So you feed your zoas?

turbo21 · Mar 4, 2014

I know there are many different schools of thought on feeding your corals

It's very easy to see that Lps benefit from spot feedings. But I have never seen a zoanthid or palythoa actually eat something

I have been keeping reefs for 15 years and zoas for just as long I have gone on kicks of feeding the corals and only feeding the fish. I have never seen a difference in growth or size of the polyps

I have seen them close on the food but IMO it's out of a protection reaction and have never seen them actually take the food in their mouth and digest it

I have gotten to the point in my reef keeping career that I am trying to simplify things as much as possible and eliminate all non essential tasks
(See my thread on phosphate lol)

What do you think?

Eric B · Mar 4, 2014

I never feed mine if they happen to get something floating by then good for them, but I only have zoas on a few rocks where they can't spread because I am more of an sps guy. It is not stopping the growth by not feeding as they are covering all the rocks that I have them placed on.

turbo21 · Mar 4, 2014

Eric B said:
I never feed mine if they happen to get something floating by then good for them, but I only have zoas on a few rocks where they can't spread because I am more of an sps guy. It is not stopping the growth by not feeding as they are covering all the rocks that I have them placed on.

Have you ever watched close enough to see them actually "swallow " the food? I have seen them close up a million times on food but when they open up the food is still there and then it floats away

Scribe · Mar 4, 2014

I'm with you turbo, I've fed in the past and not fed, and never noticed a difference either way. Some of the large Palys I have seen take food, but never noticed a difference in growt

brandon85 · Mar 4, 2014

Scribe said:
I'm with you turbo, I've fed in the past and not fed, and never noticed a difference either way. Some of the large Palys I have seen take food, but never noticed a difference in growt

If it eats, it grows....

Eric B · Mar 4, 2014

turbo21 said:
Have you ever watched close enough to see them actually "swallow " the food? I have seen them close up a million times on food but when they open up the food is still there and then it floats away

Nope never watched to see if they eat it or just let it go!

joshporksandwich · Mar 4, 2014

my son has an LPS tank and he spot feeds everything. Sometimes I tell him to feed my tank and this is what i see all over. I just turn off return and broadcast feed and see some of my stuff close but most of it stays the same

Scribe · Mar 5, 2014

Nice pictures.

joshporksandwich · Mar 5, 2014

Scribe said:
I'm with you turbo, I've fed in the past and not fed, and never noticed a difference either way. Some of the large Palys I have seen take food, but never noticed a difference in growt

+1 but i have friends that have great growth and they swear by it. I have too many things to spot feed.

TheAcroholic · Mar 5, 2014

I have been feeding reef roids to my tank. Since I started, zoa growth has been amazing.

Pete polyp · Mar 5, 2014

Josh is spot on with the pics. When I first got my rainbow palys I would feed each polyp one time a day with 1 mysis. I started with 2 polyps. I did this for 3 weeks and stopped. In that 3 weeks it grew to over 20 polyps. It was literally growing one polyp per day. I know for a fact they were swallowing the mysis because I would have to guard them for about 10 minutes so that the hermits didn't steal the food. I stopped and growth slowed considerably to about 2 polyps per week. I have recently started target feeding acro with reef roids and coral frenzy. I have a colony of AOG right next to a couple acro just down flow. When I feed the acro about 1/3 of the AOG close within seconds. They have always grown well, but since this growth has increased at least 300%.