Isochrysis galbana, an easy to grow algae, is one of the best foods for Acropora in our reef tanks. For less than $100 you can grow nearly endless amounts of this phytoplankton for your coral and feed your reef.
It's obvious that we should feed our fish, but less people feed their corals. Of those that do, most of you are probably feeding LPS corals, or maybe Zoanthus, Ricordia, that sort of coral. Acropora, Montipora, and other SPS corals have a much less visible feeding response, and that gets people to think they're not eating. Or, maybe, we don't feed them the correct foods - after all their mouths are tiny and they need tiny foods or it simply won't fit.
The key to feeding coral is making the proper foods available in the right amount over a long enough time for the individual polyps to get something to eat. In the study, that meant continuous feedings of food throughout the day and night. In our display tanks, that might not be feasible, but we could easily put a culture of Isochrysis galbana on a dosing pump and slowly feed it all night when we're not going to be bothered by a potential greenish tint to the water.
It's even possible to skip the grow your own phyto phase and buy freeze dried Isochrysis galbana. Then just mix it with water, and boom - coral food!
Elucidating an optimal diet for captive Acropora corals,
J.A. Conlan, C.A. Humphrey, A. Severati, C.C. Parrish, D.S. Francis,
Aquaculture, Volume 513, 2019, 734420, ISSN 0044-8486,
doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture....
Abstract
Developing an optimal heterotrophic feeding regime has the potential to improve the growth and overall health of captive corals. This study evaluated the efficacy of seven unique feeding strategies for Acropora loripes, Acropora millepora, and Acropora tenuis nubbins: a novel, micro-bound diet (ATF), a novel, dissolved diet rich in long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) (LONG), a novel, dissolved diet lacking in LC-PUFA (SHORT), a phytoplankton diet of Isochrysis galbana (ALG), co-feeding of LONG and ALG (COMB), unfiltered seawater (RAW), and an unfed treatment of filtered seawater only (CTL). After 90 days, all species showed the highest growth in the ALG treatment. There was a negative correlation between growth and total lipid concentration, indicating that Acropora corals have a low tolerance for lipid-rich diets. Coral appeared to perform best in the relatively natural treatments, namely the ALG, CTL, and RAW, which recorded higher growth and increased proportions of high-energy lipid compounds such as wax esters, triacylglycerols, and the fatty acids, 16:0 and 22:6n-3. Meanwhile the formulated diets (ATF, LONG, SHORT) promoted greater proportions of structural lipids and indispensable, membrane-bound fatty acids including 20:5n-3 and 20:4n-6. Despite the SHORT diet being low in LC-PUFA, corals fed this diet showed few significant differences in several individual LC-PUFA compared to most other treatments, suggesting that these were obtained via de novo synthesis, or selectively retained from initial reserves. Ultimately, this study showed that phytoplankton represents a promising vehicle of nutrient delivery for captive Acropora corals.
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