Should you target feed your mushrooms?

[Uriken]

Live "Black Worms". Not always the easiest to get but "all" my corals respond to them being alive and slowly absorb them. I was one day at a local saltwater shop and they would bag and sell portions next to the live brine. I tried them one day and never looked back. Fish love them also. I just keep them in a shallow container of RODI in the fridge and they last a month easily. Everyday I just take a bit out and target feed the corals and let the fish have their share (garlic on the ones for the fish). The only issue I had was at times the store doesn't have them but I found vendors on line that sell them with next day shipping. They sell them by 1/8th, 1/4, 1/2, and full pounds. My ricordea used to be a nickel sized in diameter. Now feeding with the worms they are 50 cent piece size and multiply like crazy.

 

[boeingn747]

How many of you guys are target feeding your mushrooms? Do you find that target feeding makes a difference in growth/multiplication rate? Is it better for mushrooms that are bigger? Smaller? Share your experiences with us!

Hungry mushrooms photo by @Ben Weaver

That is a great question! Yes, I do target feed my shrooms if all varieties. It's hard to know if it does any good becasue I don't have a control value. I dose ab+ on day 1, and I target feed reef roids on day 3, and I target feed oyster feast on day 5. I have always done that. I think I have good growth. I would say that out of all my shrooms, the 3 varieties of Harry rhodactis that I have will visibly close up around the food 80% of the time and the most out of all my varieties. The other varieties of rhodactis will close up maybe 60% of the time, while my discosoma almost never close up, my ricordea yuma almost never, Florida maybe 30%-40% of the time and my st.thomas maybe 20% of the time. When they get fed and close up I feel like they are eating. When they don't close up, it's hard to know if they are eating anything or not. I love mushrooms, one of my favorite corals, and I have a ton of them. They grow good for me, some of them almost to good. I guess as long as my nitrates and phosphates stay at a reasonably low level .1 or below, I will continue to feed them.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

My yuma seems to actively catch food while my riccordias do not.

Mine are the opposite, lol - my rics are voracious eaters whenever bits of shrimp etc land on them. My yuma could care less!

 

[gibec]

If it takes weeks or months to see the improvement, how do you know it's from feeding? Not disagreeing btw, genuinely curious. I've had mixed results with target feeding.

I thought that too, but now i just gave up in having doubts.. because there is no 100 percent in this hobby.
If you eat more you gain more weight.. its just the nature of how things "grow". Of course there are corals that grow with light, but if it can eat im sure this rule applies.

 

[ID-Reefer]

I’ve never target fed. At this point with the exception of my Yuma and FL Rics, I’d be more inclined to target kill/remove if I could. I regret most shrooms I’ve put in.