Coral Feeding — Pros and Cons of feeding corals.
CONS OF FEEDING CORAL AND FILTER FEEDERS
In reef aquariums when we introduce food to corals or fish, or to any other reef aquarium inhabitants, we also as a result introduce large amounts of undesirable organic substances into our aquariums. This is truer with coral food than with other types of food in the reef aquarium. If flake food is not eaten by fish it is picked up and eaten by shrimps, and crabs and other members of your cleanup crew. Flake food and similar fish foods are also easily trapped in the filter. But being more liquid in consistency coral food cannot be picked up and eaten by most scavengers and coral food is not easily captured by the filter.
Uneaten foods such as fish and coral foods decay into undesirable organic substances, such as ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, and phosphates.
It is quite easy to over do it with liquid coral foods. It is important to keep the levels of these chemicals as low as possible. If organic compound levels are allowed to build up, the health of corals and fish will diminish, and levels of undesirable algae will rise. Also, feeding increases the amount of unsightly detritus (aquarium dirt) on the bottom of the reef tank and under the live rock.
PROS OF USING CORAL FOODS
Some people do not feed their corals. They believe that symbiotic algae living inside corals produce all the food that the corals need in order to thrive. Unfortunately, this belief is not true. It has been proven by science that symbiotic algae living inside corals produce mostly sugar that the coral use for energy. This sugar and small amounts of other substances, though extremely helpful to the corals, they give just about enough energy for what is needed for basic daily survival of the coral and not much more.
Nature also shows us that your corals should eat.
In nature, many species of corals benefit from feeding on the tiny creatures that fall prey to their tentacles. All day long and even more at night, corals of many species extend their tentacles. These tentacles are designed to capture food, such as plankton. This is especially true for the large polyp stony corals and other with tentacles. Corals – such as leather corals, non-hairy mushrooms and others with no visible tentacles or mouths generally do not appear to be equipped to feed on solid food, such as plankton. It has been shown that they feed by gathering bacteria, one celled algae, and dissolved organic compounds, such as amino acids, out of the water around them.
Corals feed on plankton and other foods rich in protein such as dissolved and suspended nutrients to obtain the amino acids necessary for growth, regeneration of damaged tissues, and reproduction.
Though many corals will survive for long periods of time in the reef aquarium – even several years – without being directly fed, small feedings may provide your corals with the vitality and health needed to withstand the stress they may encounter in the reef aquarium.
Experience has shown me that several corals grow more, polyp out more, and show an overall healthier appearance after being fed small amounts on a regular basis.
In summary, we have a dilemma. Putting coral food into a reef tank ultimately results in the addition of undesirable substances. However, it is natural and beneficial for corals to feed.
The solution is a common sense, easy, and effective one. Don’t feed your reef tank; feed your corals. Feed them in very small quantities about once a week. Use a turkey baster or better yet a long thin coral feeding tube to ensure that the food is going directly to the coral and not behind your live rock to rot. If water quality diminishes and, if nuisance algae increases, then feed less and add scavenging invertebrates and snails to eat the left-over food and the algae. Also, partial water changes and protein skimming will help maintain good water quality and low algae levels.
Not only do corals benefit from feeding, but filter feeders, such as tunicates, sponges, tube worms, and flame scallops, and other invertebrates will benefit from light feedings with liquid foods and small particulates even more than corals, as most filter feeders will not survive in a saltwater aquarium unless you fed them regularly.
To feed corals and filter feeders, we suggest buying a coral feeding tube, very gently and slowly, squirt the food into the corals tentacles, so that they have a chance to grab the food. If you squeeze too fast of if the water current is too great, you will end up feeding the tank and not the corals. You may have to temporarily re-position any power heads that are creating too much current or turn them off. Just remember to turn them back on when you are finished feeding.
Coral Foods
Do not feed very much. Try to feed corals only what they will eat. Filter feeders and soft corals that have no tentacles (or that have tentacles that don’t grab onto solid food) may do well with liquid foods. We have tested and recommend coral foods such as:
Reef-Roids
Coral Frenzy
Phytoplex
and Selcon fatty acid- rich supplement.
Do not overfeed with these liquids because most of the liquid spreads out over the entire tank and does not go directly to the corals or filter feeders. This excess liquid food will decay and rapidly nourish nuisance algae, so use liquid foods sparingly. Using two different liquid foods in your tank may provide a varied & balanced diet. Try one that provides phytoplankton (unicellular plants) and one that is designed to provide amino acids, such as Roti Rich (animal matter.) Of course, use only ½ the recommended dosage of each of the two liquid foods to make one full dose of liquid food, thus avoiding overfeeding.
Live Foods
Adult brine shrimp, baby brine shrimp, rotifers, algae, and coppopods, are all excellent foods for many reef tank inhabitants, such as small polyp stony corals, colonial anemones, gorgonians, filter feeders, and mandarin fish. Most seahorses will only eat live plankton.
Live foods are not very nutritious themselves; they need to be fed, (enriched) with nutritious liquid foods to make them nutritious. Feeding yeast to live foods is common but does not add sufficient fatty acids to live food. To feed nutritious foods to your live foods feed them any of the nutritious liquid or fine powder coral foods found on this page. Feed them for at least a day or two before feeding your corals and other tank inhabitants. Coral foods and especially liquid phytoplankton seems to work quite well as a food for live foods.
It is not economical to feed all your live plankton to your reef tank, we recommend you put some in your tank, and save some to put in a refugium where they can breed so your tank will have a small but constant supply of natural live foods. Live foods, or plankton requires special care and experience for successful breeding. If you can manage to keep them alive and breed them in a refugium you will have a constant supply. Do your homework on how to keep and breed them. One of the easier live foods to keep are brine shrimp, the dried eggs are easy to hatch.
Some other live foods available for sale:
Live Tisbe Pods (Tisbe biminiensis)
Live Tigriopus Pods (Tigriopus californicus)
Live Marine Rotifers
Live Green Phytoplankton (Nannochloropsis Oculata)
and Gold Phytoplankton (Isochrysis galbana)
Frozen Foods
We highly recommend frozen foods, such as Reef Stroganoff, Prime Reef, and Brine Shrimp Plus. All three are good because they contain a wide variety of food types that corals saltwater aquarium fish and other reef tank inhabitants would consume in their natural habitat. They are fortified with many vitamins and minerals. Very importantly, they contain many different sized particles—- from liquids and tiny particles for soft corals and filter feeding invertebrates to larger particles, such as hole brine shrimp, and chunks of fish and mussel meat for large polyp stony corals, marine fish, and scavenging invertebrates.
For more in-depth information on the importance of feeding corals see articles by Ron Shimek in Aquarium Fish magazine and on the internet. His articles were a primary source of information for this article.
For more general information on coral visit our about live coral page.
These are some of the more popular coral foods on the market today.
Kent Phytoplex is a highly concentrated formula of aquacultured marine phytoplankton. The rich green liquid is 15 times more concentrated than the typical live algae cultures and provides your coral with more phytoplankton in one 8 oz bottle than an entire gallon of competing brands. This formula is an excellent choice for complex reef tanks containing filter feeders like sponges, tunicates, flame scallops, clams, tube worms, and various mysterious creatures in and on your live rock. It is also a good food for many corals, especially soft corals that are not equipped to eat even small chunks of solid meaty food, but instead absorb microscopic particles like the one celled algae particles found in this solution. Customers rate this product five out of five stars, the highest possible endorsement.
Coral Frenzy coral reef food is one of the more preferred brands on the market today. Customers that have purchased and use Coral Frenzy rate it high on Amazon.com. The product is specially formulated to maintain healthy and vibrant coral and contains essential elements like amino acids, proteins. It also contains concentrations of natural carotenoids; these carotenoids have many health benefits and also help to maintain bright vibrant colors in your fish and other creatures.
Reef tank owners commented that their corals do well with this coral food and that the food stays in place for the corals to use and does not float away like other coral foods. Satisfied customers say that they would buy this product again and again.
This is the larger 56 gram version of the Coral Frenzy listed above. Double the volume for only a little more money thus is an excellent value. Coral Frenzy products are “all in one” coral feeding solution for your corals so you would not have to go to the trouble to feed your corals many different products to satisfy all of their nutritional requirements. Coral Frenzy is enjoyed not just by hungry corals but by fish, shrimp, crabs, anemones, and everything else in your reef aquarium.
Polyp Lab Reef-Roids is a popular coral food amongst reef aquarium enthusiasts and is viewed as an excellent food source for all filter feeding corals. The particle size of around 200 microns makes this food optimal for Goniopora feeding. The product is known to promote faster coral growth and more vibrant coral color. The product is not made from a processed fish meal like many others but instead is a combination of naturally occurring marine planktons.
