Tubstrea / Balanophyllia Non-Photosynthetic LPS Coral Feeding
- May 02, 2022
- Anshika Mishra
- 191 0 0
Non-photosynthetic corals are some of the most beautiful corals out there. However, they are very high maintenance and require regular daily feeding.
The best way to feed them is to break the feeding into two parts:
Step 1: Triggering
The initial feed is just enough to trigger the coral's feeding response. For example, it takes non-photosynthetic corals like the Sun coral several minutes to open.
The polyps that start more open slowly eat the food; the other nearby polyps can detect this and follow suit by opening up themselves.
Step 2: Intensive Feeding
Now that the corals are entirely open, it is time to administer the second, heavier feeding. May reefers like to use a turkey baster to target feed the corals.
There are also many other ways to feed them.
Some prefer to use a feeding container that keeps the food near the coral and fishes and inverts away. Some refer even gone as far as creating a constant feeding system that slowly administers food over several hours.
The Only Precaution
Although we are focusing on feeding the non-photosynthetic coral here, feeding corals, in general, is a good practice, and any coral can benefit from it.
Like the Sun coral, several other types of large-polyp non-photosynthetic coral-like Dendraphillia can benefit from target feeding.
The only precaution you need to take is to not over-feed the tank. You want to make sure that most of the food makes it into the coral so it doesn't go up to being pollutants for the tank.
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