New Coral Food - under construction

[TimT]

Well I got to play Coral Chef the other day. I have frequently watched the LPS in my coral system go crazy when I add the Pacifica plankton to the tank. I have been target feeding the plankton directly to LPS with larger mouths and Paly's/Zoa's. I had wanted to create a food that has the benefits of the plankton but could be eaten by various types of corals and filter feeders that can't eat the plankton due to it's size. It is my idea to combine several nutritious food sources to create an easy to use Coral food.

I mixed up a trial batch of Coral food a few days ago. Here's a pic of the first batch.



This batch has Pacifica Plankton, Sockeye Salmon eggs, Nannochloropsis sp. microalgae, Pavlova sp. microalgae, Krill Oil and some RO water to help blend the plankton and eggs. At the point the picture was taken I had just added the Krill Oil and was mixing it into the green smoothie. I then quickly made some flat packs and cube trays and put them in the freezer.

This is the first attempt and so far the response has been good. After initially adding it to the tank I noticed that an Acan maxima brain opened it's mouths and released a mucous net. This is a similar way to how Echinophyllia fed as well. I noticed a few Acros doing this too.

Cheers,
Tim

[Myka]

Why are the algae in there?

[TimT]

I had a couple liters of algae concentrate from Reed Mariculture that I had purchased for making a food for filter feeders... mainly Tridacnid clams. The idea was to make a food that feeds all types of corals and filter feeders at once. This food should even work for Sponges, Feather stars and Dendronepthea.

[WarDog]

Looking forward to this Tim. Your Pacifica Plankton is some of the best available!

[TimT]

Thanks Warren!

I started to make this food to feed to my own corals and thought it would benefit other hobbyists tanks. As I have done in the past, when I find a product that is amazing I buy in bulk and offer smaller sizes to those in the hobby to help make their tanks more enjoyable. Foz Down is a prime example of this. This time I'm making it in bulk and I'm open to suggestions to other ingredients and forms of packaging. I am thinking of perhaps trying the frozen pump bottles similar to how Liquid Life sold their phytoplankton.

[dino]

Great guy to deal with and I will be trying this stuff out
Dustin

[Wheelman76]

Originally Posted by Bblinks

Love the food from Tim, all my fishes goes crazy for it. can't wait to see what you got cooking this time. let me know when it's ready and I'll buy some.

+1

[Myka]

Originally Posted by TimT

I'm open to suggestions to other ingredients and forms of packaging.

I would leave the alage out. Take a look at Green Lipped Mussels. When I was raising Clownfish that ingredient made a huge dfference in fecundity. If you check out health benefits of Green Lipped Mussels it's not hard to see why.

[TimT]

I just got back into the office this morning so sorry for the tardy replies.

Thanks for the positive feedback Dustin, Rich and Jess.

Originally Posted by maron6977

So, do you make it in cube form ? Plankton & coral food ???
It helps me keep consistent at feeding time !!!

Yes, I made a couple cube trays of the coral food to try out.
Part of the reason that the plankton is so nutritious is that it is not thawed, rinsed and water added to make it into a cube tray. The plankton presently comes in 4oz, 8oz and 16oz flat packs. The coral food comes in a flat pack about a 1/4" thick.

Originally Posted by Myka

I would leave the alage out. Take a look at Green Lipped Mussels. When I was raising Clownfish that ingredient made a huge dfference in fecundity. If you check out health benefits of Green Lipped Mussels it's not hard to see why.

Thanks Mindy. I will be sure to look up Green Lipped Mussels and their nutritional profile. I had put the algae in to feed Tridacna clams and other molluscs. This means that the food is not just for corals so perhaps a slight name change is needed.

[TimT]

Originally Posted by Myka

Take a look at Green Lipped Mussels. When I was raising Clownfish that ingredient made a huge dfference in fecundity. If you check out health benefits of Green Lipped Mussels it's not hard to see why.

I did a little googling and could not come up with a nutritional analysis for Green Lipped Mussels. I did come up with this info which is quite interesting.

From the webpage: http://www.livestrong.com/article/52...-vs-krill-oil/

Purity

Owing to their short life span and their low position in the food cycle, krill are unlikely to accumulate toxins in their body and in fact many people prefer krill oil over traditional fish oil for this reason. Although the green lip mussel also has a short life span and a low position in the food cycle, it feeds via filtering. This type of feeding involves passing large amounts of seawater through the body. Consequently, filter feeders have a tendency to accumulate toxins in their body.



Both Euphasia superba and Euphasia pacifica are considered Krill. Since Pacifica Plankton is Euphasia pacifica I don't think adding Green Lipped Mussel's is necessary, especially in light that they tend to accumulate toxins while the Pacifica Plankton do not. As an added benefit Pacifica Plankton are from BC's coastal ocean waters.