it twice a week, and my coral is growing pretty fast. It's what they naturally eat and thus it can only be excellent for them. Also dose phytoplankton, which they eat but its more for the copepods. Als keeps the tank clean.

What product do you use for zoos?