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The feed contains small pockets of air that keep it suspended in the water column and help it
mimic live Artemia nauplii. Because of its size and nutritional value it is simply prefect for
supplemental coral feeding
.
Contains Fish protein, whey, yeast and yeast
extracts, marine fish oil, phospholipids, astaxanthin, vitamin and mineral premixes,
anti-oxidants
(1-50 mcirons and 50-100 microns)
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Freeze dried
Rotifers
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Rotifers are a wonderful zooplanktonic treat for your
corals. These rotifers |
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full of vitamins, minerals, carotenoid pigments and amino acids, making it very nutritious for
all the organisms in your tank
. {50-100
microns).
I’ve never fed my corals before, what
benefits should I expect to see by using Reef Chili ?
This will depend a lot on what type of corals you
keep and the current parameters of your tank
,
including lighting, CA/ALK levels,
nutrient level
s -
any one of these can be a limiting
factor. As a general rule of thumb, corals utilize nutrition from light and capturing pray (Reef
Chili) in three steps. The first step is
for
metabolic function and tissue repair,
then for growth and lastly for reproduction. For varied reasons most species of coral will not
achieve the reproductive stage in the average tank environment.
What does all this mean to
you? Simply put, if you are providing inadequate lighting, Reef Chili will provide an alternate
source of energy to maintain metabolic functions, tissue repair and basic ove
r
all health. If you do provide adequate
lighting, Reef Chili will provide additional energy the coral can utilize for much desired growth.
Corals are also unable to produce many nutrients like amino acids on their own and need
to capture pr
e
y to acquire them. Reef Chili is extremely
high in carotenoid and xanthophyll color pigments. When the corals consume pr
e
y like Reef Chili with these pigments
they’re able to utilize them to enhance their own color. Your expectations shouldn’t
be to change the color overnight but over time to enhance the color that is all ready there.
We can’t forget everyone’s favorite, polyp extension! The corals
will sense the availability of food and of coarse
,
extend their polyps to capture it. This
is particularly cool with corals that we rarely see open like sun corals. Over time many
people will find their corals polyps stay out more and more and some will stay out all day long.
Finally,
it is incredible to watch the whole tank come alive as every single creature in the tank runs
around attempting to find some Reef Chili.
I have heard that live phytoplankton cultures
are better than freeze dried, is this true ?
Short answer is if you know that the live
phytoplankton is fresh and has not sat at room temperature for more than a few hours at
any point in the shipping process, then live is most certainly better. The problem with live
phytoplankton is that unless you go through all the trouble to make your own cultures and
harvest the phytoplankton yourself, it may be nutritionally empty. It only takes a matter of hours
at room temperature for phytoplankton to become next to useless as they have used up all
their nutrition. You can simply never know how long a shipper or supplier allowed your
product to be exposed to these temperatures. The freeze dried Phytoplankton is killed and
freeze dried at the “peak of its nutritional value” insuring the quality of the
product.
Cost also becomes a factor. You can spend over $60 a month buying live
phytoplankton, where Reef Chili will only cost a few dollars a month. Even if it was possible to
be 100% assured that your live phytoplankton still has nutritional value, is it worth
paying up to
20 times
as much?
Keep in mind that only a small
percentage of your tanks inhabitan
ts
are able to utilize the small micron range of
phytoplankton. You will have to purchase many other expensive products if you want to
provide nutrition for all your tank
'
s filter feeders.
I was told that my corals don’t need
additional food and they will survive off the nutrition they get from the lighting, is
this true?
I think the key word in that question is the word
“survive”. It is true that a large number of corals will “survive” off
light alone. There is a big difference between surviving and thriving. This is the
analogy
that
I like to use, imagine how a house plant
does with sunlight and water alone.
I
t will survive, grow slowly and maybe
flower occasionally. Now take the same plant and add some of the fertilizer/nutrients it ”needs”
and watch the same plant
'
s growth take off and grow larger
flowers than you have ever seen. The absence of the fertilizer/nutrients was the limiting factor
in the plant
'
s growth and overall health. Many corals
respond to the additional nutrition in a similar fashion with increased growth, others
respond in with just a general overall health boost which helps them fight off parasites and
disease. Corals are simply unable to produce things like amino acids from light and their
only source for them is capturing pr
e
y (Reef Chili) or other expensive
supplements. Many captive corals also don’t produce carotenoid and xanthophyll pigments in
the quantities that most aquarists desire
.
Feeding products like Reef Chili, which
are rich in these pigments, is an excellent way to enhance already present colors.
Frankly,
there is a big difference between a coral that is alive and a healthy coral.
This topic is
a bit to
o
vast to be fully discussed here . If you are interested in reading more about how corals feed I highly recommend the book
"
The Reef Aquarium Volume Three
"
by J. Charles Delbeek and Julian Sprung . This
books contains an excellent section on the topic.
What is the shelf life of Reef Chili ?
Reef Chili will stay fresh for 3-4 months at room
temperature. Reef Chili will stay fresh in the fridge for 9-12 months depending on how
humid and cold your fridge is. For maximum freshness always make sure to keep the cap on
tight.
Will my fish eat Reef Chili ?
Your fish will not only eat the small partials
they will go mad for them. I have found the addition of Reef Chili to be of enormous help
training some fish to eat prepared foods. Reef Chili seems to trigger a feeding response fish
can’t resist. Larger fish are of course too big to eat these small partials but it
triggers the same feeding frenzy. Everything simply wakes up, corals open , snails and crabs come
out of every crack, star fish start roaming around
, etc.
I always have to feed Reef Chili to the
tank when company comes over so they can watch the insanity : )
The suggested feeding amount doesn’t seem
like very much, can I use more ?
For people who are inexperienced in feeding
corals it is easy to over use products like this
.
It's very similar to how everyone new to
the hobby tends to over feed their fish. For this reason
,
my recommended serving size is rather low. I highly suggest you start there and over several months work your way up as you watch how
your tank reacts to the new feedings. Basically my recommended serving size is based off
a lightly stocked tank that may already be over fed with fish food. If you know you don’t
feed your fish very much and you have a ton corals in your tank you may feel comfortable using
more but I still suggest starting slow and working up. Keep in mind it wont hurt anything to go
slow. Just like any other food, you will know you are feeding too much if you develop excess algae.
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