Target or broadcast Zoanthid's nutrition: what do you feed 'em?

[cnseekatz]

I've always had great success with Zs & Ps, and I've never fed directly. That being said, I keep a "dirty" tank... I feed my fish and corals a lot and don't do a ton of water changes. Fish food, and fish poop, with lots of light and flow, that's all you need.

 

[Sabellafella]

I have fed some of them before, here and there i may squirt some food on them. Now im not sure if it helped with color or growth, but i personally think phosphate plays a role big time with zoas. I have a problem with mine bleaching/brightning when my phosphate hits under .01 for an extended period of time

 

[A. grandis]

Stuff like fauna marin, sustainable aquatics, new era, coral frenzy pellets. Grandis would eat a kitchen sink if it came down to it =) .. also its hard to explain, from what ive seen, the palys like agave/candy apple/ that are larger will usually snag some food out the water and eat it. The smaller zoas usually show absolutely no interest in feedings.

I've never heard of the Sustainable Aquatics's pellets nor the New era. Thanks! They must have good nutritional value!
I think all the zoanthids do ingest particle foods and the reason people think they don't is just because they don't stop to watch the polyps closely enough. All my Hawaiian zoanthids ingest most foods i offer. Any species in my system.
Grandis.

 

[Sabellafella]

I've never heard of the Sustainable Aquatics's pellets nor the New era. Thanks! They must have good nutritional value!
I think all the zoanthids do ingest particle foods and the reason people think they don't is just because they don't stop to watch the polyps closely enough. All my Hawaiian zoanthids ingest most foods i offer. Any species in my system.
Grandis.

Funny you say this, because i was going to explain earlier that almost all the hawaian zoas slirp up food right away

 

[Triggreef]

Thanks... what are the ones that don't eat. I would like to see pictures because I'm totally confused with cartoon names... they can be called different names by many people...
Do you feed your polyps?
Grandis.

Just my opinions. The ones i feel absolutely eat...
Grandis

Nuclear greens, purple death, red death all these type. Which i won the r2r grow out with, just saying.

But i feel these do not, and simply close up due to irritation.

Scrambled eggs

King Midas

And these bigger types maybe.

My favorite, i do not think eat.

And i been known to grow some zoas

 

[A. grandis]

I've always had great success with Zs & Ps, and I've never fed directly. That being said, I keep a "dirty" tank... I feed my fish and corals a lot and don't do a ton of water changes. Fish food, and fish poop, with lots of light and flow, that's all you need.

Oh man...
That's why I wrote in my first post about it...
The terms "dirty water" and " fish poop" have been largely used for years and years when we talk about zoa nutrition and feeding...
I do understand that zoanthids absorb nutrients from the water. They do better in mature systems than in brand new tanks. But to extend that to "dirty water" is not fully true. Also "fish poop" isn't food for zoanthids. Did you ever tried to actually feed your zoanthids fishes' feces? The polyps will either reject or ignore it. I've tried many times. So that isn't true at all. The term dirty water sound terrible.

Explaining the "myth":
Perhaps the best way to say how those terms started is because the decomposition of fish feces and also fish food will allow dissolved nutrients to be available in the water column to the zoanthids. We all know that. I'm sorry, but that shouldn't count as feeding. That natural process is part of any system and happens naturally. The thread is about the actual feeding of zoanthids using liquid or particle foods, in a broadcast or targeting way. Light is also in my first post as something to ignore for this thread.

Thanks for posting anyways...

Grandis.

 

[A. grandis]

I have fed some of them before, here and there i may squirt some food on them. Now im not sure if it helped with color or growth, but i personally think phosphate plays a role big time with zoas. I have a problem with mine bleaching/brightning when my phosphate hits under .01 for an extended period of time

That is very interesting...
I aways thought that phosphates would actually make them more colorful, but I've never paid attention to the levels and watched the feeding to relate the two.
Grandis.

 

[A. grandis]

Just my opinions. The ones i feel absolutely eat...
Grandis

Nuclear greens, purple death, red death all these type. Which i won the r2r grow out with, just saying.

But i feel these do not, and simply close up due to irritation.

Scrambled eggs

King Midas

And these bigger types maybe.

My favorite, i do not think eat.

And i been known to grow some zoas

I'm not known to be growing zoas and I've never had those zoanthids before because I have only Hawaiian ones, therefore I have no idea. I appreciate very much you showing them and I know there will be many friends here taking advantage of the post to learn with that.
Grandis.

 

[A. grandis]

Here is a very simple video I've found about feeding zoanthids:

Enjoy,
Grandis.

 

[A. grandis]

Funny you say this, because i was going to explain earlier that almost all the hawaian zoas slirp up food right away

Yeah, that's what I think too.
'Cause I've heard many saying that their small polyps won't grab food at all. Those small polyps aren't from Hawaii, but from South Pacific and Atlantic. By the way... I've heard that some Atlantic species require different care in regards to water temperature and water chemistry, but i'm not sure if that is really the case...
Grandis.

 

[A. grandis]

I've never saw this color before! Very nice!

Big HUGE crab!!!!!

Grandis.

 

[A. grandis]

Another nice video showing Polyp Lab's Polyp Booster and Reef Roids.
I've never used Polyp Booster yet.
I like the zoas, but the Alveopora, the Tubipora and the Cynarina are truly amazing too!!!!

Grandis.

 

[A. grandis]

This video shows small zoanthids feeding on Reef Roids:

Grandis.

 

[cameronh]

I know that @cameronh has tons of zoas.... collector zoas, regular zoas, really high end, probably a few low end too. He's somebody who should be able to add to the conversation.

I target feed my zoanthids with a baster once a week. I like to mix it up a bit with different types. It helps alot, I have a tank with zoas I do not target feed along with a tank that I do (which is the high end zoas) and I get thicker and quicker results than that of the non spot fed tank.

 

[Triggreef]

Here is a very simple video I've found about feeding zoanthids:

Enjoy,
Grandis.

These zoas don't appear to be eating to me. They appear to be slightly irritated from the "feeding" but you never see any of the skirts bringing food to the mouth. which would be clear response.

 

[TheEngineer]

I've found my palys do eat, but my zoas don't. I stopped broadcast feeding because it was driving my aiptasia population through the roof.

 

[Triggreef]

Another nice video showing Polyp Lab's Polyp Booster and Reef Roids.
I've never used Polyp Booster yet.
I like the zoas, but the Alveopora, the Tubipora and the Cynarina are truly amazing too!!!!

Grandis.

This video shows very obvious feeding response by all the corals, food sticking to tentacles, mouth opening, feeders extending. I look especially for some sort of "sticky" factor. The ones that eat tend to let food particles stick to them. I understand the thought that some of these zoas need particles so small you can't see them. But they either have a stickiness or they don't imo.

 

[TheEngineer]

This video shows very obvious feeding response by all the corals, food sticking to tentacles, mouth opening, feeders extending. I look especially for some sort of "sticky" factor. The ones that eat tend to let food particles stick to them. I understand the thought that some of these zoas need particles so small you can't see them. But they either have a stickiness or they don't imo.

Yes! Some seem to be "sticky" and the rest just seem to not have any ability to catch food.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

(I'm not much of a zoa guy)

You Will BE.

I have always been told to strain the juice from frozen foods,

I think quite a bit of that is super stition, or bad food. I really never have done it and never had poor results. Im only 8 or so years in so I could be wrong. I have had foods that my tank def didnt like, both others dont mind. LRS being the big one. weird right? its great food and well made.

totally weird, has any one put a piece of mysis on a zoa or paly just to see what happens? I have

 

[Triggreef]

This video shows small zoanthids feeding on Reef Roids:

Grandis.

So this video is made to market reef roids so it is made to show you that they are eating. I've done exactly this to some zoas that i feel don't eat and here is why i have that opinion. In this video those zoas got pummeled with so much so fast they had no choice to but to close from irritation. If you watch that zoa on the left of the main 3, as it closes it pushes out almost all of the food. The way it closes the skirt looks to be an effort to get that food out, not to catch and bring in as much as possible. That one on the far left also stays open half way through despite some of the food cloud going over it in the beginning. Had this been an "eating variety" something no matter how little would have stuck to the skirt and it would have begun closing earlier.

They also closed this video to early. When i watch them i watch them until they open back up. What i see is that with zoas similar to these where they push out the food as they close, when they open back up they are also pushing those partials back out and it slides of as they open. Again, just my .02.