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Nutrients for corals and plankton filter feeders that are rich in energy and vitamins |
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Nutrients for corals and plankton filter feeders that are rich in energy and vitamins |
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ILarge quantities of water flow through the reef and supply corals with
phytoplankton in their natural habitat. Mostly at night zooplankton will
move out of their hiding places and emerge from deeper water into the
habitat of reef corals. Tropic Marin has developed PRO-CORAL ZOOTON and
PRO-CORAL PHYTON to provide corals and other plankton filter feeders
with this natural richness of nutrients. |
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PRO-CORAL PHYTON |
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Natural phytoplankton is an important supplier of energy and nutrients
for leather corals and soft corals, shell-fish, and other fine particle
filter feeders. PRO-CORAL PHYTON is a well-balanced plankton replacement
suitable for all fine particle filter feeders in seawater aquaria. A
premium algae blend provides the invertebrates with trace elements and
carbohydrates rich in energy in a form only found in the ocean.
Spirulina is carotenoid-packed and if combined with brewer's yeast will
provide the natural B vitamin requirements and, in particular, vitamin B
12.
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PRO-CORAL ZOOTON |
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Natural zooplankton is an important source of energy and nutrients for stony corals and other plankton filter feeders. PRO-CORAL ZOOTON is a well-balanced plankton replacement for stony corals, specifically, small-polyped stony corals and other plankton filter feeders in a saltwater aquarium. It consists mainly of selected marine ingredients rich in trace elements and minerals. Spirulina is carotenoid-packed and if combined with brewer's yeast will provide the natural B vitamin requirements and, in particular, vitamin B 12.
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Even if it is an often overlooked fact with respect to plankton filter feeders that are often fastened to the substrate: all animals depend on ingesting the energy for motion and metabolic processes from the food they eat. The spectrum of marine invertebrates that cover a part or their entire nutritional needs from zooplankton or phytoplankton ranges from sponges to soft and leather corals all the way up to whales. Reef-building stony corals also belong to the family of plankton filter feeders, even though another source of nutrients is available to them because of their symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae. |
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Plankton ingestion methods |
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The branched tentacles of the small-polyped stony corals and horn corals are perfectly designed to filter and ingest each and every nutritious particle from the water sweeping over them.
Leather corals and soft corals have finely feathered tentacles with
which they filter plankton out of the water; special digestive enzymes
can even break down the complex carbohydrates of marine algae. Plankton
captured in this way not only significantly contributes to the energy
supply and the growth rate of corals but also delivers all the main and
trace nutrients in a concentrated form that are vital for the properly
working symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae. Scientific tests have
verified the growth promoting effect of a plankton diet in reef-building,
small-polyped stony corals (Houlbrèque et al. 2003 and 2004). |
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Literature: 1. F. Houlbrèque et al., Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 296 (2003), 145-166 2. F. Houlbrèque et al., Journal of Experimental Biology 207 (2004), 1461 – 1469 |
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