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Posted by Mr-Moonlight on May 4, 2005, 3:32 pm
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Hi!
I have a red Koko worm... Had him a few weeks now and until this week
he has done fine... Now he doesnt seem to want to come out and when he
does he doesnt unfurl his feathered head fully... Any ideas?
I feed my corals marine snow once a week (only have 3 of them) and am
using instant ocean as my salt mix.. All tank perameters are rock
stable...
Thoughts anyone?
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Posted by kim gross on May 5, 2005, 3:43 am
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Mr-Moonlight wrote:
> Hi!
>
> I have a red Koko worm... Had him a few weeks now and until this week
> he has done fine... Now he doesnt seem to want to come out and when he
> does he doesnt unfurl his feathered head fully... Any ideas?
>
> I feed my corals marine snow once a week (only have 3 of them) and am
> using instant ocean as my salt mix.. All tank perameters are rock
> stable...
>
> Thoughts anyone?
>
First you need to get some good food for your corals and the coco worm.
Depending on what corals you have some rotifers and some cyclopseez
would be a good starting point. the coco worm is a filter feeder and
will filter large photoplankton and small zooplankton out of the water.
YOu Marine snow has nether in it. Actually according to analysis of
it, it is more of a trace element additive than a food source.
Kim
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Posted by Mr-Moonlight on May 5, 2005, 4:23 am
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Far be it for me, a biginner, to argue but acording to the ingredients
list it ONLY has plankton in it....? No trace elements at all... In
fact I was starting to wonder if it is the trace elements I was
forgetting....?
More thoughts?
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Posted by kim gross on May 6, 2005, 4:36 am
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Mr-Moonlight wrote:
> Far be it for me, a biginner, to argue but acording to the ingredients
> list it ONLY has plankton in it....? No trace elements at all... In
> fact I was starting to wonder if it is the trace elements I was
> forgetting....?
>
> More thoughts?
>
I was trying to find the analysis of Marine Snow, but I can't now, the
only thing I can find is a link to the combisan analysis and a statement.
Dr. Shimek tested another TLF product at the same time: Marine Snow.
It was found to be more than 99% moisture
You can check here to see some interesting info on another TLF product
and how the label is a little different than what is actually in the bottle.
http://www.inlandreef.com/Testing/CSanalysis .
If you are looking for a good phytoplankton source look for DT's
photoplankton or the BIO-plankton from Liquid life USA.
Kim
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Posted by Tidepool Geek on May 5, 2005, 1:36 pm
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>
> I have a red Koko worm... Had him a few weeks now and until this week
> he has done fine... Now he doesnt seem to want to come out and when he
> does he doesnt unfurl his feathered head fully... Any ideas?
>
> I feed my corals marine snow once a week
Howdy,
The short answer is that your worm is almost certainly not 'equipped' to eat
the Marine Snow product and, as a result is reacting naturally to a
perceived lack of available food. Filter feeding worms sort what they eat
according to particle size. Most, or maybe all of these worms use a sort of
stepped U shaped feeding channel to select their dinner menu - the narrow
bottom portion of the channel transports food; the somewhat wider upper
portion transports building materials (for the tube); and anything too large
for one of those sections is discarded. In general the narrow 'food' section
of the channel is sized for phytoplankton while the wider part is often
moving marine snow which, like the commercial product, is an agglomeration
of mucus, bacteria, and other stuff.
Filter feeders in general and feather dusters in particular are taking a
risk by extending their feeding tentacles. When there isn't much food
available many of them will choose to retract and wait for the table to be
set.
There's an excellent article about this by Dr. Shimek at this URL:
http://www.dtplankton.com/feathers.htm
I suggest that you try a true phytoplankton product for a while to see if
the worm starts acting happier. Another consideration is feeding frequency.
Filter feeders are accustomed (in nature) to eating slowly and
semi-constantly. By feeding once or twice per week you're sending the worms
a confused message about the conditions in your tank. When there isn't
anything to eat for days on end the animal responds by going dormant. If
they are dormant or quasi-dormant when you feed then they won't be ready to
take full advantage of the opportunity. You're just about guaranteed to have
a happier worm if you spread your feeding out to at least a once per day
schedule. Two or three times per day would be even better and, if you feel
like doing some engineering, a constant drip would be the absolute best.
You may have noticed that the URL above is on the DT's website and DT's is a
highly regarded phytoplankton product. FWIW: I'm pretty sure that the DT's
folks are re-printing an existing article rather than the article having
been written as a sales tool. If the DT's product is prohibitively expensive
you may be able to get good results for less money with one of the
cryo-preserved phytoplankton products or you could also set up to culture
your own - A Google search on "phytoplankton culture" should give you scads
of information.
While we're talking Google, you might also want to search on "marine snow".
You'll find quite a lot of information about the natural substance, how it's
formed, and what eats it.
Planktonically yours,
TPG
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>
> I have a red Koko worm... Had him a few weeks now and until this week
> he has done fine... Now he doesnt seem to want to come out and when he
> does he doesnt unfurl his feathered head fully... Any ideas?
>
> I feed my corals marine snow once a week (only have 3 of them) and am
> using instant ocean as my salt mix.. All tank perameters are rock
> stable...
>
> Thoughts anyone?
>