Feeding Mysis to Lps

[Jkraft136]

(Stupid question incoming)
Lately been feeding my lps bits of mysis. The issue i'm having is making it sink and stay in place long enough for the lps to grab it. Half of the mysis i thaw out floats to the top and the other half sinks. Is there an easier way to make it all stay put and not float to the top :P

 

[Rcpilot]

Don't willy nilly drop food in the tank.

Suck the mysis up in a turkey baster or other smaller plastic syringe. Spot feed individual corals.

What type of LPS are we talking about? Frogspawn? Hammer? Acans? Trumpets? Chalice?

 

[yote]

This is your best friend when it comes to spot feeding.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4430+13943&pcatid=13943

 

[Jkraft136]

Encrusting Brain, Lobo, Candy Cane. The encrusting brain i have to lay pieces of mysis on it to eat and its only a frag but boy can it eat. So getting it to sink would be alot easier. The lobo and candy cane seem just lazy. Occasionally the lobo puts out its feeders, but the candy cane will only eat if i lay a piece on the head, but its puffs up huge after eating :)

 

[SSalty]

Are you turning all the flow off in your tank prior to feeding?

 

[RyanG]

Have you been feeding at night or with the lights on?

 

[Rcpilot]

Have you been feeding at night or with the lights on?

Good point. I feed my LPS at night when their feeding tentacles are out.

 

[Jkraft136]

Lights have been out for 2 hours now and no tentacles, never seen them out at night :(

 

[Rcpilot]

Keep watching for a few nights. They don't open up to feed every night. They'll get hungry.

Mine open up a lot after a water change. Fresh minerals and trace elements in the water. They open up to absorb those nutrients.

 

[Rcpilot]

Took these pics 5 minutes ago

Blue trumpet coral with feeding tentacles out:

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Jester Acans:

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Orange acans:

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This is the time to feed them. But I won't feed them tonight because they've been fed just a couple days ago. Somebody told me not to feed acans and LPS too much because they will grow lots of big fleshy polyps faster than they can grow the underlying skeleton structure needed to support all those polyps. I was told that when they grow all those polyps without the skeleton underneath it will eventually cause massive failure and they will fall down on themselves and kinda melt from the weight of their own polyps pressing down. They NEED the hard skeleton structure to support those polyps. So let them grow slow. They need to absorb the calcium out of the water to grow the skeleton and that doesn't happen as fast as polyp production if you over feed them.

Thats the theory anyway. I don't know if it's true, but it sounds reasonable to me. I limit feeding to once a week or sometimes twice a month.

 

[Jkraft136]

Ive had them both for over 3 months and have never seen them :(

 

[dcantucson]

Nice Rc. Those corals look really happy & healthy. Great color!

 

[mennazeher04]

Very nice RC. question? On those types of corals what type is needed to support those?

 

[mennazeher04]

I meant what type of light is needed to support those sorry.

 

[Rcpilot]

My lights are in my signature line.

There's (6) bulbs at 24w each on a 30g tank thats 24" deep. T5 HO lights.

They are just LPS Acans. Nothing special or exotic. I don't really do anything special. Change 5g of water every week.

 

[Bifferwine]

It's called spot-feeding or target-feeding for a reason. Like others have said, you don't just toss the food in the tank to feed corals. Most of it will be uneaten this way, and just lead to poor water quality. For corals that need help hanging on to their food, tweezers work well (although this method can be time consuming). For the rest of them, squirting some food at them with a turkey baster usually does the trick.

And about feeding tentacles coming out at night, I used to have 3 different candy cane colonies in my tank. Not once have I ever, in 3 1/2 years of my tank being set up, seen tentacles on one colony. The other two came out like clockwork every night. I think it varies coral to coral. Incidentally, the ones without feeding tentacles were the hardiest and healthiest of all the colonies, and are the only ones left in my tank currently.

 

[Jkraft136]

I've always spot fed, never thrown it in the tank. Been doing the tweezer and baster method for awhile now. Was hoping to figure out and easier way.