Metroplex in food - how reef-safe is it?

[Claus84]

Hi all,

I know that metro is supposedly reef-safe so long as it is bound into food to prevent leaching in to the water but does anyone know if any inverts such as shrimp would be affected if they were to eat the food mix?

I'm treating my fish in QT anyway so not an issue but just curious as I know if I were to put this in my reef tank the shrimp would be all over it and my conch would probably hoover up some leftovers!

Thanks

Nick

 

[chefjpaul]

I lost both cleaner shrimp because they were eating the food bound with focus, snails were fine.

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

Great to know!

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Ive been feeding metro laced food twice a day for over a week. I drop an entire frozen chunk of medicated food in the tank and the big fish bite right off it, and the smaller fish get the scraps. I think this way is pretty good at minimizing unintended inverts consuming the food... until last week, when a fire shrimp grabbed the entire cube and ran into the rocks with it. Thought he was a goner but he's still doing fine... corals pick up the scraps as well and seem unaffected.

 

[Claus84]

I lost both cleaner shrimp because they were eating the food bound with focus, snails were fine.

wow that is good to know, sorry to hear about the shrimp, Seachem should really claim that it is coral safe I guess rather than reef safe, or at least put a caveat on the website

 

[chefjpaul]

wow that is good to know, sorry to hear about the shrimp, Seachem should really claim that it is coral safe I guess rather than reef safe, or at least put a caveat on the website

My shrimp did eat a LOT with the fishes at feedings, I did know better, but still risked it. Sucks, as I had them both for years.

 

[ngoodermuth]

It's best to feed medicated food in very small amounts at a time, with flow off, so that the fish consume almost all with little waste. I think SOME could be consumed accidentally without incident, but you don't want a ton going to your inverts/corals.

 

[aykwm]

^ Agree, you can also run carbon just in case any medication leached from food it will be neutralized by the carbon.

 

[melypr1985]

I agree with the rest. You want to try hard not to let your inverts or corals eat medicated food. Feeding small amounts, slowly is the best way I've found to make that happen.