food for chili coral.

[zoomfish1]

What would be best for this coral? Cyclopease or Phyto or zooplankton. I also have Kent Microvert if it would be good.

[Fredfish]

Nobody knows yet. I have had one in my unskimmed tank now for three years. It is the same size now as when I got it, so whatever it is currently feeding on in the tank, it barely getting enough.

Frozen cyclopeeze seems to be too big. I seems to catch and then release the cyclopeeze.

I am currently feeding my tank a mix of golden pearls and DT Oyster eggs. I get a good feeding response from my gorgonian, but can't tell with the chilli.

Fred.

[Jeanniee]

I have seen rave reviews on Reef chili food and folks getting a great growth response from their chili corals with it.

[Fredfish]

I took a look at the ingredients list for Reef Chilli.

The bioengineered zooplankton is cyclopeeze, the artemia replacement is golden pearls or similar micro-encapsulated food and the other stuff is readilly available.

The strong feeding response is probably from the cyclopeeze. I ground some down to a smaller size yesterday and got a very strong feeding response from my gorgonian.

Personally I much prefer Eric Borneman's coral food recipie because it has some highly nutritious fresh ingredients.

[johndonaldson3]

anyone with a quick link to that recipie ?

[Fredfish]

its in this (http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic20086-9-1.aspx) thread.

Fred

[johndonaldson3]

Thanks Fred.

M C

[dendro982]

My 2 cents: ZoPlan, just right size. Plus water, left from thawing mysis in the strainer, the second change. I mean, throw away the first water, add the second and use this. Tank water qiality, you know.

I'm feeding in the morning, before lights are on.

BTW, all my chilis (3 of them, right from the ocean) did not good for a long time, then probably adapted. One (the vertical growing kind, not wide) I had to frag, and frag is doing much better than the main coral.

A lot of food and a very high flow. :)

[Fredfish]

I have now added Hikari frozen rotifers and ground up cyclopeeze to my food mix. Am also now dosing phyto for two fan worms added to the tank. Hopefully the chilli will benefit from the increased variety in foods.

Fred

[Herpervet]

Chili corals will ingest target fed diets in the 200 to 300 micron size.

I know this not because I have measured gut contents but because I see the food inside the polyps after target feeding a diet in this size range.

One other tip. Avoid cleaner shrimp in these tanks because they will drive you nuts stealing food from the corals.

Otohime A and B1 from reed mariculture is what I have been using. I will be tring golden pearls soon.

[Fredfish]

Herpervet. Cool observation. My chili is on a large rock 1/2 way back in the tank. Not a good place to observe, but I don't want to rearange the tank.

How long have you been feeding the chilli this food? Have you seen any growth.

Unfortunately, ingestion dosn't mean a coral can/will digest. It would be interesting to see some indication that it is gaining significant nutrition from that food. Growth would be pretty conclusive evidence that it is digesting the otohime

[Herpervet]

Fred,

I have been feeding it for 5 or 6 months but heavily for about 2.5 to 3 months and the corals seem to be growing but not at a blistering pace.

They do look very vigorous and the one that I "neglected" appears to have increased the number of polyps since I relocated it and started feeding.

I do believe they are digesting since I never see them expel any of the diet but your point is well taken.

On a side note one of my colonies has an odd little club tipped anemone that seems to be irritating it near it's base. I really like the delicate look but I am beginning to suspect that they are a potential pest.

[dendro982]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9000299#post9000299 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Fredfish
Have you seen any growth.
Unfortunately, ingestion dosn't mean a coral can/will digest. It would be interesting to see some indication that it is gaining significant nutrition from that food. Growth would be pretty conclusive evidence that it is digesting the otohime

I'll second that: I couldn't find pictures of a new growth for a chili corals on the web - at all.
Please, post your photos or links, if you have them.
Very interested.

I have some expansion of the one of my chili corals, but it's more restoring the former appearance, than a 100% new growth.
Have a new growth only for non-photosynthetic gorgonian, with much larger polyps, dried Cyclop-eeze feeding.

[Fredfish]

Now That I have downloaded the users guide for my ancient but excellent coolpix 950 I should be able to fiddle until I get some good pictures so that I can document the coral going forward.

Since it has managed to survive so far on whatever the tank is producing in the way of food, I am hopeful that I will see some growth over the next year.

Fred

[Cosmo^Kramer]

Fauna Marin Has a food for Gorgonias, Sponges, non-photosynthetic corals called UltraMin-F.I haven't used it but I hear it's pretty good stuff.I also read that they have a special food for Gorgonians that may also work for chili's..HTH

[Fredfish]

The Fauna Marin gorgonian product is mostly phytoplankton. Eric Borneman was not particularly impressed by the ingredients and from what I have found on food/gut content studies, phyto is not likely a food for gorgonians or most other corals.

I am much happyer with a mix of oyster eggs, ground fd cyclopeeze, golden pearls and frozen rotifers. We will see how it works for the chilli.

Fred

[Herpervet]

I may be preaching to the choir but for those that have not used golden pearls you should try them.

Good grief the price is reasonable. $15 for a really large volume. It makes sense to buy the stuff as a group purchase because I can't imagine anyone using that amount before it went bad.

It is way cheaper than the otohime diet. I think the otohime is cleaner in that it doesn't seem to dissolve producing a milky product although that might be an advantage for some corals and other filter feeders.

[Malifluous]

WHat kind of light and flow do chilli corals like? Can the be kept in brightly lit areas of the tank?

[Malifluous]

WHat kind of light and flow do chilli corals like? Can the be kept in brightly lit areas of the tank?

[Fredfish]

The Chilli coral is non-photosynthetic so does not need any light.

As for flow, its hard to say. Not so much flow that the polups bend back on themselves.

I would not recommend purchasing this coral. Most often it dies. Mine was a hitchiker on some rock I got. I am lucky that mine has survived this long. I am hoping to get even luckier and find some food that will give it enough nutrients to grow.

Fred

[Herpervet]

I have not tried to put them in really bright areas but they don't mind my 250 watt 10K halides at about 25" under the bulbs.

They don't need any light at all and like being in caves or under overhangs.

Nice steady laminar flow seems to be appreciated.

[Herpervet]

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/21836Gorgonians.jpg


I just placed the chili corals under the ledge. Incidentally the gorgonian seems to really like the small gp diet (5-50microns) but it will be a real challenge to keep.

[Fredfish]

Herpervet. That looks like the same gorgonian I have. Is yours Indo Pacific?

From what I have read, it is actually photosynthetic. Some of Eric Bornemans European contacts have been keeping this gorgonian quite successfully.

Mine seems to give a feeding response to most things I put in the tank. I have seen it consume rather large pieces of fd cyclopeeze as well.

http://f7.yahoofs.com/users/44cd49aazb7b92944/f550re2/__sr_/f2bere2.jpg?ph4DvsFBqg.3z9Ui

Fred

[Herpervet]

I am not certain but it almost has to be indo pacific. It definately isn't caribbean. The color is way off in the picture. The body is brick red/orange with canary yellow polyps.

Quite a stunning coral.

You might be right about it being photosynthetic. It opens up in full "glowing" glory during the day and is closed at night however this could be due to time differences between here and where it was collected.

The fuscia colored one in the background also opens during the day but I seriously doubt it is photosynthetic.

No question the yellow one ingests lots of stuff and even is grabbing the "pappone" italian diet (see last months thread of the month). It is a mixture of clam, oyster, mussle and shrimp with sugar added as a carbon source to keep nitrates down.

[dendro982]

Malifluous:
Light: they are nocturnal, and are closed most of the day. I'm starting to feed (in one of the tanks) in the morning, before lights are on, otherwise it closes.
In nutrients-rich tanks chili can has the microalgae with debris film on it's surface, after this coral is not opening polyps and inflating more, but: it could be scratched away with the fingernail, and coral opens again.

Flow:
I have 150 gph pump, flow is reflected at 8" from the front glass, then are chili corals. In another tank with the first chili, it was 126 gph, reflected at 10", coral was in 8" down the reflected flow.
Polyps extension is better, than in the big tank, where 600gph of laminar flow (Seio PH), is sideway in ~12"(not direct blast, but touches corals by the side of the flow cone). Without high flow, my chilis refuse to open at all.

BTW:
There are at least 2 kinds of chilis:
- vertical cactus-shaped, dark cold red, with bigger white polyps;
- hand-shaped, more "fingers" in all directions, just red with more frequent, much smaller pinkish polyps.

They can survive for months in contracted state, then, in right conditions, or after removing the surface film, they open, if nothing happened. Skinny, but alive.

I can speak only for my 3 chilis, but straight from the ocean they have hard time to adapt. I had to frag the vertical kind, and frag is doing much better than the main coral, in the same tank.

Watch for a small isopods: when chili is contracted, they are starting to eat it from the ride of LR, leaving shell; slowly - there will be time to stop that.

Red finger gorgonian (Diodogorgia nodulifera) looks like magnified chili, somehow. Easier to find food and see what is going inside the white polyps, and is opened all day, as long as you feed it. Same requirements.

Same warning, as everyone does:
non-photosynthetic corals need feeding in quantities, that will compromise water quality of the usual tank. The tank should have filtration (could be protein skimmer), turnable off, when coral is feeding. Same have long established deep sand beds and big refugiums, but I have no experience with this, at my nano-scale.
Otherwise - frequent massive water changes, and corald don't like that, especially if this is not natural seawater...

This is a PITA, but a challenge too, and I just like these corals.

The easy way will be keeping good-looking corals with no special requirements, like white xenia, bright red mushrooms and neon-green candycane, green star polyps. And they are open all day long, and it will me good-looking reef. :)

[Fredfish]

Light: they are nocturnal, and are closed most of the day
Thats interesting. I have the chilli with the white polyps and it opens during the day for me. I find that mine has adapted to when I feed the tank.

Herpervet. Sure sounds like the same gorgonian as mine. If you look at the body closely you will notice that it has a golden brown color at the surface (over top of the red). This is what makes it that brick red color. I think that this is the color from the zooxanthellae.

Fred

[GreshamH]

Mine was always open during the day as well. It was in a cave with great flow though :)

[Herpervet]

My chili's are not always syncronized on when they open. I have 4 colonies and the only time all of them are open is late at night and very early in the morning.

It isn't unusual for one or two of them to extend polyps at other times but it seems unpredictable.

Fred, I fragged the yellow gorg. yesterday and it pouted for about 30 min then was back open to feed.

Hopefully my lfs can get more of these. I would like to group two or three all together.

The yellow polyps fluoresce under my t-5 actinics when the halides turn off. It isn't a real dramatic glow but they do fluoresce. It looks something like the yellow glow sticks that the kids play with on halloween.

[Malifluous]

Dendro, Thanks for the detailed response