Terrible Advice Tuesdays: Most soft corals including zoanthids and gorgonians depend almost exclusively on phytoplankton for their nutritional needs. (In case you didnt know, phytoplankton is one type of food that is commonly fed to corals) The rest of the story: Where is the head-hanging-and-shaking-head emoticon when I need it? This advice couldnt be farther from the truth. Zoanthids (a.k.a. zoas) and gorgonians are known for being easy keepers that dont require supplemental feeding of phytoplankton. Zoanthids are commonly kept in saltwater tanks and heres what Julian Sprung, author and one of the most respected names in the saltwater aquarium industry has to say about them, Zoanthus spp. do not need to be fed directly, since they obtain much of their nutritional requirements from their symbiotic zooxanthellae. They must therefore be provided with adequate illumination to thrive. Julian continues to talk about Palythoa spp., commonly known as palys and often confused with zoas, Protopalythoa spp. have symbiotic zooxanthellae and must be kept under moderate to strong illumination to thrive. [source: advancedaquarist/2003/2/inverts#section-5] If either of these corals depended on phytoplankton for their nutritional needs, there would be no need to mention their lighting needs. Note that there are a few types of non-photosynthetic zoas and these are not commonly kept in saltwater aquariums. Moving onto gorgonians, non-photosynthetic gorgonians do exist which obviously need supplemental feeding. Photosynthetic gorgonians, however, get nearly all their nutritional needs from zooxanthellae and require little, if any supplemental feeding, When illuminated with sufficient light the Caribbean photosynthetic gorgonians do not require much feeding to grow in captivity... [source: advancedaquarist/2004/3/inverts] Again, photosynthetic gorgonians depended on phytoplankton for their nutritional needs, there would be no need to mention their lighting needs. Having kept several photosynthetic gorgonians in my tank as well as my client tanks, none of these corals were given supplemental food and they grew quite well. If someone asserts that most gorgonians and zoas need to be fed to survive, feel free to share this article with them to set them straight. Of course, no need to waste your money on food for these corals.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 12:00:44 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015