Soft corals

M

mlinton

I have a few new corals in my tank and I would like to know how to feed them. I have read on a few websites that they like mysis shrimp and things like that but how do I feed it to them?
 
Hi mlinton!
well, a late welcome to the board.

Softies feeding.. it really depends on what kind. a lot of them are filter feeders, feeding off nutrients in the tank. many people feed their tank with phytoplankton a.k.a green algae water.

Xenias and anthelias.. i have never seen them actually "eat" anything. They are strictly filter feeders...
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green start polyps too, dont' "eat" anything really...
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Toadstool leathers feed off of micro stuff in the water
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Most zoanthids are filter feeders too, but I've seen those that will open up the "mouth" to eat
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Tree corals and colt corals, generally are filter feeders, but if the polyps are big enough to close up on certain foods, they will too.
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Whereas softies that look like they have a mouth (palythoa polyps):
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you can feed them with small food (shrimp, cyclopeez etc), and the polyps will close up.

These yellow polyps will do the same:
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When it comes to mushrooms and ricordias, some of them will close up on food to eat, some won't. Mushrooms spread like weeds so there's no need to feed!
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so pretty much softies w/ polyps can eat micro foods, or larger foods, depending on what they can fit into their "mouths". But feeding is almost unnecessary most of the time, since over feeding can cause lots of problems. Let me put it this way, if you don't feed them, they won't die, if you feed them, they grow faster (but may pollute your water faster too)

did i miss anything?
 
thank you very much for the very detail explanation. My husband is actually MLinton and he is not as new to this as I am. I am more into the corals and he the fish. But I thank you very much. That really puts things into perspective for me.
 
thank you very much for the very detail explanation. My husband is actually MLinton and he is not as new to this as I am. I am more into the corals and he the fish. But I thank you very much. That really puts things into perspective for me.
 
could not put it better my self. just a Suggestion too rotifers, cyclopeez, are real good foods too for filter feeders, after i started to use cyclopeez in my tank alot of my corals started to color up more especially any corals with red hues to them.
 
thank you for the suggestions. How often should I feed? I now only have 2 corals in the tank. Long story. But I am not sure how often I should add food to the tank.
 
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