Coral Food?

[ChiTown81]

I’m getting confused about feeding coral and not feeding coral. I have some Zoas, Frogspawn and Green Torch. My Zoas look shriveled up when my tank light goes on but during the day they stand straight up.

 

[Spare time]

What exactly is the question?

 

[ChiTown81]

Is it recommend to feed coral or not? The store where I bought my coral told me not to feed them. But I’m reading that it’s better if you do.

 

[Timfish]

A lot of corals deflate and inflate with lighting cycles and feeding isn't the main reason. As far as the confusion about feeding you need to keep in mind we are dealing with many different animals. Expecting them to all want the same feeding is like expecting a kitten and a wolf to want the same food.

This paper denmonstrates the differences and hazards in feeding corals:

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

 

[ChiTown81]

Thank You

 

[Spare time]

Is it recommend to feed coral or not? The store where I bought my coral told me not to feed them. But I’m reading that it’s better if you do.

I would. They do quite a lot of it in the wild. However, our tanks have elevated nitrate and phosphate so how much of this is relevant is questionable. I prefer to dose some form of amino acid since typically it seems most corals (if not all) can grab them. As Tim fish mentioned, not all corals are the same, similar to how not all mammals have the same dietary strategies.

 

[Pistondog]

Never specifically fed zoas. They do well with some nutrients in the water.

 

[jda]

Keep your fish fed. That will give them ammonia/ammonium to get nitrogen - if the coral is able to covert the nitrate back to nitrogen (not all can), then it will cost them between 30-60%, so ammonia/ammonium is better. The fish waste can also provide a wide range of phosphate/phosphorous instead of the one kind that you might test for or dose.

Your LPS and Z*P can grab and digest food, but nobody really knows if the energy expenditure is worth what they get. Aminos can be absorbed through the slime coats - so can bacteria. However, when dosing aminos, your corals lose a math battle with the rest of the tank for surface area... probably most surface and waterborne bacteria get them, but then the corals might get some of those.

All of this said, lots of the best tanks on the planet do not do anything to feed their corals and they do great. Light is the best coral food, so lots of high quality, wide spectrum lighting is best. I don't feed any of my corals - most acropora, but I have some softies too that you can see in my re-build thread. I do give them perhaps the best light possible, though.

 

[ChiTown81]

Keep your fish fed. That will give them ammonia/ammonium to get nitrogen - if the coral is able to covert the nitrate back to nitrogen (not all can), then it will cost them between 30-60%, so ammonia/ammonium is better. The fish waste can also provide a wide range of phosphate/phosphorous instead of the one kind that you might test for or dose.

Your LPS and Z*P can grab and digest food, but nobody really knows if the energy expenditure is worth what they get. Aminos can be absorbed through the slime coats - so can bacteria. However, when dosing aminos, your corals lose a math battle with the rest of the tank for surface area... probably most surface and waterborne bacteria get them, but then the corals might get some of those.

All of this said, lots of the best tanks on the planet do not do anything to feed their corals and they do great. Light is the best coral food, so lots of high quality, wide spectrum lighting is best. I don't feed any of my corals - most acropora, but I have some softies too that you can see in my re-build thread. I do give them perhaps the best light possible, though.

Thanks for the tip

 

[workhz]

Good question. I’ve been trying to read up. I only have mushrooms, zoas and euphillia and some favias. Have just relied on feeding the fish so far but every couple of weeks or so I add some reef roid and amino acids. Not sure if it does anything but figure once every couple of weeks it must supplement something. Not a clue. All ears on this one.

 

[Spare time]

I remember @Timfish mentioning some reference that not all amino acids can be made by zooxanthellae or coral and have to be taken from prey

 

[Timfish]

I remember @Timfish mentioning some reference that not all amino acids can be made by zooxanthellae or coral and have to be taken from prey

Do you remember the specific thread? Because I think you may have misunderstood me or have several posts by different individuals confused. Amino acids are organic nitrogen and for may be a preferred form of nitrogen over ammonia and especially nitrates which seems to be corals least favorite form of nitrogen. As far as a a specific species ability to synthasize specific amino acids tha't going to be a pretty complicated subject. We need to think of nitrogen terms of Particulate Organic Nitrogen (PON - prey), Dissolved Orgainic Nitrogen (DON - amino acids and urea) and Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen (DIN - ammonia/ammonium, nitrite and nitrate), not just nitrate. Here's some links:

https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/lno.11742

Uptake of dissolved free amino acids by the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata

SUMMARY. This study was designed to assess the importance of dissolved free amino acids (DFAA) as a nitrogen source for the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata. For this purpose, experiments were performed using 15N-enriched DFAAs, and %15N enrichment was measured both in animal tissue and...

journals.biologists.com

Urea uptake by the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata

Urea can be one of the major sources of nitrogen for phytoplankton, but little is known about its importance for corals. Experiments were therefore de…

www.sciencedirect.com

Ammonium Uptake by Symbiotic and Aposymbiotic Reef Corals: Ingenta Connect

www.ingentaconnect.com

Error - Cookies Turned Off

aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Unravelling the different causes of nitrate and ammonium effects on coral bleaching - Scientific Reports

Mass coral bleaching represents one of the greatest threats to coral reefs and has mainly been attributed to seawater warming. However, reduced water quality can also interact with warming to increase coral bleaching, but this interaction depends on nutrient ratios and forms. In particular...

www.nature.com

Error - Cookies Turned Off

Fig. 3 from this last paper

 

[vetteguy53081]

I’m getting confused about feeding coral and not feeding coral. I have some Zoas, Frogspawn and Green Torch. My Zoas look shriveled up when my tank light goes on but during the day they stand straight up.

Those listed require feeding. Broadcast works ut target feeding with mysis shrimp or similar 2-3X per week is most effective, Corals are in respect animals and animals require food.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I’m getting confused about feeding coral and not feeding coral. I have some Zoas, Frogspawn and Green Torch. My Zoas look shriveled up when my tank light goes on but during the day they stand straight up.

Also, when zoa stand tall, they are seeking light/more light and you need to address the subject of lighting/PAR

 

[jda]

Don't think of aminos as supplementing the actual aminos used in the organic process. First, nobody has any idea if any coral or organism are deficient in any, but it is not likely since they do OK in nature. Second, nearly no products say what are in their supplements, so you have no idea what you are adding... and those that do only have a few kinds and not all. To do any good to the protein process, you would need several kinds which would differ for each coral/organism. The only hope that aminos do anything is that a coral synthesizes them whole, through the slime coat, and gets the nourishment - this likely happens, but there is no idea at what rate. Single cell organism, bacteria, algae, etc. all will use them too. Your corals will get some, but they lose out on a surface area math problem in a real tank... which is why they can do better

I won a big bottle at a local raffle. Used all of it and could not tell a difference. Could not tell a difference when I stopped. For me, amino supplementation is just the fad of the current times. Many fads have come and gone with all kinds of "science" and sworn testimonials from reefer-users only to be a punchline now. Coral Snow, Phytoplankton, Oyster Eggs, Essential Elements, etc. My guess is that Aminos will soon be a punchline too when the next thing comes about... maybe Kryptonite, Adamantiam or Vibranium.

The bottom line for me is that they don't likely hurt unless you are feeding something that you already hate like a dino bloom, hair algae, etc. However, they are certainly not necessary. ...so use them if you want.

Anybody considering dosing aminos can also look into dosing ammonium which likely will very much do the same thing and is cheaper. Of course, you can just keep the fish fat and happy too.

Perhaps the most important thing to learn and remember is that Nitrate is probably not doing what you think that it is if you dose it. Host have to convert it back to some other form for the microalgae to use it... and not all can do it. The host can convert it, it is costly. In the end, you are not likely getting any or much nitrogen to your corals by dosing nitrate, yet lots of people think that they are feeding them. Be smarter than most of them. The largest consumers of nitrate directly are anoxic bacteria and macro algae, that I know of.