brain coral care

[tkjeffrey]

i have an open brain coral and just wondering what it likes to eat and stuff. Anybody?

Thanks Travis

[StellaMN]

I have a red lobophyllia, which is a type of brain coral. It takes silversides, krill...whatever meaty pieces that get fed to the tank. The trick is to feed when the sweeper tentacles are out. I've also gently held a piece against the flesh near the mouth until the coral takes a hold of the food.

HTH...

Jodi

[MontanaRocknReefer]

Yeah I did pretty much the same thing as Jodi did! Worked for me!

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by StellaMN
... It takes silversides, krill... ...whatever meaty pieces that get fed to the tank. The trick is to feed when the sweeper tentacles are out.

Chumming the water about 15 minutes prior to feeding helps a lot, as well as either feeding just before the lights come on or about 30 minutes after the lights go off (most of these creatures are nocturnal feeders, although they can be "trained" to take feedings at other times of the day with persistent daily feedings). Feeding time coincides with planktonic diurnal cycles for most of these animals. Turing the circulation off helps tremendously, and the use of a plastic berry case over the specimen after feeding will keep greedy shrimps and opportunistic fishes from stealing the feedings. Much easier to use a turkey baster and target feed the specimen with blender mush.

HTH

[MontanaRocknReefer]

tdwyatt writes: Chumming the water about 15 minutes prior to feeding helps a lot

Very good point Tom as I did this as well before feeding the open brain and other corals too!

[dermp]

I wait till his tentacles come out and feed him chunks of shrimp, I also make sure that my fish are fed good as the Flame Hawk likes to take the food right out of the brains mouth.