Reef lingo 101
RC - Reef Central
Today I picked up a flat of Rod's Food from a fellow reef buddy who so graciously offered to include my request for a package at the same time he was re-stocking his personal supply during a visit to the local fish store. This was my first time using this product and after reading many rave reviews about it on Reef Central, and other reef boards, I figured I would give it a shot. Having only used it once so far, I can say that all my reef inhabitants seemed to enjoy it and I did not observe any negative results. Quite the contrary, I was able to witness something in my tank today that I have yet to see since joining the hobby. One of my four clowns recently discovered, and took refuge in, the rose bubble-tip anemone (added to the system roughly 2 months ago) that footed itself among live rock real estate heavily occupied by yellow polyps. Nearing the end of today's feeding session, I noticed a medium sized krill head floating around the food bowl. I took note of this and made sure that when I sucked it up into the baster and released it into the tank's circulation that I would maintain a visual on it to see who would claim the lucky prize. To my surprise, this newly hosted clown quickly snatched the krill head out of the water column and returned to the anemone releasing it into its tentacles, near the mouth. Once the anemone latched onto the piece of krill, the tentacles retracted and began to consume the gracious offering from its happy host. I have heard other reefers share stories of how their clown feeds its anemone, but I have never had the opportunity to witness this myself... until today!
This clownfish and anemone relationship is ultimately what pushed me over the edge to become part of this hobby. After seeing this relationship in a captive system, I knew right away this was something special worth capturing, enjoying and sharing with others in my own reef tank. Once you become more familiar with your own reef ecosystem, you begin to notice seemingly small, but neat and interesting, relationships like this all over! These small details draw my attention closer to my system and keep me a full-time, dedicated reef enthusiast. Sure, call me a reef geek because I deserve it, but it is the little things like this that attract my attention into the tank daily, several times a day. Additionally, it is dedicated, keen observation that helps develop a successful reef keeper. Paying close attention to your reef system and its needs provides you the advantage to pick up on a tell-tell sign related to a problem, in turn, allowing you to address (and potentially remedy) the issue much quicker. Needless to say, noticing and picking up on these signs and changes comes with experience.
Because I referenced feeding the tank in the entry above, I decided to share my feeding routine below. I suppose I have become a bit lazy as of late because prior to using ready-made frozen foods, I preferred to make my own frozen recipes from fresh ingredients. But I will save that for another post and stick with the subject at hand:
My typical feeding routine
Previous to using the Rod's Food, my usual feeding routine consisted of: start by partially filling a feeding container (small plastic cups works well) with tank water, add a cube of mysid shrimp or spirulina enriched brine shrimp, a cube of daphnia, rotifers or oyster eggs and shredded nori algae. Next, I add 1 to 1.5 teaspoon of Fuel or Selcon (basically a mix of fatty acids, amino acids and proteins. Be sure to follow the instruction label for solution to tank volume ratio) and allow mixture to soak as it thaws. I tend to occasionally stir the mixture to ensure full saturation, and to also speed up the thawing process. When ready to feed, I use a cheap, plastic turkey baster (found at the dollar store) to release the mixture into the flow of a powerhead. The baster also allows me to target-feed favias, anemones and brain coral.
*The recipe above is varied with each feeding. I do not add everything listed. Some days I will add the oyster eggs instead of the daphnia, and the mysid shrimp vs brine shrimp, etc. I tend to change it up to offer the tank a variety and to not overload on nutrients.*
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