reefkprz
Active Member
OK So I'm going to do similar to my fragging thread with spot feeding, very simple the first food I am going to spot feed is mysis. I dont have sun coral so I cant show that, But I have a lot of eater corals. brain, palys, Frogspawn, hammer, trumpet, Short tentacle plate. so First I am going to show the equipment.
1 container to melt the frozen food in, I use a specimin container (obviously anything will work, it doesnt have to be a spec. container.)
2 feeding syringe or turkey baster, there are several sizes, choose your size based on food size and how weildy it is to use in your aquarium. a turkey baster is less weildy in small aquariums or ones with intracate rock work, plus they stay mostly full of air making them harder to manuver. but if you dont have a feeding syringe go with what you have (dont use the one used for this years turkey it will have soap residue on it, you dont want that in your aquarium) NO metal tipped syringes either they will rust (and the hole is just too darn small for most foods)
that pretty much covers equipment needed.
the basic step involved;
Step 1 Thaw food in container of tank water, the more water you use the harder it is going to be to get all the food. I float the container while thawing the food so it does not cool the water and end up shocking what ever coral I am feeding it to.
step 2 suck up some food in the syringe or baster.
step 3 Feeding:now some corals may not have tentacles out yet at the time of feeding. (LPS usually) you can trick them into putting out their feeder tentacles by squirting just a littl of the food in the region of their mouth. Do this gently so you dont spook the coral or damage it. wait a minute or two for the tentacles to extend, and squirt some food directly on the tentacles.
palythoa are much easier all the food has to do is touch them and they will grab it, so just squirt some on them they will close over it and eat it. (if they dont its not a paly its a regular zonathid)
some like short tentacle plates will grab the food with out using feeder tentacles, just squirt it on them and watch them swell and consume, (its really quite impressive)
same for Ricordea and other mushrooms.
euphylia (frogspawn, torch, hammer)and brains are really slow eaters so you may have to defend them from the overzealous eating habits of your shrimp if you have them. Mine is a nut. after I squirt some on the slow eaters I put the syringe near the shrimp so he's plucking food out of it to keep him away from the corals while they eat.
occasionally as your spot feeding the syrings may block up, DO NOT force it out while pointed at a coral you could damage the coral. instead just pull back on the plunger ,and this will undo the blockage with out hurting your coral or spraying food all over the tank.
now for everyones favorite part the pictures.
first will be the weapons of choice (I only pictured the turkey baster because some one asked the other day what it was and looked like so there it is to the far left) the rest are assorted sizes of feeding syringes that I have on hand. I personally like the two biggest ones for less reloading, and less blockage problems.
second thawing Mysis
third is feeding trumpet (or candycane if you prefer)
fourth is plate tentacle eating
fifth is one full trumpet coral, see how puffy it is.
OK so that pretty much covers spot feeding with mysis, Any questions?
1 container to melt the frozen food in, I use a specimin container (obviously anything will work, it doesnt have to be a spec. container.)
2 feeding syringe or turkey baster, there are several sizes, choose your size based on food size and how weildy it is to use in your aquarium. a turkey baster is less weildy in small aquariums or ones with intracate rock work, plus they stay mostly full of air making them harder to manuver. but if you dont have a feeding syringe go with what you have (dont use the one used for this years turkey it will have soap residue on it, you dont want that in your aquarium) NO metal tipped syringes either they will rust (and the hole is just too darn small for most foods)
that pretty much covers equipment needed.
the basic step involved;
Step 1 Thaw food in container of tank water, the more water you use the harder it is going to be to get all the food. I float the container while thawing the food so it does not cool the water and end up shocking what ever coral I am feeding it to.
step 2 suck up some food in the syringe or baster.
step 3 Feeding:now some corals may not have tentacles out yet at the time of feeding. (LPS usually) you can trick them into putting out their feeder tentacles by squirting just a littl of the food in the region of their mouth. Do this gently so you dont spook the coral or damage it. wait a minute or two for the tentacles to extend, and squirt some food directly on the tentacles.
palythoa are much easier all the food has to do is touch them and they will grab it, so just squirt some on them they will close over it and eat it. (if they dont its not a paly its a regular zonathid)
some like short tentacle plates will grab the food with out using feeder tentacles, just squirt it on them and watch them swell and consume, (its really quite impressive)
same for Ricordea and other mushrooms.
euphylia (frogspawn, torch, hammer)and brains are really slow eaters so you may have to defend them from the overzealous eating habits of your shrimp if you have them. Mine is a nut. after I squirt some on the slow eaters I put the syringe near the shrimp so he's plucking food out of it to keep him away from the corals while they eat.
occasionally as your spot feeding the syrings may block up, DO NOT force it out while pointed at a coral you could damage the coral. instead just pull back on the plunger ,and this will undo the blockage with out hurting your coral or spraying food all over the tank.
now for everyones favorite part the pictures.
first will be the weapons of choice (I only pictured the turkey baster because some one asked the other day what it was and looked like so there it is to the far left) the rest are assorted sizes of feeding syringes that I have on hand. I personally like the two biggest ones for less reloading, and less blockage problems.
second thawing Mysis
third is feeding trumpet (or candycane if you prefer)
fourth is plate tentacle eating
fifth is one full trumpet coral, see how puffy it is.
OK so that pretty much covers spot feeding with mysis, Any questions?
