Reef Ramblings

Announcing two new foods for the discerning reefkeeper.

Midland Reefs has just added two new foods to its Reef Scientific range, extending the available range of copepods, RS Frozen Pod-Mix fish & corals and RS Frozen Pod-Mix corals & fish

• RS Frozen Pod-Mix fish & corals, a 700 micron sized copepod mix suitable for most reef fishes and for LPS corals. Roughly equivalent in size to CyclopEeze.

• RS Frozen Pod-Mix corals & fish, a copepod mix containing ‘pods sized from 500 – 700 microns, suitable for feeding finicky corals such as Sea Fans and Gorgonians, Goniopora, and SPS corals, along with smaller reef fishes such as Dragonets or Mandarinfishes. Especially useful for use with fish breeding projects to feed early post larval juveniles, roughly equivalent in size to 2 day old enriched artemia.

A Natural Diet.

The Reef Scientific range of frozen copepods is the nearest thing currently available to the natural diet of the majority of the fishes in the reefkeeping hobby.

Fishes in the hobby tend to be smaller species, say less than 20 cms adult size, with diets mainly comprising copepods along with other small prey items such as fish eggs, fish larva, invertebrate larvae, faeces, etc.

To learn more about copepods and their role in the food chain see: Copepods for the Reef Aquarium. Part 1.

Reef Scientific frozen Calanoid Copepods – The highest quality frozen natural marine zooplankton available anywhere!

High Nutritional Value – High in protein, in omega3, Phospholipids, DHA & EPA, and Astaxanthin.

This range of marine zooplankton is rich in phospholipids, essential fatty acids and proteins along with the caratanoid Astaxanthin. The fatty acid, DHA, is only produced in marine algae and is accumulated in zooplankton as they graze in a process of natural enrichment.

Non-polluting! 100% clean. Needs no pre-rinsing before use. The product is pasteurized for bio-security and sealed, using natural components from crustaceans, minimizing nutrient leakage in the reef aquarium. Can be thawed and kept in the refrigerator for up to 14 days.

Suitable for all saltwater and freshwater fish, corals, and crustaceans.

A number of different species are present in each sizing, providing a rich variety of different nutritional profiles; species include: Temora longicornis, Acartia clausi and Centropages hamatus, Pseudocalanus spp., Paracalanus spp., Microcalanus spp. and early copepodites of C. finmarchicus

Breeding

The smaller-size food particles have a documented positive effect on fish and crustacean larvae.

In co-feeding experiments, clownfish have shown 100% higher growth compared to a diet solely with enriched rotifers and artemia. Survival has increased by 50%.

Dr. Ike Olivotto at the university of Ancona, Italy, has published a paper showing this food to be superior to live feeds such as rotifers and artemia. His research involved comparing two groups of clownfish larvae, one group fed a standard rotifer/Artemia nauplii, diet, the other fed a combination of rotifers/copepod nauplii and Artemia nauplii/copepodites-copepods.

His research showed 100% higher weight along with 30% length increase in clownfishes 10 days post hatching, compared to fish given a diet consisting of enriched rotifers and Artemia. 15 days post hatching, larvae fed with the copepod enhanced diet had a 62% survival rate compared to larvae fed a conventional rotifer/Artemia nauplii diet with a 41% survival rate.

We have used these foods to great success, here at Midland Reefs, raising healthy, well-pigmented, clownfishes, on a diet consisting of rotifers and copepods, whilst completely excluding artemia.

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2012

A recent piece of research delivered as a poster presentation at the annual American Geophysical Union meeting during December 2011 brings into question the formulation of the aquarium foods with which we feed our fish. See LiveScience for the original story that prompted me to write this article.

The poster by Greg Michalski, an assistant professor at Purdue University, highlights a quirk of science that although amusing, may be of concern to aquarists wanting to ensure their fish are fed an appropriate diet.

The poster presentation was a report on research based on chemical analysis of nitrogen isotopes in the food chain. The heavier isotope nitrogen-15 accumulates with each level on the food chain whilst the lighter form, nitrogen-14, tends to be excreted. An animal retains the heavy nitrogen from the animals it eats, while losing some of the lighter nitrogen. With each step up the food chain, the ratio of heavy to light shifts in favour of nitrogen-15. So, a plant would have the lowest levels of heavy nitrogen, and a top predator, say a shark or a tiger, would have the highest. This is a similar mechanism to the accumulation of the toxic element mercury in animals higher up the food chain

Michalski, who uses isotopes to study pollution and nitrogen cycling, had his students test seafood as a training exercise. Not surprisingly, they found that filter-feeding animals, like clams, came up with relatively low nitrogen-15 levels. Fish at the top of the food chain, like tuna and swordfish, had the most. However, as they studied a wider range of subjects they discovered an anomaly when they found some of the highest levels of heavy nitrogen ever recorded in …

 … the common guppy!

Tim Hayes Midland Reefs ©2007-11

The nitrogen enrichment being studied is expressed as the ratio of heavy to light nitrogen in the air. In the guppy, however, they found an increase in heavy nitrogen of 0.149 percent relative to that ratio. By comparison, they analyzed a sample from a thresher shark, a predatory shark, and found it had a 0.143-percent enrichment. Comically this turns the humble guppy into a predator at the very top of the food chain.

The reason for the anomaly turns out to be the aquarium fish food fed to the guppies. Their analyses revealed that fish food is positioned in the middle of the food chain, in the vicinity of salmon, mahi mahi, octopus or cod. Generally fish food comprises the leftovers from commercial fisheries: fish heads, guts and fins, the heavy nitrogen contained in it becomes further concentrated when eaten by the top predator, aquarium fishes, in this case, specifically the common guppy.

Although we don’t know what make of aquarium food was being fed to the guppies in the study it does open up questions about the formulation of fish foods and how appropriate they are for the species that they are being fed to.

In nature guppies are fairly low in the food chain, digestive tracts of wild guppies, Poecilia reticulata contain mainly benthic algae and aquatic insect larvae, a diet far different to the one rich in fish represented by the aquarium food in the above study.

For some time now I’ve been pointing out that the majority of fishes kept by reefkeepers are not fish eaters, rather they have a diet comprised of small zooplankton. Similarly the majority of the popular small fishes in the freshwater hobby are not fish eaters.

When you choose a food for your fishes do some research, examine the manufacturers literature and the content on food labels to ensure that you are feeding your fish an appropriate diet. You may find that you need a variety of foods to accommodate the diets of the different species that you keep.

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2011

Reef Scientific frozen Calanoid Copepods

The highest quality frozen natural marine zooplankton available anywhere!

High Nutritional Value!

High in protein, in omega3, Phospholipids, DHA & EPA, and Astaxanthin.

Although other companies market the calanoid copepod, Calanus finmarchicus, the nutritional quality of these is poor owing to the presence of autolytic enzymes that degrade fatty acids and proteins after freezing. With Reef Scientific Calanoid Copepods, these autolytic enzymes have been deactivated, consequently extending the storage time of the food from as little as one month to in excess of a year with no loss of nutritional value!

Non-polluting!

100% clean. Needs no pre-rinsing before use. The product is pasteurized for bio-security and sealed, using natural components from crustaceans, minimizing nutrient leakage in the reef aquarium. Can be thawed and kept in the refrigerator for up to 14 days.

Suitable for all saltwater and freshwater fish, corals, and crustaceans.

Originally developed in Norway as an initial feed for larval and juvenile stages of marine aquaculture species, it has since proven valuable for ornamental aquarium species. Trials have shown them to be particularly useful in larvaculture since almost all larvae of fish or crustaceans have high nutritional demands during their early stages of development,

This range of marine zooplankton is produced in land-locked bays in Northern Norway and, characteristically of high latitude calanoid copepods, are rich in phospholipids, essential fatty acids and proteins along with the caratanoid Astaxanthin. The fatty acid, DHA, is only produced in marine algae and is accumulated in zooplankton as they graze in a process of natural enrichment.

Although it’s not widely known, there is a problem associated with the preservation of zooplankton through freezing without the degradation of fatty acids and proteins. Zooplankton contains large amounts of autolytic enzymes that continue to degrade their fatty acids and proteins post mortem. These enzymes remain active when zooplankton is frozen; consequently, the maximum storage life is one month before valuable Phospholipids in the zooplankton become degraded.

Our Norwegian partners have succeeded in deactivating the autolytic enzymes present in the zooplankton; consequently, the storage time of the food has been extended to more than one year without loss of nutrients.

Furthermore, they have developed a method of coating the zooplankton with an ultra thin membrane derived from natural components of crustaceans that prohibits nutrient leakage from the food particles. This results in a frozen food of very high nutritional quality that will not pollute the aquarium by leaching nutrients into the water.

Size Range.

The food ranges in particle size from 2mm down to 0.1 mm. Currently only the 2mm size is generally available, although if you are a breeder please talk to us about the smaller size fractions. With the exception of the 2 mm zooplankton, C. finmarchicus, a number of different species are present in each sizing, providing a rich variety of different nutritional profiles. The smaller size fractions of our feed can be used to substitute the use of live feed such as rotifers and artemia. These are available, in small volumes, in the following size fractions 65-80, 80-150, and 150-200 µm, covering the size range of rotifers.

Although other companies market calanoid copepods, specifically Calanus finmarchicus, the nutritional quality of these is poor, as the autolytic enzymes have not been deactivated.

Aquarium

Aquarium shops in Norway trialing the product have been unambiguously positive. After 2-4 weeks feeding, all fish species responded with stronger and more intense coloration. Wild caught fish, fed with this food when first received, had a higher survival rate.

Clownfishes

The smaller-size food particles have a documented positive effect on fish and crustacean larvae.

In co-feeding experiments, clownfish have shown 100% higher growth compared to a diet solely with enriched rotifers and artemia. Survival has increased by 50%.

Norwegian ornamental fish breeder, Thomas Engels, has done extensive testing of the product and has substituted the artemia feeding period of clownfishes by 2-3 weeks using this product, finding it be the best food he’s ever used.

Dr. Ike Olivotto at the university of Ancona, Italy, is shortly to publish a paper showing this food to be superior to live feeds such as rotifers and artemia. His research involved comparing two groups of clownfish larvae, one group fed a standard rotifer/Artemia nauplii, diet, the other fed a combination of rotifers/copepod nauplii and Artemia nauplii/copepodites-copepods.

Analysing gene expression in clownfishes, growth promoting factors increased by 2.5 times, whilst growth-inhibiting factors (myostatin) decreased by 5 times. His research showed 100% higher weight along with 30% length increase in clownfishes 10 days post hatching, compared to fish given a diet consisting of enriched rotifers and Artemia. 15 days post hatching, larvae fed with the copepod enhanced diet had a 62% survival rate compared to larvae fed a conventional rotifer/Artemia nauplii diet with a 41% survival rate.

Aquaculture

A Norwegian lobster hatchery, Norsk Hummer AS, trialing the 500-700µm frozen food, found that the survival rate of lobster larvae during the three weeks prior to settlement, increased to approximately 15% from less than 1%! This increased survival rate was evident even when the lobster eggs were of poor quality.

In the UK, after an initial trial, the National Lobster Hatchery are now using the 2.0mm Calanus finmarchicus as part of their raising protocol.

The food is currently being trialed on newly hatched cod larvae with further testing on growth and survival planned for other species such as halibut, turbot and cleaner fish.

Midland Reefs, Unit 10 Mount Rd. Trading Estate,

Burntwood. Staffordshire, WS7 0AJ. UK.

Tel: +44 (0) 1543 685599

Zooplankton Technical Data.

Table 1. Size and Species

Table 2.

Fatty acid profile (mg/g dry weight and % of total fatty acids) of the 2 mm size fraction of copepods.

Fatty acid profile may vary depending on season, locality, and plankton species grazed.

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2010

Copepods for the Reef Aquarium.

There’s currently a lot of interest about copepods for the reef aquarium and as a food for raising larval animals. In this series of articles I’m going to look at what ‘pods are, why they’re important, and suggest some approaches to home cultivation.

What are copepods?

Copepods are small crustaceans found in both marine and freshwater environments.  Around 12,000 species have been described to date. They are very diverse in terms of habitat and behaviour and are also the most numerous multi-celled animal in the seas. Copepods can be free-living, symbiotic, or parasitic (internally or externally) on almost every phylum of animals existing in water. Life cycle can vary from a few weeks up to a year, depending on species.

Marine species are found everywhere in the seas: as pelagic zooplankton in the open ocean from the polar regions to the tropics, and as benthic organisms. Benthic copepods have adapted to live just about anywhere from the sediment layer in the open oceans to extreme environments such as the deepest ocean trenches, the cold polar ice-water interface, and in the region of hot hydrothermal vents.

Copepods in open-ocean planktonic communities can often be the dominant biomass given their abundance, size, and high lipid content (up to 70% their body weight).

Adult copepods are usually around 1-2 mm in length, but some species may be as short as 0.2 mm whilst others may be as long as 10 mm. Ecologically they are important links in the food chain linking microscopic algal cells to juvenile fish to whales. Copepods have the potential to act as control mechanisms for malaria by consuming mosquito larvae, but they can also act as intermediate hosts of a number human and animal parasites. Branchiura (commonly referred to as sea lice) are also included with the Copepoda, since many copepod researchers also study these parasites of fish.

Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Crustacea, Class Copepoda,
Copepoda consists of 10 Orders:

1. Calanoida
2. Cyclopoida
3. Gelyelloida
4. Harpacticoida
5. Misophrioida
6. Monstrilloida
7. Mormonilloida
8. Platycopioida
9. Poecilostomatoida
10. Siphonostomatoida

The copepods that we’re primarily interested in belong to the orders:

• Calanoida
• Cyclopoida
• Harpacticoida

Why Copepods?

Calanoids, cyclopoids and harpacticoids are of particular interest to reefkeepers, since most species of these orders generally form the first link in the aquatic food chain after phytoplankton, for many aquatic organisms from invertebrates, through fishes, to mammals. They are the second largest source of protein in the oceans, second only to krill. They are the natural food of many fish in the oceans, especially during the early stages of life.

Afterword.

See: Nutrition Part 4: Copepods. For a brief look at the species available for reef aquaria along with some notes on cultivation.

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2009

Support IYOR2008. www.iyor.org

Red Acro Bugs in the UK – Prevention is the Best Medicine.

It seems that a few more reefkeepers are putting up their hands and admitting to having problems with these pesky critters. I can’t emphasise strongly enough how important it is for everyone to quarantine new coral purchases prior to placing them in the display aquarium.

In view of this I’ve decided to go over the basics of coral quarantine as the main subject of this month’s Reef Ramblings.

Coral Quarantine.

A coral quarantine system is not an expensive luxury. Indeed some of the items needed for your quarantine system can be considered as some of those spare pieces of equipment that every reefkeeper should have on hand for emergencies. Think of it as your spare heater, spare pump, spare lighting, etc.

OK, so what constitutes a quarantine system? It’s just a tank with a heater, a pump for water movement and lighting. I use a 60cm x 30 cm x 30 cm tank (in English that’s 2 foot long, one foot high, one foot wide). The heater needs to be suitable for maintaining a temperature of around 24˚ – 25˚C, in practise usually a 100 watt heater, depending on the ambient temperature where the tank’s positioned, don’t forget to include a thermometer. For water movement say a Koralia 1 or perhaps a Pico 1200 fitted with a Hydor Flo to give a little bit of surge. As any corals being quarantined are not going to be in this system for too long, 2 – 60 cms (2 ft) T8 fluorescent tubes should be adequate (don’t forget the reflectors though!).

Fill the quarantine tank with either 100% water from your main reef or with, say, a fifty-fifty mix of reef water and newly mixed saltwater. As soon as it’s running at correct temperature and salinity it’s ready to use.
Add your newly acquired corals to the tank and then observe for the next 14 to 21 days. The time period is pretty arbitrary, but remember the longer you quarantine for the better chance you have of spotting any undesirable hitchhikers. This isn’t foolproof; you can still find animals such as crabs appearing out of rockwork months after its introduction.

Although I’m writing this in response to Red Acro Bugs, they’re not the only reason for practising quarantine: Red Acro Bugs, Acropora Flatworms, Montipora Nudibranchs, Soft Coral Nudibranchs, Pest Flatworms, Predatory Snails, Aiptasia, Majano Anemones, Mantis Shrimps, Predatory Crabs, the list goes on…

During the quarantine period closely observe your new corals, and look for evidence of any of the above-mentioned pests. Don’t just look during the day, take a look at night using a torch (flashlight if you’re American) some of these animals can be fairly cryptic; others such as pest anemones are obvious. If it is the Red Acro Bugs you’re particularly concerned about I’d also suggest examining your corals under a magnifying glass, not just once but every 3 or 4 days. If any signs of infestation are seen you can then start treating the corals with dips without going in to a state of panic about your entire reef. At this point it would also be appropriate to reach your hand behind your neck and give yourself a congratulatory pat on the back for having the foresight to quarantine your new corals…

By practising quarantine you can deal with any potential pests or predators before the corals are introduced into your display tank, saving yourself lots of heart ache and expense, indeed the cost of setting up your quarantine system is no more than that of a couple of desirable corals yet it could save you the cost of replacing your entire reef.

Quarantine – you know it makes sense!

International Year of the Reef 2008.

I hope you noticed the logo at the top of the page. This year is the International Year of the Reef 2008 (IYOR2008).
The ICRI (International Coral Reef Initiative) International Year of the Reef 2008 is a worldwide campaign to raise awareness about the value and importance of coral reefs and threats to their sustainability, and to motivate people to take action to protect them. All individuals, corporations, schools, governments, and organizations are welcome and actively encouraged to participate in IYOR 2008.

This year Midland Reefs, along with Tim Hayes, is working to promote awareness of IYOR 2008 to the aquarium hobby and industry. Look out for a series of articles in Practical Fishkeeping (PFK) written by Tim, where the emphasis is on The Responsible Reefkeeper, looking at the various ways the hobby and the reefs interact with each other.

To learn more go to: www.iyor.org

Meanwhile you can do your bit by telling non-reefkeepers about these marvellous ecosystems and how they are endangered by human activities. If you want to go one better than that, then how about showing off your reef to non-reefkeepers? Remember most people will never get a chance to see a wild reef, by showing your reef to someone who’s never seen a coral or a reef fish, you’ll be opening their eyes to the beauty that may be lost if action isn’t taken.

If you’d like some promotional material about IYOR2008 for educational purposes or to help promote IYOR, please email me at: tim@midlandreefs.co.uk

Carbon Use in Bleached Corals.

New research indicates that the recovery of bleached corals depends both on how much food the corals can eat and how healthy they can keep the symbiotic zooxanthellae within their tissue.

When corals bleach under aquarium conditions we have a reasonable understanding of how to help them survive. Over time a bleached coral will recover its population of zooxanthellae; it’s possible that not all of the original algae have been expelled and it’s also possible for corals to recruit new zooxanthellae from the water column, a process that may take many months. During this time corals need to be offered a plentiful supply of food as they no longer has access to the nutrition that was formally supplied by the zooxanthellae. Until the corals recover their full quota of algae we treat them as though they’re non-photosynthetic, because, temporarily, that’s what they are.

Recently researchers have come up with an explanation for the mechanism behind the success of this strategy. Andrea Grottoli and her team at Ohio State University have been focusing their research on investigating the key role that carbon plays on the recovery of damaged coral reefs.
Previously they’d discovered that one of the corals they’d tested, Montipora capitata, was able to recover rapidly from bleaching because it increased its rate of feeding five-fold in comparison to how another coral, Porites compressa, fed. This feeding strategy enables Montipora to survive the long-term damage that corals can suffer when sea temperatures climb beyond their natural temperature range, whereas Porites might not.

What wasn’t clear from the earlier experiments was how the corals actually made use of this additional carbon for their survival. Corals get carbon in two ways, either as a product of photosynthesis from the zooxanthellae or directly by feeding on zooplankton. When ocean temperatures rise, corals may eject their algae altogether, or the algal cells themselves lose the pigments needed for photosynthesis. Without their algae corals appear white, the condition referred to as bleaching; extended periods of bleaching can lead to the death of the coral.

To determine exactly how corals obtain carbon and how they use it to survive, samples of both healthy and bleached corals, of the two species, were placed in aquaria replicating ocean conditions. In one set of experiments, seawater containing higher-than-normal levels of a carbon isotope, C-13 was introduced. In the second experiment the corals were fed zooplankton that were also heavily laced with the carbon isotope.
The experiments were designed to track the carbon take up and determine whether it was coming from photosynthesis or from the corals’ feeding, and then to see how it was utilised. This would also show whether the process differed between healthy and bleached corals, or between one species and another.

The experiments showed that healthy corals took up more of the seawater-labeled carbon than the bleached corals.
In the healthy corals carbon was transferred into the algae where it is used for photosynthesis, ultimately ending up in the animals’ skeleton. Showing that the corals are using photosynthetic carbon for calcification and to meet their daily metabolic demands.
The carbon consumed while feeding, however, isn’t ending up in the skeleton. Instead, it’s ending up both in the tissue of the coral polyp or inside the algae. With bleached samples, the coral is apparently feeding carbon to the algae.

It was already known that nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus were exchanged in this way but the discovery that this also happens with carbon is a new one, suggesting that there is a great deal more coupling between the coral and the algae than was previously thought. Once the coral gets the carbon from feeding into its system, it locks it in, using it for energy storage and tissue growth, and when bleached, to feed the algae.

This appears to demonstrate that photosynthetic carbon is used for metabolic demands and calcification and that the carbon gained from feeding is used for tissue growth.
Without both forms, corals cannot fully recover. All corals need both photosynthesis and feeding for recovery and the rate of those two processes is the key to whether the coral can actually meet all its metabolic demands and ultimately recover.

So, now we know why our strategy of feeding bleached corals in the aquarium works. I also believe that this information also reinforces why it is important to actively feed your corals rather than the old-fashioned view of just lighting them.

Any questions or comments, or if there are any particular topics you’d like to see covered here, please feel free to get in touch with me: tim@midlandreefs.co.uk

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2008

For many reefkeepers frozen foods are the staple nutrition for feeding the captive reef but, given the number of frozen foods available, how do you choose?

Not all frozen foods can be considered equal. To compare what you’re purchasing you need to take into account a number of factors including: price, how the food’s been handled, nutritional value, potential pathogen content, water content, and integrity, not to mention added extras such as levels of antioxidants and colourants.

Price.

To my mind this is one of the least important factors in choosing which brand of frozen food to buy.
Firstly I fail to see what the point is in building up a beautiful reef, investing significant amounts of time and money in the process only to resort to feeding the cheapest – read inferior – foods available in some misguided attempt at economy.
Secondly, if a food is cheap, it’s cheap for a reason. I’m a strong believer that when it comes to price you get what you pay for.

Handling.

Quality foods are flash frozen on collection Compare this with the cheaper foods that arrive at the manufacturer’s premises in bulk as large frozen slabs that are then thawed out for repackaging by the simple expedient of using a fire hose!

Nutritional Value.

Have a look at the information on the food’s packaging; you’ll find little giveaways to quality here by observing what levels of protein are present – heck! I’m amazed at the fact that some manufacturers can actually bring down protein to such low levels, 5% or less, especially considering the protein content that the repackaged animals originally contained … Oh, and they then display this value as though it’s something to be proud of!

Just check out the protein content of our favourite, P. E. Mysis – 69.5%!

Potential Pathogen Content.

Has the manufacture screened their product for bacterial contamination? This is a process that will cost the manufacturer additional money, something to bear in mind in connection with low cost products. The best manufactures carry out testing to ensure their product is pathogen free.
(See Coral magazine Vol. 3 nos.4 and 5 for more on the subject of pathogens present in food)
Other manufacturers may utilise irradiation to ensure a pathogen free product but this may be bring with it other potential problems, not to mention the known nutrient losses from irradiation effecting vitamins A, B1, C, and E.

Any toxins produced by micro-organisms prior to irradiation will remain unaffected and still have the potential to adversely affect any animals that ingest food where they’re present. In the hands of an unscrupulous manufacturer (or one just trying to make an extra buck) irradiation could be used to disguise spoiled food. As irradiation leaves no visible presence, a food with high bacterial load can be rendered more or less sterile, yet it could still pose a hazard as the process kills the bacteria that cause spoiled foods to smell or look bad, leaving us with none of the usual indicators of inedible food.

Water Content.

What exactly are you spending your money on why you purchase frozen food? The chances are, especially with cheaper foods, that you are buying some very expensive water! So although a food might appear inexpensive, in reality you may actually be paying more for the small amount of usable food in the pack than if you were buying a quality food at a higher pack price.
(See the article in Coral vol.1 no. 1, where Daniel Knop suggested defrosting the same volume, of a number of different frozen foods, to appraise what you get for your money)

Quality foods such as P. E. Mysis and Cyclop-Eeze FreezerBar are great examples of foods where you’re not wasting your money by buying water.

Integrity.

When I use the term integrity in connection with frozen food I’m using it as a measure of how intact the frozen organism remains. This is something to be concerned at for a couple of reasons.
Animals that hunt by sight, in particular seahorses, track their prey visually before ingesting it. These animals need to be reassured that the item in question is actually a tasty food item, so a frozen item that remains intact with antennae, legs and eyes still attached where they should be, will be more readily taken – this can be something of a life or death issue with some of the more picky eaters our there.

This is one of the factors making P. E. Mysis the food of choice for American seahorse keepers.

I consider it important to stick with frozen foods that retain integrity when feeding in a reef. When feeding a frozen food, usually crustacean based, if the carapace remains unbroken there is little risk of polluting the tank, any item that’s missed at feeding time will remain inert until something comes along to eat it (usually not that long in a decent reef). Contrast this with foods that are all broken up, they leach nutrients into the water as soon as they enter the tank and anything remaining uneaten at feeding time will be a source of pollution until it’s eventually devoured.

Note! When feeding, you want all the nutrients to remain encapsulated within the food item so that they go where they’re needed – into your reef animal’s gut – and not into the water, where the phosphates and nitrates will be available to fuel all those pest algae and bio films that we don’t want!

Lipids, Antioxidants, and Colourants.

These are a few of the little extras you get in the better foods. Depending on what food you’re feeding, certain organisms can deliver higher or lower levels of lipids or differing percentages of the various fatty acids such as DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid).

Omega-3 fatty acids are a source of lipids; these are compounds that provide twice the energy of protein on a weight for weight basis. If you’ve ever read the label on the fish food you buy you may have come across references to HUFAs (highly unsaturated fatty acids), well that’s what omega-3 fatty acids are. They are the most important source of lipids for marine fishes, but due to the difficulty of processing these compounds they are often deficient in dry foods.

Carotenoids are pigments that give colour to animals and plants, but unlike plants animals can’t manufacture them and must obtain them from their diet. These carotenoid pigments come in a number of forms; for example the main ones in Cyclop-eeze are astaxanthin, a pink pigment, and canthaxanthin, a red pigment, so increased colouration is most likely to be seen in animals that naturally express these colours. But there is more to astaxanthin than colour. Over the last few years, research has shown that it has an important role to play in growth rates, respiration, protection from UV radiation, tolerance to stress, and may help boost the immune system.

Frozen Foods Hints and Tips.

Keep your frozen food in a sealed container to avoid it drying out (freezer burn) or oxidising; this will also prevent unpleasantness when other family members discover what you keep in the freezer!

Avoid frozen foods being repeatedly frozen then thawed. This will rupture the cell structure allowing nutrients to leak out into the water. This applies to our frozen Aquaculture Grade Phytoplankton as well as the more usual frozen foods.

Don’t buy single packs or small quantities of frozen food via the internet. It’s virtually impossible to expect small quantities, especially single packs, to survive posting without thawing. This is why Midland Reefs doesn’t sell any frozen foods unless they’re bought in bulk.
Support your local retailer by purchasing your frozen food from them.

Most frozen products will have “best by” or “use by” dates, pay attention to these and never buy out of date food.

It’s a false economy to buy larger packs of food just ‘cos it’s cheaper in bulk. As soon as you open a pack of food it will start deteriorating, certain vitamins will start to break down resulting in food of poor nutritional quality. Only buy the amount of food your animals will go through in a reasonable time.

Although many of us may mix together a number of different foods in a quantity of tank water to enable us to feed the reef, corals, and fishes all in one operation, don’t leave this mixture for any length of time before using. When feeding using this method, just allow enough time for the frozen food to become defrosted then use the mixture straight a way. Any defrosted food mixture will quickly become contaminated by bacteria from the environment, which will rapidly multiply, the longer the food is left unused.

And lastly, if you take your entire pack of frozen food out and carry it over to your aquarium at feeding time – Don’t forget to put it back in the freezer!!!

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2007

Live Phytoplankton
versus
Preserved Phytoplankton.

A Look at the Pros and Cons of Which Form of Phyto to Use for Which Application.
The aim of this article is to help you decide which product in the Midland Reefs range of phytoplankton is most suitable for your application. I’ll cover the different species of phyto in a future article but I first wanted to give you some information about the pros and cons of live phyto versus preserved. I mean, they can’t both be the best choice for feeding you reef can they? So why does Midland Reefs stock both?

There are a number of reasons for choosing one in favour of the other, with the choice usually coming down to either a matter of economics or application. Our phytoplankton, as with the rest of our optimal nutrition range, constitutes some of the best products available in the world.

Preserved Phytoplankton.

Application.

Preserved phytoplankton is widely used in aquaculture as a reliable substitute for live phyto. It’s used to enrich rotifers and artemia prior to them being fed to larval marine animals – fishes and shrimps. Different species of phyto are used to provide the different nutritional profiles – that’s differing ratios of fats, protein etc, – that different species of animal require to enable them to grow successfully.

Reef Usage:
Preserved phyto is well suited to being used in the reef aquarium. The primary purpose of feeding phyto in the reef is to encourage the proliferation of the various small critters that come in as hitchhikers on live rock and corals. These species commonly include copepods, amphipods, tanaids, gammarids, mysids, ostracods, small brittle stares, various species of polychaete worms (bristle worms and small feather dusters), bi-valves etc. These critters form the base of the natural food chain within your reef helping to provide a healthy environment for the major animals – the fishes, corals, and other invertebrates that form the focus of your reef.

Pros.

Depending on preservation method can have a shelf life of up to 2 years (frozen). 12 to 14 weeks is pretty standard for refrigerated products.

Can be very highly concentrated with a starting dosage of as little as 1 ml. per 100 litres being required.

Lower cost than live products.

It’s always there when you need it, unlike live, which has a nasty habit of crashing just when you really need it (providing you remembered to buy more before running out!}

Convenience – no messing about with cultures, no having to remember to shake live culture.

Cleanliness – contains negligible amounts of undesirable residual nutrients such as nitrate and

Cons.

Preserved phyto is usually non-viable – meaning that you can’t use it to start off a fresh culture.

May not be accepted as food by some corals and other filter feeders.

Perhaps not the best choice for the nano reef, given the density of the product it may be too easy to overdose in a small volume of water.

Live Phytoplankton.

Reef Usage.

Live phytoplankton is probably what we’d all like to use as a live natural method of feeding our reefs.

Pros.

Live phyto is desirable as a natural, non-polluting method of feeding our reefs.

Depending on species chosen may make a significant contribution to the nutritional requirements of certain corals and other filter feeding invertebrates.

May play an additional role in taking up some undesirable nutrients.

Can be used to accelerate the curing time of live rock

Extremely useful when raising larval animals through the process of co-culturing

Best choice for the nano reef, given the amount used cost shouldn’t be an issue, also limits the possibility of pollution through overdosing.

Cons.

More expensive to use than bulk grown preserved.

Poorly produced phyto has the potential to pollute the reef if it contains undesirable amounts of residual nutrients such as nitrate and phosphate.

It’s potential for crashing, leaving you with no usable supply (usually just when you need it!).

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2007