What Happens When A Coral Isn't Fed

[ca1ore]

Sure?
They eat the rest of the digestion of the food your fish eat. Not bad, but enough?

Do you even trust in the quality of the food you give to your fish?

I don't. As I don't trust the quality of the ingredients used and the manufacture and preservation techniques used to prepare nor my fish food not mi dogs (and I try to bring them the best possible.)
Not saying it's bad either, but wouldn't trust only on it when in our hobbie now there are very good reef foods.

Pretty sure, yes! As to the rest .... ok ....

 

[PSXerholic]

Yes, I feed my corals daily. I feed the fishes a cube or two of frozen mysis daily. These cubes are thawed in green water I culture, and to this I add a drop of an amino acid supplement, a tiny pinch of yeast, as well as an engineered coral food. This feeds the corals directly. Various zooplankton also feed on some of this food and are eaten by the corals. Nutrient control is important when using this method - a skimmer runs at might to export uneaten microalgae (current levels: NO3-N = 0.5 ppm and Phosphorus as P = 0.05 ppm.)

Very nice experiment you did here ;-)
Funny to see an ol school reef enthusiast being so emotional touched by killing one of his corals.
Must be the respect to these highly complex, still very underestimated life forms which is a mix of a plant and an animal and it's own symbiotic bacterial biology within it's tissue layer....... fascinating.

Anyways, concerning food chain, there is unfortunately not a lot of data with your post, how the Nitrogens such as Ammonia, Nitrate and as well Nutrients such as Phosphates were at the time of the experiment. In case you would have had some Nitrates and Phosphates left during this time, I expect the Ammonia would have been the main limiting factor to the coral starvation? Knowing other nutrients such as Aminos and fatty acids are of importance as well, would the coral have passed away in your opinion if you would have supplemented Ammonium?

This appears like the traditional Zeolite starvation phenomenon where N & P are highly absorbed by the media prior feeding the nitrogen cycle and corals.

 

[Dana Riddle]

Very nice experiment you did here ;-)
Funny to see an ol school reef enthusiast being so emotional touched by killing one of his corals.
Must be the respect to these highly complex, still very underestimated life forms which is a mix of a plant and an animal and it's own symbiotic bacterial biology within it's tissue layer....... fascinating.

Anyways, concerning food chain, there is unfortunately not a lot of data with your post, how the Nitrogens such as Ammonia, Nitrate and as well Nutrients such as Phosphates were at the time of the experiment. In case you would have had some Nitrates and Phosphates left during this time, I expect the Ammonia would have been the main limiting factor to the coral starvation? Knowing other nutrients such as Aminos and fatty acids are of importance as well, would the coral have passed away in your opinion if you would have supplemented Ammonium?

This appears like the traditional Zeolite starvation phenomenon where N & P are highly absorbed by the media prior feeding the nitrogen cycle and corals.

Yes, you are correct. The scope of this experiment didn't include measuring nutrients. Hindsight is always 20/20! Might be worth replicating the procedure.

 

[madweazl]

Yes, you are correct. The scope of this experiment didn't include measuring nutrients. Hindsight is always 20/20! Might be worth replicating the procedure.

I never like losing things but I'm less saddened when the parent colony lives on in another tank (or it was a frag from my own tank). Somehow, I'm ok with killing those LOL.

 

[Dana Riddle]

I never like losing things but I'm less saddened when the parent colony lives on in another tank (or it was a frag from my own tank). Somehow, I'm ok with killing those LOL.

That sounds like as close to a second motion to look at nutrients' (or lack thereof) effects on aquarium corals.

 

[Gobi-Wan]

I'm probably missing something here but what was being measured by placing a coral in 240 gallons of water with the waste content of 2 small fish? Truly no offense intended here... but this isn't even close to the average condition presented to corals in the hobby which aren't "specifically fed"

 

[Dana Riddle]

I'm probably missing something here but what was being measured by placing a coral in 240 gallons of water with the waste content of 2 small fish? Truly no offense intended here... but this isn't even close to the average condition presented to corals in the hobby which aren't "specifically fed"

The scope of this procedure was to look at the effects of spectral quality on 40 coral fragments. The two fishes were lightly fed and the corals not at all (deliberately.) In addition to the 240, there was a 100-gallon sump with an old ETS skimmer. Taking chlorophyll measurements was almost an afterthought. True, this is not representative of the majority of aquariums, it clearly shows a loss of chlorophyll. I believe this to be due to low nutrient loading.

 

[Mark Gray]

They can get most of their required carbon but insufficient nitrogen will cause zoox starvation. You are feeding your corals with fish poop. Two small fishes in this 240-gallon tank was not sufficient to feed the coral IMO.

I have a question Dana. Do you think that maybe the oceans corals are staring to starve from over fishing? I have been on some of the big Trawlers and they pull truck loads of fish every hour.