Plankton

[manny]

What's the difference between plankton, phytoplankton, and microplankton? Is it just size or what? Also, what brand of these three types of foods do you guys & gals feed?

[GaryP]

Plankton is any organism that rides the currents of the ocean. It can include anything as large as a jellyfish to something as small as a bacteria. Microalgae is a microcopic orgamism such as some single celled algae (DT's). A macroplankton would be something like a fish fry or jellyfish.

Zooplankton are animals. Phytoplankton are plants. I feed DT's (micro/phytoplankton), zooplex, baby brine shrimp, and frozen daphnia. I bought some Fritz invert bouquet today and will start using it. I also plan on start using cyclop-eeze. This will hopefully replace the daphnia, zooplex, and baby brine that I am currently using.

Hope this helps,
Gary

[Instar]

Manny, Gary has it in a nut shell there. The thing is, if you have multiple different kinds of feeders in your tank, you need to feed them all. They all eat different primary foods and there is some overlap. If you have live rock, you need to feed the creatures in the rock. It will turn out beautiful, even if its a cultured LR tank, if you use a variety. Almost all of our tanks have things in them that directly benefit from a microphyto-plankton like DT's. Then in turn, those things grow, reproduce and make a real food chain in your tank. Other animals need the zooplanktons, basically all the other things Gary listed. The things he listed are all different sizes. Size can be a big deal to some animals. Some large anemones eat microplankton, but who would guess that? A reef keeper has to know about what is in the tank to feed it and keep it long term. The more dynamically stocked the reef is, the better, and the higher the need for all the sizes and types of foods.

[GaryP]

Good synopsis Larry. My strategy is when in doubt use the shotgun approach and feed a the full range of particle sizes, from microalgae to zooplankton. In a mixed tank some critter will feed on just about everything you feed.

Gary

[GaryP]

Manny,

For some pretty good info on the specific feeding requirements of corals I would recommend Anthony Calfo's "Book of Coral Propagation." Its one of the books that I consider a bible for reefkeeping and a pretty good read, not just a technical manual.

Gary

[manny]

Thanks for all the great info guys. Right now the only coral I have are a toadstool mushroom, a colt, a flourescent green hairy mushroom, and a bullseye mushroom. My toadstool doesn't open up so I thought it may have been cause I haven't been feeding anything. All I feed my fish is spirulina, freeze dried brine shrimp, frozen mysis, and some other flake(forgot the name). I also feed my anemone silversides once every week. I'm thinkin about copyin what Gary is doin and feedin DT's, Fritz Invert Banquet, and cyclopeeze. Think that will be good for my corals?

Oh yeah, I also have a large Feather Duster

[GaryP]

Manny,

Your toadstool does eat, but only really small stuff like bacteria and absorbs organic nutrients from the water. I have heard of people stirring their live sand to put more bacteria in the the bacteria for them. They are mainly photosynthetic.

You hairy mushrooms (Rhodactis) like meaty stuff like brine shrimp but I don't think it is entirely necessary. I just like watching them feed. To the best of my knowledge the bullseye's (Discosome) don't feed much but mainly absorb nutrients and really small stuff.

Your colt definitely needs to be fed. It'll do well with DT's. Sometimes if you have critters such as snails or Tangs that are feeding on algaes in your tank they will stir up enough to feed the colt.

I think the feather duster feeds on just about everything but particularly on algae's such as DT's.

Hope this has been helpful,
Gary

[GaryP]

I meant to say that they stir their LS to put more bacteria into the WATER.