What to feed a Torch coral

[cecho]

Was just wondering what everyone feeds their torch coral. Also, I have a hammer coral that I would like to know if i could feed something to it. Any help would be nice.

[Sploke]

I feed mysis and brine shrimp to my LPS corals about once a week, they seem to enjoy it.

[Amphiprion]

Basically anything relatively small and meaty. You'll have to experiment to find out exactly what they will accept, as each colony seems to have its own preferences.

[cecho]

Thanks for the advice. guess ill start trying out different food until i see which works.

[noskimmer]

I didn't realise you had to feed it!!... I have never actively fed mine, it just grows.. and my wife thinks that the unidentified coral that has spontaneously started to grow in the sump is torch coral.. and I have never fed that either..!

I think it just gets the left overs from the fish.

[Sploke]

Mine were growing well for several months before I started spot feeding them, so I'm pretty sure its not a requirement. They do show increased growth rates since I started though.

[Amphiprion]

It is as sploke says. It isn't required, but it certainly does boost their growth.

[cecho]

Thanks, I knew it was not a requirement I just wanted to know what could be feed to just give them a treat every now and then.

[BadRoma1]

I feeds the whole tank with marine snow. mine doesn't like taking anything. i have tried cyclopeeze and the coral took it then spit it out. so, i don't hand feed and already got more of them than my tank can hold. hopefully, i'll find bigger used tank soon.

[noskimmer]

Thanks, I knew it was not a requirement I just wanted to know what could be feed to just give them a treat every now and then.

I'm glad that we have realised that it isn't a requirement.

Of course we have to realise also that any type of perception of growth increase due to spot feeding is merely a perception, and can only be that without any elaborate controlled studies.... which our hobble lacks.

[Sploke]

So you're saying that if, for example, my hammer coral grew 1 new head in 3 months before spot feeding, and after starting spot feeding it grew 3 more heads in 2 months, I'm probably just imagining it, because it wasn't an "elaborate, controlled study"?

[Amphiprion]

So you're saying that if, for example, my hammer coral grew 1 new head in 3 months before spot feeding, and after starting spot feeding it grew 3 more heads in 2 months, I'm probably just imagining it, because it wasn't an "elaborate, controlled study"?

I think he was referring more so to perception in linear, continuous growth of corals, like Acroporids, not discrete growth like polyp fission (which is easily compared, even by hobby means).

[kryptic4l]

So you're saying that if, for example, my hammer coral grew 1 new head in 3 months before spot feeding, and after starting spot feeding it grew 3 more heads in 2 months, I'm probably just imagining it, because it wasn't an "elaborate, controlled study"?


can you prove that those heads wouldnt of appeared had you not been spot feeding

[Sploke]

No, but comparing the growth rate from before and after, each period being a several month observation, its easy to see an increased rate. Going from 3 months/head to .6 months/head with the only change in the tank being the addition of spot feeding is strong enough clinical evidence for me.

[noskimmer]

Hmm, I see that maybe perception is being a little underestimated. Let me give you an example of perception.

I am a motorcyclist, yes I know... a temporary resident, and organ donor, etc. I get involved in tuning motorcycles, remapping ECU maps etc, seeing the difference different exhaust pipes do to increase performance etc. Now, we dyno a bike to test its power and torque this is graphed, place a new exhaust system on and for a few weeks the person is convinced that the power increase is amazing, describing it as an amazing rush of power... now this is where perception comes in. We place the bike on the dyno and get the data... first thing that is quite evident is that the bike is louder, this makes you perceive that you are going faster. We then get both power and torque curbs from both runs and superimpose them, not only did it create really bad power and torque after the addition of the new pipe at low to mid revs, but it suddenly curbed up steeply in the mid to high range. At no time apart from just prior to the rev limiter did it produce more power and at no time more torque.

The sound made if feel faster, when the power started to come on, it was a rush, not because it was producing more, but how it was producing it.

Perception is a very interesting thing.

[noskimmer]

Just have to add a bit more.

Now, as you know I don't spot feed. I also believe that very little left over fish food gets to the fuge section of my sump...

One day no torch coral, some days later some unidentified coral. A month or so later about 4 separate new torch corals have appeared from what was unidentified.. these are now, within a couple of months about 1" in diameter.

What is that growth rate? I don't understand all the factors involved, far from it. But I do know what we are far from, and that is being able to produce controlled tests.

I don't think one person can say that every tank is the same.. it simply isn't.

[salty420]

just wanted to add that i don't spot feed my torch coral or any of my corals. while i do believe that they would go faster if i did they grow plenty fast feeding on what they catch out of the water column. when i first got my candy cane i spot fed it, and when the clowns didn't steal the mysis it ate and grew. after i stopped feeding it i thought it would grow much slower, honestly, it still is growing pretty darn fast!

[Germanman]

keep in mind growth factors in much more than food, i over dose iodine a bit, and add plenty of nutrients and calcium and my Neon octopus frogspawn grows like mad. i have though noticed that feeding sick/dieing LPS corals that they tend to start healing/ regrowing. i personally feel it is a combo of things that cause more growth, (i never feed my hammers or frogspawns). but feeding does seem to help quite a bit, just like feeding waxworms to a reptile, or liver to mammals, its not needed but benefits well.