feeding zoos

[Chad Vossen]

what can i feed my zoos? so far i have given them brine shrimp and mysis. they seem to eat it but i have not confirmed it. ever since i have been attemping to feed them they have been growing quickly. and before i fed them they realy didnt show any growth at all.

is it just in my head or do they eat brine shrimp and mysis?

i put the food in the center and they close up around it quickly but i have never watched long enough to see if its gone when they open back up.

[Azurel]

I have only seen Palythoas and Protopalythoas eat, I have tried a few thing on my zoanthids but have never actually witnessed a feeding response. I honestly don't think they have a large feeding response and get most of the energy from the zooanthellae(misspelled?).

[surfnvb7]

thought this was interesting...calfo put this up on another site...

"The first thing we must address/accept is that it is impossible and irresponsible frankly to make any general feeding recommendations for the large family Zoanthidae. Its members come from one of the most extreme ranges of the scale (compared to other reef cnidarians). Really.. the gamut could not be any wider: hard substrates versus sand versus mud... high flow, low flow... high llight low light... and again - the most extreme ranges on the reef. This is expressed in part by the very different feeding mechanisms they use or not). What types of organismal feeding if any... absorption... heavy light or moderate dependance on symbionts, etc.

There is no list of which family members eat what. You most mostly instead rely on educated inferences largely. Remember... form follows function. Large polyps tend to feed heavier on larger/more organismal prey. Tiny polyps less so if at all. Polyps out at night often means zooplankton feeders. Polyps closed at night tells the opposite story.

You will notice that the small polyped Zoanthus species that hail ffrom high light and high water flow llikemany Acroporids are scarcely "hungry" for organismal prey... and instead light and feeding by absorption. Larger polyped Palythoa andProtopalythoaa instead are veryhungry andd must be fed several times weekly or more for best success.

Without knowing the species and where it hailed from on the reef elsewise, its little more than educated guess. "

[Azurel]

Thats good info there thanks for sharing....Surf.

[akrimmel]

mine eat the flake food for the fish.