Do corals need to eat?

[Aiptaisia anemone]

Planning on making a pico reef with just softies, no clean up crew or fish. So my question is do corals need to be fed? I am not planning on doing water change.

 

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

Depending on the coral. I don’t target feed any of mine, but probably need to. However my leathers, paly’s, zoas etc get fall out from my fish feeding, and pods etc.

They definitely need Nitrates and Phosphates to grow. In my tanks I have to reduce these presently, but I stock and feed heavily. Without the fish, I would think you would have to create these in one manner or the other. Either by feeding a small amount of mysis or brine, or additives.

Not sure why you say no CUC, but I would probably try to get a few snails for algae control. Maybe some dwarf cerith tiny, but supposed to get in the really hard to reach areas. Just my opinion, I struggle in my Fowler tank as the fish I have would eat any and all CUC so it’s all manual for me.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Planning on making a pico reef with just softies, no clean up crew or fish. So my question is do corals need to be fed? I am not planning on doing water change.

Corals are animals and are meant to be fed. Its just that several classifications have certain dietary requirements.

 

[Aiptaisia anemone]

Depending on the coral. I don’t target feed any of mine, but probably need to. However my leathers, paly’s, zoas etc get fall out from my fish feeding, and pods etc.

They definitely need Nitrates and Phosphates to grow. In my tanks I have to reduce these presently, but I stock and feed heavily. Without the fish, I would think you would have to create these in one manner or the other. Either by feeding a small amount of mysis or brine, or additives.

Not sure why you say no CUC, but I would probably try to get a few snails for algae control. Maybe some dwarf cerith tiny, but supposed to get in the really hard to reach areas. Just my opinion, I struggle in my Fowler tank as the fish I have would eat any and all CUC so it’s all manual for me.

well, its a brand new tank

 

[Slocke]

They feed mainly off zooxanthellae which are photosynthetic cells that reside within the coral so they mostly just need light. Many corals benefit from additional feeding but it’s not a must. You do have to provide nutrients however and I believe many softies release toxins. Water changes would still be vital I believe.

 

[Aiptaisia anemone]

They feed mainly off zooxanthellae which are photosynthetic cells that reside within the coral so they mostly just need light. Many corals benefit from additional feeding but it’s not a must. You do have to provide nutrients however and I believe many softies release toxins. Water changes would still be vital I believe.

well, i guess we'll see, i only have some very hardy corals in there like xenia, kenya tree and palys.

 

[Aiptaisia anemone]

oh and some really nice majano anemones.

 

[Aiptaisia anemone]

stop laughing they really are nice and I legit bought them for $40. See...

 

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

I would eliminate the Majano. I had one for the longest time. Then a couple then a bunch. I’ve read injecting them with lemon juice, but I have had problems with that as I could only get hobby syringes and they aren’t real sharp. Been thinking about trying to get my doc or vet to write me a script for a couple syringes lol.

I ended up with a lot, so I bought a majano wand. I just tried it this week, and think it worked pretty good. Just have to see if they survived or if I killed them.

 

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

stop laughing they really are nice and I legit bought them for $40. See...

Yep I thought they were pretty to. Until I ended up with a tank full.

 

[bnord]

They feed mainly off zooxanthellae which are photosynthetic cells that reside within the coral so they mostly just need light. Many corals benefit from additional feeding but it’s not a must. You do have to provide nutrients however and I believe many softies release toxins. Water changes would still be vital I believe.

WCs in small tanks are #1 easy #2 cheap #3 really helpful for the system and #4 easy

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

WCs in small tanks are #1 easy #2 cheap #3 really helpful for the system and #4 easy

Agreed with the above comments - most corals really only need light (and some nutrients), but some (typically LPS if I’m not mistaken; I might be, I haven’t looked into corals much yet at this point) do better with supplemental feeding. As bnord here points out though, water changes are pretty much ideal for smaller tanks, as you can pretty well keep parameters rock solid for cheap with little effort on pico tanks with them.

From the cost breakdowns I’ve seen, going the no water change route really only becomes cost effective on large tanks (like 100-150 gallons or more large, if I recall correctly), and maintaining good parameters in a pico without water changes would likely be substantially more difficult. Additionally, as Slocke mentioned, many soft corals in particular are known for basically engaging in chemical warfare (allelopathy) with each other, where they release certain chemicals (essentially toxins) to try and ensure they have room to grow and spread on the reef by trying to push other corals out. Water changes would dilute any chemicals in the water and theoretically prevent them from reaching really harmful levels. That’s not to try and dissuade you from attempting it or to say it can’t be done (after all, people do keep softies in no water change tanks without issues, though the tanks are usually much larger than a pico), it’s more just so you’re informed on what you’re getting into with that course of action.

So, with that in mind, out of curiosity, is there any particular reason why you don’t want to utilize water changes for your tank?

Also, just to comment about the majanos, the laughs came from the fact that most people consider majano anemones (no matter how pretty they may be - and some of them are incredibly pretty) to be pests, as they multiply relatively quickly and sting other things in the tank. If you like them, then you can certainly keep them and be proud of them, but be aware of the potential issues and the fact that most reef-keepers will find it very odd that you keep them (though a few would appreciate it, as there are at least a few people on here who have tanks specifically for cool “pests” like your majanos). If your tank does well, then you’ll probably need to remove some majanos on occasion to keep them from overrunning the tank/the corals, but that should be manageable in a pico without being overwhelming.

 

[bnord]

Agreed with the above comments - most corals really only need light (and some nutrients), but some (typically LPS if I’m not mistaken; I might be, I haven’t looked into corals much yet at this point) do better with supplemental feeding. As bnord here points out though, water changes are pretty much ideal for smaller tanks, as you can pretty well keep parameters rock solid for cheap with little effort on pico tanks with them.

From the cost breakdowns I’ve seen, going the no water change route really only becomes cost effective on large tanks (like 100-150 gallons or more large, if I recall correctly), and maintaining good parameters in a pico without water changes would likely be substantially more difficult. Additionally, as Slocke mentioned, many soft corals in particular are known for basically engaging in chemical warfare (allelopathy) with each other, where they release certain chemicals (essentially toxins) to try and ensure they have room to grow and spread on the reef by trying to push other corals out. Water changes would dilute any chemicals in the water and theoretically prevent them from reaching really harmful levels. That’s not to try and dissuade you from attempting it or to say it can’t be done (after all, people do keep softies in no water change tanks without issues, though the tanks are usually much larger than a pico), it’s more just so you’re informed on what you’re getting into with that course of action.

So, with that in mind, out of curiosity, is there any particular reason why you don’t want to utilize water changes for your tank?

Also, just to comment about the majanos, the laughs came from the fact that most people consider majano anemones (no matter how pretty they may be - and some of them are incredibly pretty) to be pests, as they multiply relatively quickly and sting other things in the tank. If you like them, then you can certainly keep them and be proud of them, but be aware of the potential issues and the fact that most reef-keepers will find it very odd that you keep them (though a few would appreciate it, as there are at least a few people on here who have tanks specifically for cool “pests” like your majanos). If your tank does well, then you’ll probably need to remove some majanos on occasion to keep them from overrunning the tank/the corals, but that should be manageable in a pico without being overwhelming.

And to the majanos comment (knock on wood, I still have never had one - and yes I know that means that one hiding in the rock will pop up as soon as it reads this) I started as a college student with a tank or two in mid seventies and was tickled to set up a system that could support Aptasia - showed them off to friends - in a metal framed under gravel filter sunlight lit tank

 

[brandon429]

Autotrophs make their own feed -if- a supply of accessory nutrients are accessible along the way.

Are corals classed as autotrophs?

If not, what are the food requirements for the other zones