Feeding and growth of LPS

[Paul B]

I was just looking through some pictures from a couple of years ago and I noticed the progression of one of my Euphyllia type of corals.
These are an easier type of coral to keep but I didn't realize it had grown so much because I see it every day.
I think this first picture is about 3 years ago, then two years ago, then today.
In the last picture the coral is about 10" across but most of it is in the dark and can't be seen.
I feed this, and all my LPS clams almost every day and it seems to have a positive outcome on their growth. I also feed this coral pellets that I soak in fish oil.
At first I had a problem with it as I do with all small things in the tank due to the urchin

I feed fresh clams (which I freeze) by slicing off tissue thin slivers. Clams are hard to cut and messy if they are not frozen. One chowder clam is about 75 cents and lasts a couple of weeks. All of my animals including the fish get clams as well as live worms. Clams are a very good food because they are one of the only foods besides mysis and worms where we can feed the entire animal and not just the muscle as what happens when we feed scalop, squid or fish fillets. Almost all of the nutrients are in the guts of the animal.

 

[BigAl07]

Great idea re: Frozen clam! I'm going to have to give that a try.

Great looking FrogSpawn.

 

[willandcorina]

How do you feed it my frogspawn grows slow so I should feed more but not sure how thanks

 

[Paul B]

I freeze a chowder clam then with a sharp knife I shave small slivers off of it. Then I shoot the pieces towards the mouths with a baster.

I use one of these

 

[willandcorina]

Damn that's a lot of Basters

 

[estanoche]

hehe yeah - share the wealth Paul!! hehe - how often do you get food stuck in the cap of the basters?? I swear, it always happens like that for me, and then I end up squirting the coral with water instead of food!

 

[jrgilles]

I use a 60 ml syringe attached to a plastic tube by a piece of airline tubing, works great

 

[Paul B]

- how often do you get food stuck in the cap of the basters??

Never happened yet. When I feed the corals I just get the food in the clear part and squirt it in. I only fill the thing completely when I am feeding mysis or some other small stuff like worms.