feeding acans & blastos

[phenom5]

hey,

i've never really kept any corals that required target feeding before. now i've got a little acan frag, and i've got a blasto frag coming in an order that should be here any minute now.

what should i feed these guys?

i've heard silversides/ mysis/ oyster eggs/ so on...

quick question about the mysis, should i use the freeze dried stuff, or what?


thanks

[Justin74]

Silversides are too big IMO, mysid would be the food of choice and as about as big as you want to give em. Takes a couple minutes for them to choke one down and if the portion is too big it will take more time and more than likely not make it's gullet as a hermit, or shrimp will be quick to take the candy from your babies.

Between the two blasto and acan, I would feel more inclined to feed the blasto directly. Acans do fine left alone, but of course with good feeding and good water they will grow faster, but I think it's more important with Blasto's. Health and growth are actually noticeable with frequent feedings, which normally blastos are painfully slow growers.

I would just feed once a week since the tank is new, after 3-4 weeks being able to keep a handle on water quality then you may want to consider vamping it up to 2x a week. Basically what I shoot for is 'heavy feeding and heavy exportation', just can't have one without the other though.

Good luck with your new pieces!

-Justin

[phenom5]

Silversides are too big IMO, mysid would be the food of choice and as about as big as you want to give em. Takes a couple minutes for them to choke one down and if the portion is too big it will take more time and more than likely not make it's gullet as a hermit, or shrimp will be quick to take the candy from your babies.

i figured i would chop up the silversides...sounds messy though. i also figured i'd create some sort of feeding bell with a water/ soda bottle.

Between the two blasto and acan, I would feel more inclined to feed the blasto directly. Acans do fine left alone, but of course with good feeding and good water they will grow faster, but I think it's more important with Blasto's. Health and growth are actually noticeable with frequent feedings, which normally blastos are painfully slow growers.

thanks for the info. i haven't been feeding the acan, and it seems to be doing well, but i figured i might as well start spot feeding it along with the blasto.

I would just feed once a week since the tank is new, after 3-4 weeks being able to keep a handle on water quality then you may want to consider vamping it up to 2x a week. Basically what I shoot for is 'heavy feeding and heavy exportation', just can't have one without the other though.

the tank isn't new, it's been up for over a year, with a good amount of the LR from a previous tank that was setup for nearly 3 years. i'll definitely start out feeding pretty light though, and work my way up from there.

[Benny Z]

i feed every acan head a single piece of mysis daily and am seeing phenominal growth.

[Justin74]

Originally posted by Benny Z
i feed every acan head a single piece of mysis daily and am seeing phenominal growth.

That's a pretty loaded statement that could very easily be misinterpreted and do real damage and foul a tank if followed without knowing all the details. For example, this thread is someone asking advice on appropriate feeding. If someone has a 20g tank with a small acan colony ranging from 20-30 mouths, to feed 20-30 mysid shrimp daily would take about all of 3 weeks to see an overly exhausted bio lode and a nitrate and phosphate spike to boot.

But for someone with a few colonies feeding 30-40 mysid shrimp in an established 200g+ system, may be just what the doctor ordered..

Obviously it sounds as phenom5 wont have this problem as he's been around long enough to interpret the information and implement it according to his system since he's had a year to get a feel for what his system can handle and what it cant. But for the newbie coming along not knowing his system's capabilities and limitations could learn to get frustrated real quick if he's under the impression that heavy daily feeding alone equals success. Just a word of caution is all

-Justin

[sufunk]

I used to feed my acans and blasto's every other night but am now down to maybe 1 time a week. I cut off a pretty big chunk of frozen cyclo and thaw it in a few ml's of tankwater so it is thick and soupy. I then turn off my pumps and use a small plastic syringe to target feed them. I would then try to give as many heads as possible each a little squirt of the frozen cyclo. Whatever doesn't stick to the heads gets eaten by my fish or other corals.

[Khaari]

I usually feed cyclops once a week also

[jsousa]

Same here. I actually mix the cyclopeeze with Coral Vibrance and spot feed everything in my tank once a week, right before my water change. It's an awesome system. I'm very proud of it. :-)

[Benny Z]

Originally posted by Justin74
That's a pretty loaded statement that could very easily be misinterpreted and do real damage and foul a tank if followed without knowing all the details. For example, this thread is someone asking advice on appropriate feeding. If someone has a 20g tank with a small acan colony ranging from 20-30 mouths, to feed 20-30 mysid shrimp daily would take about all of 3 weeks to see an overly exhausted bio lode and a nitrate and phosphate spike to boot.

But for someone with a few colonies feeding 30-40 mysid shrimp in an established 200g+ system, may be just what the doctor ordered..

Obviously it sounds as phenom5 wont have this problem as he's been around long enough to interpret the information and implement it according to his system since he's had a year to get a feel for what his system can handle and what it cant. But for the newbie coming along not knowing his system's capabilities and limitations could learn to get frustrated real quick if he's under the impression that heavy daily feeding alone equals success. Just a word of caution is all

-Justin

absolutely true.