How does LPS coral look like when they're feeding?

FrostyKevin · Aug 14, 2011

When should I feed them, and how do they look like when they're eating? (i.e chalice, acan, favia)

florida reef · Aug 14, 2011

My recommendation is that you should feed the tank first. By doing this you will hopefully prevent any other tank inhabitants from stealing to food right out of the coral's mouth. I used to have a shrimp that would steal food all day long. Crabs and even fish will snatch food right out of the coral's mouth. As far as what time to feed, I usually feed whenever I see the corals open or ready to accept food. Night, or lights off, is usually when they are always ready for food. As far as what they look like when they're eating, I'm not sure what you want to know. There are pictures you can find in threads of LPS of all kinds eating.

FrostyKevin · Aug 14, 2011

How do you know if their mouth is open? It's kind of hard to tell.

Alpha Aquaculture · Aug 14, 2011

Check this link out, its a feeding pictorial

You will see tentacles near the mouth. They come out to capture food and bring to the mouth. Feed them and sit back and wait. Sometimes it takes a while if they are not used to it. Sometimes if a coral is unhealthy or hasn't been directly fed in a while it might not accept the food. Keep trying but make sure you don't let the food set on the coral for too long it can cause an infection, 30 min is a good amount of time to turn off your pumps and directly target feed your lps

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/ge...318-wow-my-chalice-hungry-target-feeding.html

FrostyKevin · Aug 15, 2011

Ok, thanks!

I use a syringe to target feed my coral. I use Live Foods for Feeding Aquarium Fish, Inverts & Corals: AlgaGen Coral Smoothie? to feed my LPS, but I can't tell if it's eating it. I'm not even sure if LPS is capable of eating plankton or phytoplankton.

And my zoas close up when I target feed them. Is this normal?

CJO · Aug 16, 2011

I would feed my LPS larger food. Most plankton and all phytoplankton are too small. Mysis shrimp, pellets, pieces of seafood, fish eggs, etc. are good foods. What do you feed your fish?

CJ

FrostyKevin · Aug 16, 2011

There's no fish in the tank.

Ok, I'll buy some mysis shrimp. I just don't think they will stay on the LPS long enough for it to eat the food.

Sea MunnKey · Aug 16, 2011

FrostyKevin said:
There's no fish in the tank.

Ok, I'll buy some mysis shrimp. I just don't think they will stay on the LPS long enough for it to eat the food.

It's a big plus when you don't have fish (and shrimps) ... way easier to feed the lps!! Just turn off any powerheads and target feed the corals. It's that easy ... I hand feed my lps from Donut, Hammers, Frogspawn, Duncans, Dendros. shrooms, acans, lobos etc.

Leave the powerheads off for at least 1 hour before turning them back on again ... most LPS are slow feeders.

HTh,
Paul

CJO · Aug 16, 2011

FrostyKevin said:
There's no fish in the tank.

Ok, I'll buy some mysis shrimp. I just don't think they will stay on the LPS long enough for it to eat the food.

Frozen mysis, not live! You might want to get a nice blended frozen food, like Rod's, and use that so that you get a bunch of different types.

CJ

Tab28 · Aug 16, 2011

Many LPS like acans, favia, scoly are dramatic when they eat larger food like mysis or pellets. Chalices are slow eaters but you can see the mouth open and slowly take the food in. Kinda like a snake swallowing a rat. Frog spawn, hammers, torch are less dramatic you will see the food disappear toward the mounth when they catch it and sometimes see the inflatted mouth after it is done eating kinda like an anemone. When I feed my SPS dry coral which is normally too small for the drama of a LPS. The LPS send out their tenticles and do eat the floating dust like particles they just grab the dust and put the tenticles into the mouth.