Amino Acids

[FireWater]

Is anyone using Brightwell or similar amino acids for feeding fish and coral? I was thinking of trying some - just to see if there were any visual benefits. My ? is this - Since I do not want to dose upstream or dump into my tank, which is better?
1. Soak frozen mysis or..
2. Find flash or freeze dried foods to soak?

It would seem to me that dried would soak up more of the acids and therefore be my best choice. Am I thinking way too hard on this one or does anyone have experience to help me out?

[Third Coast Tropical]

My colleague at UTMSI-FAML would use frozen mysis, thawed and rinsed, then soaked.....

[Europhyllia]

when I enriched I thawed, rinsed and then soaked, then strained through a net.
I really like frozen food though - seems closer to fresh somehow.

[los.tejanos83]

Fish/Karin,

i just learned something new (again)...what's this about rinsing after thawing?

Karin, why do you strain thru a net?

I thaw frozen chunks of mysis or spirulina in small vials of tank water with small amounts of Selcon, then feed fish...no rinsing or straining...probably not the best procedure.

Angelo

[FireWater]

Rinsing or draining gets rid of lots of impurities and "extras" that come with frozen foods. I usually thaw in small amount of tank water and at least drain that water out or pour fresh RO over to rinse prior to feeding the tank.

Has anyone used dried and then reconstituted ? I figured that frozen just would not soak up as much.

[Europhyllia]

the product I used provided more of a coating than a soaking up anyway so it worked well on the frozen. It's so concentrated anyway.

Yes, Angelo, straining and/or rinsing gets rid of the waste stuff so you only add teh valuable stuff to the tank, not the waste water.

[los.tejanos83]

i almost feel embarrased to ask, since i'm a novice, but what does reconstituted mean?

does dried last you as long (based on cost) as a 16 oz pkg of frozen (i.e., mysis)? i'm cheap and always looking to save $$ :-)

[Europhyllia]

but what does reconstituted mean?


adding moisture/water to a product that has previously been dehydrated (like the freeze dried stuff)

[los.tejanos83]

I'm definitely changing my feeding procedure to thaw, rinse, soak...thanks all. :bigsmile:

Angelo

[d3rryc]

The downside to rinsing is that you lose the smaller bits that the coral can feed on.

[Roo&Lis]

Sounds like too much effort to me.

[FireWater]

Sounds like too much effort to me.


Which part?

The rinsing and draining or adding aminos?

I am curious as to any benefits to the coral and fish with addition of extra amino acid or other vitamins/beneficial additives.
As for the rinsing part - it is not too much effort. One cup to thaw in, pour through net, and then rinse by pouring another small amount of water over the food. I guess it is how you look at it and it may be different for you.

[FireWater]

The downside to rinsing is that you lose the smaller bits that the coral can feed on.

I do agree, but isn't that why I spend even more money for coral specific food?:bigsmile:

I use a fine mesh when I drain so hopefully I am catching some small stuff

[Europhyllia]

I use a fine mesh when I drain so hopefully I am catching some small stuff

Same here. :) You do what you can. To me they're all pets and I like to take care of them the best I can. I have little glass bowls in which I thaw stuff and the little net is right by the sink - no big effort at all.
They have access to so much food stuff in the ocean. I'd hate to think of all of them just starving along for years in my tank. A little extra effort doesn't bother me :)

[los.tejanos83]

Good info so far. My follow up question to these posts would be:
"what products are you using to feed your corals?

Since i'm new to the hobby, i'm always interested in what others are using as far as supplements, foods, pest control, etc, etc. :wink_smile:

Angelo

[Europhyllia]

My corals get what my fish are getting. Nothing snazzier but my fish eat pretty well already ;)

The big stuff: frozen mysis and Hikari bloodworms (SFB are way too big for mine)
The small stuff: frozen cyclops, frozen prawn eggs and freeze dried cyclope-eeze
To enrich (which I rarely do anymore): Super Selco
Live Foods: (only for starting the mandarins on prepared foods) Brine Shrimp Direct's EZ-Eggs hatchable decapsulated brine eggs

If you have a good mix of fish Rod's Food might be great since it has such a variety of stuff but I don't have any large herbivores or large carnivores so the big chunks in Rod's were just a waste for me. Rod's also has small particles in it for corals and it doesn't need to be rinsed (or else you rinse the small good stuff out)

Oh wait I do have 'coral food' although I got it for the clams: DT's Live Phyto
I am also getting oyster eggs.

[snfkotara]

I feed PE mysis because of the protein count and I dose amino acids because clone says to.

[FireWater]

The folks that have actually answered my ? - did you see any results of adding anything to the food. For example - better colors, growth, anything like that?

I don't want to add a bunch of junk just for the sake of adding it. I don't want my coral and fish going into any "roid rage" or acne break outs or anything because of supplements

As far as coral food i use Mysis and Rod's coral blend

[Europhyllia]

I used it mainly for the mandarins. They needed to put weight on and it was easy to get them from enriched live foods to enriched frozen. It all kind of smelled the same I guess and the stuff seems kind of oily and stinky and very enticing to fish.
I felt like it added a lot of pollution so I cut back and then I read a book on breeding marine fish and it pointed out that overdoing it can cause liver damage, etc. so I try to get a good balance by offering different foods (prawn eggs in addition to the usual mysis, etc.) to get my fish into spawning condition rather than supplements.
I've never used the Brightwell product for corals though.

[FireWater]

Thank you for the information and experience Karin. I am hoping that there are others that can weigh in on this too. There are 127 reads so far.

Karin do you remember where you read the info you are talking about? I have done a couple of searches and not turning up much except propaganda for products.

[Europhyllia]

I read the thing about liver problems in this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Illustrated-Breeders-Marine-Aquarium/dp/1890087718/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260408888&sr=8-1

Just as a side note:
I just got a little preview of an article that will be in the Jan 2010 issue of Coral Magazine in the email: http://www.coralmagazine-us.com/content/feeding-corals
Thought it looked interesting and am looking forward to reading the whole story in Januray... ;)

[FireWater]

Looks like I need to get off my hind-end and get a subscription. Thanks again.

[edshas2]

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