Should I target feed corals?

[Rscomia]

Should I target feed my corals or will just adding brine and mysis to the water work?

 

[Codyheitmiller]

How many corals u got? I usually let mine do there own thing but sometimes I add phytoplankton to the water

 

[Rscomia]

At this point I have three A golden gorgonian a purple blade gorgonian and a trumpet coral I plan on more but it seems like it would be a lot of target feeding when I do if it is needed

 

[Codyheitmiller]

I would just add it to the water, how old is your tank?

 

[Rscomia]

About 3 months

 

[Fishguy2727]

The gorgonians will need more food than just tossing stuff in the water. You need to research what they eat and get some high quality foods if they have any chance. There are multiple methods of target feeding corals like that. One is to use a turkey baster or feeder made for reef tanks and squirt food upflow of them, you coudl even use a pipette from a test kit. Some people cut the bottom off a tow liter soda bottle and when they feed they put the bottle over the coral and squirt food in the little hole where the cap was. This keeps the food around the coral while it has time to eat it all.

The best foods will be stuff like Golden Pearls, Cyclopeeze, Reef Nutrition foods, etc. They can't eat big stuff like mysis and even brine.

If you try adding it to the water either two things will happen, the corals will die because they never get enough food or the tank turns in to an algae farm because you are feeding so much.

 

[Rscomia]

Even if its baby brine?

 

[Fishguy2727]

There are much better foods for them. If you try to feed stuff that barely feeds them they will simply starve more slowly. I saw this happen a lot while I was running the fish shop. If you want corals like this you have to step up and give them what they need.

 

[Rscomia]

I hear alot about Cyclopeeze would the turkey baster method work with this?

 

[Codyheitmiller]

Is 3 months a little early for reefs? And thanks for stepping in, I was speaking for soft corals.

 

[Fishguy2727]

Three months is not too soon for corals in general, but I would definitely move up in hardiness, not jump in to more demanding corals like this.

 

[Codyheitmiller]

You should get some star polyps! There GREAT. Along with a frogspawn, I LOVE mine

 

[Rscomia]

I do have some star polyps in my other tank but thats all the coral for it.

 

[Rscomia]

Three months is not too soon for corals in general, but I would definitely move up in hardiness, not jump in to more demanding corals like this.

More hardy corals? I thought these were good beginers from what I had read I must be going the wrong direction

 

[kay-bee19]

The trumpet coral you have (calaustrea sp.) is very hardy.

With the size of their feeder tentacles they'd probaby be better suited to being fed larger items such as mysis shrimp (concerning the trumpets, feeding is optional, not a requirement).

 

[Fishguy2727]

Gorgonians are not good start corals.

I would start with the hardiest: Zoanthids and mushrooms. If you want Xenia it can go in early too. It is hardy, but is sensitive to changes in pH, temp, salinity, etc. so it needs a long acclimation. After that you can move on to hardy LPS (most popular is Euphyllia spp.), hardy SPS like Montipora spp., etc. Then you can move on to more challenging LPS, SPS, and clams. Obviously you need to stop early if your system can't handle certain corals because of lighting or other issues.

 

[Rscomia]

Well since I do have the gorgonians what do I need to do to keep them healthy?

 

[Codyheitmiller]

Move them to the top depending on your lighting

 

[Fishguy2727]

That may or may not help if they are photosynthetic gorgonians, which most aren't. What species are they? Can you get a scientific name, or at least a Genus?

 

[RYANLAWRENCE]

On liveaquaria.com it says gorgonians are expert only. I guess since they require specialized feeding