Grubs Up, Your Brief Guide To Feeding Corals
Corals love food, almost as much as they love light. Whilst most corals get their nutrition from the symbiotic algae in their tissues, they also catch food from the water column with their tentacles, providing much needed nutrition that their algae alone cannot provide.
Most corals will thrive in an aquarium without direct feeding, but the benefits of a weekly feed are numerous. In today's blog we shall briefly go over the mechanisms of coral feeding and the benefits of a good tentacle wrapped meal.
How Do Corals Feed?
Put simply, corals get most of their nutrition from a symbiotic algae called zooxanthellae, which lives in their tissues. When this algae photosynthesises, it produces sugars that the coral then processes for food. The remainder of a coral's diet consists of organisms captured from the water column and digested in the coral's gut. When it comes to coral health and growth, good light for photosynthesis is one of the three things you need to be successful, along with good water and flow.
But now you might ask, if corals get what they need from light...
Why bother feeding corals?
It's fairly obvious during a direct feed that corals enjoy being fed. When fed two to three times a week, many species of coral exhibit the following changes.
∙ Greater Polyp Extension
∙ Faster Growth
∙ Enhanced Colouration
∙ They Are More Robust
Additionally, it has been shown by studies that feeding a coral can more than double its rate of photosynthesis, further improving health, growth and colour; and leading to a more efficient organism overall.
How to Feed Corals
Feeding corals is relatively straightforward provided a few steps are taken.
Firstly, It is a good idea to turn off your return pump and powerheads to allow food to settle on the corals. Modern Aquarium Pumps have a feed mode that can be controlled remotely by a phone app! The same is true for more modern powerheads.
Once the flow has settled, deposit the desired food gently onto the tentacles of the coral using a turkey baster or pipette . This can be powdered based foods such as Reef-roids, or frozen meaty foods like Mysis rs shrimp. Pellet based foods, such as Fauna Marin LPS Grow+Colour, are specifically formulated for
hungry LPS corals and can be deposited directly onto the coral by hand.
Once the flow has settled, deposit the desired food gently onto the tentacles of the coral using a turkey baster or pipette . This can be powdered based foods such as Reef-roids, or frozen meaty foods like Mysis rs shrimp. Pellet based foods, such as Fauna Marin LPS Grow+Colour, are specifically formulated for
hungry LPS corals and can be deposited directly onto the coral by hand.
Once those hungry mouths and tentacles have had their fill, turn the pumps back on and enjoy the greater colour and extension.
Remember, do not overfeed
Overfeeding with any food will cause problems, but a common cause of high phosphate in an aquarium is overfeeding with coral foods. Another issue that can arise from overfeeding is coral death from food, particularly frozen meaty foods, rotting in their bowels.
Remember, no more than 2-3 times a week, evenly spaced, feeding only what the corals will eat comfortably.
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We at Aquariumkeeping.co.uk will always be happy to answer any questions regarding any thing discussed in this blog, as well as any questions regarding corals in general. Feel free to contact us via the website or any of our social media links.
