Lets talk about feeding these things.

[musicsmaker]

I've never actually fed mine. I have however witnessed one of my larger polyps closing up aroung a piece of flake food. Did it eat it? Believe it or not, I think it did.

Does anyone who target feeds their zoos care to share your method with the rest of us? What do you make the food out of, and what do you use to deliver it to the colony?

[lakerfan]

My zoos probably consume some of the prime reef and bioplankton (LiquidLife USA) that I feed my tank. It's only a 15 gal, so they should be getting some of it.

I don't know if they prefer the bigger pieces or not, but there are a few other people that I know of that target feed.

[icebear]

i was going to ask this, cause i don't know if i'm doing it right...whatever 'right' is.... i just mix up some (about 1/2 tsp)Coral Heaven in about a cup of tank water, stir intill the particles break up a bit and then use a big turkey injector syringe to kinda crop dust it over the open polyps (after unplugging the PHs).... my fish go nuts and my hermits start to dance, most of the polyps get a few particles and they close around them, the ones who don't close get dusted again, a few minutes later some start to open, if i have more CH left i will float some more over them and see who gets it...
i dunno.....
the PH come back on when everyone opens back up.
sound ok to everyone...?

[Eric Boerner]

I target feed mine twice a week.

Recipe #1. 2 parts - Finely chopped frozen mysid shrimp. 1 - part Blended zooplankton. 3 parts - Saltwater. Put it in a turkey baster and squirt it on each of the colonies slowly. I usually feed my fish right before I do this, so they don't pluck the chunks away from the polyps.

Recipe #2. Kent Marine's Micro-Vert. I target feed this to the polyps every other feeding. Same deal with the turkey baster.

But... Nothing beats good ol heavy light for Zoanthids.

[Eric Boerner]

Also... When I feed whole mysid to my fish, a few stray shrimp will fall in my Palythoa grands. It's like watching an anemone eat a shrimp. It goes down pretty fast.

[icebear]

Oup, might help to mention that i take the giganticus sized injector needle OFF the syringe when i use it to feed:D

i get a finer spread that way....

my fish, they do get fed first, but they take a lot of interst in the CH anyway, besides, when they nibble around the rocks for the food, they stir it up and even more of it lands in the polyps. If i fed them to bursting before i feed the polyps i bet i'd have a nitrate issue again LOL

[cellexjohn]

Well just for reference. I "shave" (scraping the frozen food with a steak knife) brine shrimp and some mysis shrimp off of the frozen block. It makes for some pretty small particals that i then feed the Zoos with a small eye dropper that i got from the drug store. it seems to work rather well. I lightly brush the eyedropper aginst the tenticals and as they start to close i give it a light squeeze. Cutting down the water flow helps to keep all the food from scattering. I never used to feed corals in the past but thought with my new set-up I would try something different.

Just my 2 cents worth

[Mikefromaz]

I had a hunch that these palys eat more than sunlight just by the mouth they have. One night when I was feeding the fish some brine shrimp, which I squirt out of a pipette, I decided to pepper the polyps with a few shrimp. Not only did they eat them, they gulped! I amazed that on average it takes about 1 minute for them to grab a shrimp, eat it, and reopen......way faster than my Anemone :)

[Rothie]

Mine Zoos eat like pigs! They don't seem to care about the size of the food. My Yellow polys are ravenous. I target feed everything in my tank(except the SPS) twice a week. I use soft and moist krill pellets most of the time. I also use Coral Heaven mixed in with frozen fish food once a week.

[bookfish]

I'm feeding rotifers once a day and Reeds clam and coral once a day. Things are growng well.-Jim

[Juan-Carlos]

This is How I do it, I feed my whole tank Dt's Phyto twice a week, Marc weise black powder once a week, and I occationally use roti-rich made by florida aqua farms its a yeast based formula but I use this like once a month or so, dirtys the water too much IMO. But I do see my zoos catch the frozen fish foods as well as flakes and spectrum pellets, So their diet is pretty variable:)

They seem to love it.

-Juan-Carlos

[johnjr]

What do you think of the black powder? Is it worth adding or does it polute the tank too much?

[Juan-Carlos]

Well John, there are mixed feeling about Marc's products. I personally like Black powder the corals eat it and No its never polluted the water for me. Spectra vital on the other hand I hate, it clouds the water too much. But I recomend black powder from my personal experience.

-Juan-Carlos

[TS]

Can you guys clarify what you feed to your palythoa/yellow polyps versus the smaller zoanthus?

I'm interested to know if zoanthus benefit from feedings, seems like it would have to be very fine stuff like micro-vert...

Every time I check one of these zo feeding threads it seems to focus on what palythoa eat... mine eat everything, I'm not too concerned with them.

So if any of you would be kind enough to let me know your experiences specifically with the zoanthus, I would really appreciate it and am willing to bet many others would benefit from this info as well.

Thanks,

Travis

[GratefulDiver]

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what kind of polyps I have (came in as hitchhikers on some very good live sand) but mine eat like pigs too. I don't spot feed them, but they QUICKLY down any of the bits of frozen brine I give the clowns. The way they gulp it down, I'm sure they'd take whatever came in reach.

[TS]

Palythoa.