how do you feed your torch? I have tried laying scallop or smelt on mine and it doesn't seem interested in them at all. My brain cobbles them up tho. Also, my whello doesn't seem to take to bits of meat either, nor does my galaxea. Any suggestions on those ?
These corals seem to need training and definitely have preferences on the things they eat. I make a multi-food goop that I feed the corals in general. I start with 2 large raw shrimp (remove the exoskeleton), 1 small squid, 2 or 3 scallops, 8 drops of selcon, 1 cube of frozen mysis shrimp (set aside to thaw,) and 1/2 tsp. DT Phytoplankton. (this is for effect as much as anything, they all seem to take it.) I put all the meats in a small food processor and flick it enough times to where the meats are small enough to not clog up the turkey baster ( I use a 1 oz size turkey baster with a piece of rigid larger diameter airline epoxied and siliconed in place.) I put this mix in a small (about 1 cup) Tupperware container and add the DT, the thawed mysis shrimp, and the Selcon on the mixture. I cover this and put it in the frige for about an hour, then remove it and add about 1/2 to 1 cup of tank water (to make a thin slurry). I use the turkey baster to suck up a dose for each of the creatures I feed.
Turn off all the circulation in the systems and wait for the water to come to a standstill. Then feed the individual polyps, gently putting the mixture onto the polyps as close to the mouth as is possible. When I feed my neon green Euphyllia (neon green torch), the polyps actively capture the foods with tentacular adhesion, moving the food to the oral opening. The red Torch doesn't seem to feed as aggressively (longer more flowing tentacles,) but will feed as well, and requires gentle placement of finely divided foodstuffs.
When feeding frogspawn, I have to have a pretty good idea where the oral opening is and gently squirt a little of the mixture near each mouth (the frogspawn doesn't do a very good job of capturing the food with it's tentacles, but still feeds. I can tell when I miss feeding it for a few days.) The hammers will adhere the food to the tentacles as well. They feed almost as aggressively as the anemone do. (heh, the E. quadracolor just split into two separate anemone, and I
thought it was sick!!!) I have to feed the pearl coral the same way I feed the frogspawn, gently laying the food on top of the coral and hoping that it will eat before the fish or shrimp decide to rob it.
The same is true for Trachyphyllia, the Favites, the moon coral (Favia) the Caulastrea (Candycanes), Scolymia (doughnut), and Lobophyllia (open brain), but these are generally better fed at the end of the photoperiod, with a little coaxing as well. I usually feed them right when the lights go off, using the same mix, but I let it settle a little, and take some of the liquid above the food and squirt a little of it on these corals to stimulate the feeding response. I usually wait about 10minutes and then feed these corals, as their tentacles have now expanded from the polyp's tissue. These corals are generally very slow to feed, with very small tentacles that do not normally extend during the daytime. The presence of food in the water will stimulate them to expand their tentacles (which may take as long as 15 minutes to occur) allowing you to gently drop small amounts of the mixture directly onto the oral plane of these creatures within easy grasp of the tentacles. For several of these (the brains and donuts in particular) I will either fend off the fish and shrimps/crabs (feed them all well before starting) or put a small plastic berry cage over them after they are fed (this is becoming increasingly more difficult as these corals grow)
Although I don't recommend feeding them brine shrimp, blowing a few thawed ones over the polyps will stimulate the feeding response as well as the supernatant above the food mixture does. Don't worry about the stray bits of food that end up in the rock, the starfish and hermits and emeralds, etc., will find them if the fish don't help you do that.
I feed in this manner 3 or 4 times a week, and I have found that if you take the time once every 2 weeks to make a big batch of the food, you can use the regular food processor (I have a small dedicated one for small batches) and make a few quarts of the slurry at a time, just don't add the water. Take an icecube tray and wipe each mold with a little selcon, then glop the mixture into the tray and freeze it. Then you can just measure a cup of water into the Tupperware container and let the cubes you plan to use thaw just prior to feeding. I usually remove the cubes from the ice tray and store them in a ziplock bag.
The biggest problem is that some of these corals are not aggressive feeders, and will require some training to recognize that the stuff on their oral disc is food. Some will eat fish (frozen whitefish, for example) some will not, but all seem willing to eat shrimp. If you use fish, stay away from oily fish (i.e., cod, etc.), it definitely will cloud the water if fed in the manner I have described, and tends to cause little mini-blooms of cyano for a day or so when oily fish are used (Hmmmmm, I wonder why oily fish???)
Oh yeah, one more thing, set a timer for 45 minutes when you turn the circulation pumps off, this will remind you to turn them back on (heh, VERY easy to forget, I can attest to that
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Hope this helps you out!