First Zoanthids - can feeding them overload my filter?

Just John · Feb 2, 2021

Never had a zoanthid before, but the videos of squirting a cloud of food into the tank seems like it could overload the filter. Can this be a problem?

tnewell · Feb 2, 2021

How big is your tank? Is your tank new? Couldn’t hurt putting a little reef roids on top of the zoas, make sure you turn all power heads off and pump, and watch them eat.

HuduVudu · Feb 2, 2021

Zoas are purely photosynthetic.

Oscar47f · Feb 2, 2021

Zoas are not purely photosynthetic they do have a stomach and will consume things out of the water... that being said they’re not the most aggressive eaters and some won’t always have a feeding response I will on occasion feed mine with benereef by benepets because it’s a little cleaner than reef roids however I barely ever do that I’ve found frequent feedings doesn’t work for me... I just dose amino acids and stuff like that into the water and they can absorb it from the water column they do well imo they also do well without direct feedings

tnewell · Feb 2, 2021

Oscar47f said:
Zoas are not purely photosynthetic they do have a stomach and will consume things out of the water... that being said they’re not the most aggressive eaters and some won’t always have a feeding response I will on occasion feed mine with benereef by benepets because it’s a little cleaner than reef roids however I barely ever do that I’ve found frequent feedings doesn’t work for me... I just dose amino acids and stuff like that into the water and they can absorb it from the water column they do well imo they also do well without direct feedings

+1, but I direct feed my zoas twice a week with reef roids, for me it produces the fastest growth rate. Everyone’s tank is different though.

Smokeshow · Feb 2, 2021

I have a 75 w a 55 sump and feed 1 tsb to my zoas and other corals 2x a week. I have issues keeping my nitrates over 2ppm. I use filter floss, run my skimmer for 12hrs at night and a refugium with chaeto

Smokeshow · Feb 2, 2021

Also. I turn all my pumps off when I feed, I direct feed and I feed first thing in the morning

Just John · Feb 2, 2021

I bought an Evo 13.5 gal, so not big at all. I wanted to start with some zoanthids, but that looks like a lot of food to put in a small tank. Having said that, I see plenty of pictures of the same tank with zoanthids in them.

Smokeshow · Feb 2, 2021

It's based on tank size and amount of zoas. If you only have a few frags I would get a 10ml syringe. Take a thing of tank water and put in in a small cup. Use a 1/4 tsp for the reef roids and mix it with the water in the cup. Pull the mix into the syringe. The push alittle at a time over the zoas. My eagle eyes went from a 2 pylop frag to over 17 in 6 months doing this method.

Smokeshow · Feb 2, 2021

The eagle eyes at the top of the rock and a pavona cactus coral that started as a small triangle on a 1" frag on the bottom

Just John · Feb 3, 2021

Smokeshow said:
It's based on tank size and amount of zoas. If you only have a few frags I would get a 10ml syringe. Take a thing of tank water and put in in a small cup. Use a 1/4 tsp for the reef roids and mix it with the water in the cup. Pull the mix into the syringe. The push alittle at a time over the zoas. My eagle eyes went from a 2 pylop frag to over 17 in 6 months doing this method.

Wow, that's impressive! Thanks for the help!

HuduVudu · Feb 3, 2021

Oscar47f said:
Zoas are not purely photosynthetic they do have a stomach and will consume things out of the water...

This makes me pull my hair out.

Arghhh that isn't a mouth it is the other side of a mouth. Why must everyone think that if there are polyps that the creature somehow eats something. Having zooxanthellae is a huge source of energy for most coral and a large percentage of corals have adapted to use this source as the their only source of energy.

If you see zoanthids on the reef they are near the surface of intertidal zones. Many of the colony spend large percentages of the day out of the water. The "mouth" forms a mucus layer to trap water in the zoanthid so that it doesn't dry out in the sun and the heat. Zoanthid are aggressive growers and will crowd out anything that has the temerity to try to grow in the high light areas that they are found in.

I am currently trying to rid myself of the zoas that I put in my aquarium. It was a huge mistake on my part. They IMO are a very pretty weed. They can and will destroy acropora by first shading out the base of the acropora and then when the acropora succumbs to the lack of light they will continue to creep up the coral until it is completely shaded and dies.

I have never fed my zoanthid. They will sluff anything that is put on their petal area. People seem to think that the closing action of the zoanthid is a feeding response. It is not it is an irritation response. If you watch closely you will see this.

"Feeding" zoanthids only adds organics to your water. Sadly the zoanthid don't even seem to use enough phosphate and nitrate to contribute to any significant drop in these levels.

blasterman · Feb 3, 2021

Larger palys like gobstoppers, most people eaters etc DO eat meaty foods if dropped on them. Ive posted videos of this. They wrap up the food, like frozen brine shrimp and slowly swallow them. My purple death palys will eat chunks of beef heart. Those things are ravenous.

They do like reef roids if blown over them, but why do this if direct feeding brine shrimp does it better and doesn't pollute the water?

I am highly skeptical that small zoas like dragon eyes or bam bams for example eat zoo plankton. When you blow reef roids over them they close temporarily but rapidly reopen. The larger zoas i listed above which clearly gobble prey foods along with roids in their skirts take a much longer time to reopen. This indicates to me its an irritation response in the smaller zoas.

Since Roids and similiar products are loaded with phosphate its obvious they can make softies grow faster by that alone. As long as your PO4 is in bounds knock yourself out.

tnewell · Feb 3, 2021

blasterman said:
Larger palys like gobstoppers, most people eaters etc DO eat meaty foods if dropped on them. Ive posted videos of this. They wrap up the food, like frozen brine shrimp and slowly swallow them. My purple death palys will eat chunks of beef heart. Those things are ravenous.

They do like reef roids if blown over them, but why do this if direct feeding brine shrimp does it better and doesn't pollute the water?

I am highly skeptical that small zoas like dragon eyes or bam bams for example eat zoo plankton. When you blow reef roids over them they close temporarily but rapidly reopen. The larger zoas i listed above which clearly gobble prey foods along with roids in their skirts take a much longer time to reopen. This indicates to me its an irritation response in the smaller zoas.

Since Roids and similiar products are loaded with phosphate its obvious they can make softies grow faster by that alone. As long as your PO4 is in bounds knock yourself out.

+1, own quite a bit of zoas, can agree with smaller polyped zoas will not react well with meaty foods, they will close. Usually my smaller polymer will MUNCH on reef roids, like you can tell. Then there are palys and other larger zoas who would pull a full mysis to eat.

blasterman · Feb 3, 2021

I've also noticed that feeding response tracks nitrate levels. At low nitrate levels my larger zoas are clearly more aggressive than higher nutrient levels. Ive tried to find the limit of how much brine shrimp my gobstoppers will swallow and its a lot. It just makes them grow faster which I don't need.

When they make several cubes of brine shrimp dissappear then increase their growth dramatically its not just an irritation response.

I've seen green implosions eat xenia that grow too close. They suck down the whole stalk.

Not sure why the guy above is raving about his acropora in a thread about zoas.