Reef Discussion

[Ian G]

I've never seen this before. It occurred about an hour after I was fiddling in the tank, they had also been target fed the day before. Any thoughts on this? Good/Normal/Bad?

 

[OSCAR85]

lol no idea but thanks for posting

 

[chrispc66]

Normal where target feeding performed.....zoas don't expel zooanthalle so it must be a waste product from the food.

I'm interested in what you fed them?

 

[Ian G]

I make a mixture of minced frozen mysid, minced frozen brine shrimp, garlic (juice from jar of minced garlic) & minced marinara mix from Safeway/Woolies. I mince it as finely as I possibly can and freeze it into small blocks. Then when I'm feeding I get a cup of tank water, 1/4 teaspoon of 100% Reef Safe Amino Acid, 10ml of Multisan coral food (because that's what I've got) & mix it like crazy.

I let the cube defrost in the water for an hour to let the aminos penetrate the food, then break up the cube with my fingers, mix like crazy again & feed with a turkey baster. I do that roughly every three days. The mixture keeps in the fridge for a week as long as you mince it and refreeze it really quickly in the initial step. I normally also add reefroids but in the gap since I last had this tank running I've misplaced them. Too expensive to buy another lot so I just persevere.

Consider this. My coco/feather duster worms retract as soon as anyone casts a shadow or the water movement changes. However if I carefully approach the aquarium & put a squirt of this mix into the water, they will stay out almost no matter what & I can put the baster right at the top of their crown. Check my TJ and you'll see how some of my other corals grab it and close up to digest it.

Seems to work for me but it does put a fair bit of nutrient into the tank. In my last tank that wasn't a problem as bristle worms, nassarius snails & brittlestars would quickly consume any waste. I'm still building those populations in this tank.

 

[deL]

My brown zoas produce smaller waste particles, almost like sand-grain sized or smaller and dark brown/black. No direct target feeding but I suspect they pick up rotifers and cyclops that I include in the cover-all frozen feeds.