Fish Eggs...

[reefmarker]

Anthony,

I went to the local oriental food store today looking for "flying fish eggs." No luck. I got some "fish eggs for rice / masago" which I then went on the Internet and did some searching.

I did find Masago which I found out was capelin roe. Is this ok to feed coral (especially an elegance)?

I will go out again next week and ask for tobiko which is flying fish roe. The local oriental food stores don't speak any english which meens you have to ask for exactly what you want.

I also found pollack roe which I almost bought. I discovered on the Internet that the pollack roe is usually salted and spiced with hot pepper! It was in a weird little shape like a hot chilli pepper to put into soup, so I didn't buy it.

[Anthony Calfo]

as long as they are unseasoned eggs (raw/plain) its all good... and you should try a variety of eggs to get what you need. Fish eggs in general though are rather large for corals (as tiny as those flying fish eggs may seem). Mush smaller eggs are needed for species like Acropora. But for larger polyped corals like your Elegant, or Tubastrea and so many others... many fish eggs are outstanding food offerings.

For the smaller polyped stonies, do try DTs Natural Diet: oyster eggs. I peeped some sps grabbing these indeed with that mesoscope! :)

But not all corals will eat all such eggs fo course. Filter feeders at large are VERY discriminating about particle size, shape and texture.

Keep experimenting my friends with your specific corals.

Use a magnifying glass (jewelers variety is fab!) to see if what you are feeding is actually getting ingested and not merely grabbed and released.

kind regards to all,

Anthony

[enitnelaVeyaF]

what about urchin eggs, Uni?
I've heard that is easy to find (although perhaps not easy to find without preservatives...) and works well for smaller corals, like zoanthids.

[Anthony Calfo]

Uni is too delicious to share with fishes :p Too expensive too outside of SoCal as well :D

[wildcats]

What would you ask for if you wanted urchin eggs?

Can you buy oster eggs in bulk similar to DT new formula?

[enitnelaVeyaF]

"Uni" is urchin eggs.

[Anthony Calfo]

Dts oyster eggs are super small (~ 1/10 the size of Cyclop-eeze)... thats what makes them so fabulous it seems for some sps corals that to date have been very (!) difficult top target feed otherwise.

They have no culinary purpose (too small)... DTs product is quite unique as far as I know.

A very small amount of it goes a long way too :)

[ShallowWaters]

Is DT's selling oyster eggs yet? Can somebody tell me where to buy them?

[Anthony Calfo]

the DTs product is called "Natures Diet" as I recall... do check out there website for more info and links/e-mail to a dealer near you.

I've heard friends on the board mention several vendors/sponsors currently selling it :)

Anthony

[ShallowWaters]

Thanks. I spoke with Dennis at DT's. He hasn't had a chance to update their website with oyster egg info, but was very good about recommending a local store for me.

I can shamelessly point out Premium Aquatics is also carrying it. But it's not on their web site either. Will they send me a free t-shirt for the promotional effort? :)

Since were on the topic of egg-like things, what size golden pearls do you recommend for SPS?

Thanks!

[Anthony Calfo]

you'd have to experiment with various sized golden pearls (like fresh eggs)( to get the right ones for your specific corals. There is a big difference in polyp size between sps like Porites cylindricus and Poccillopora damicornis. Corals are very discriminating about particle/prey size... too big or too little is often refused or regurgitated.

Thanks kindly for the followup re: DTs egg availability :)