Feeding Favia, if one polyp eats do the rest get some of that goodness?

[badbread]

So for a while my red and green favia was in pretty poor health. The tissue was receded and showing light white streaks of skeleton and the feeder tentacles were non existent. After moving it to my 28G I began a vigorous feeding program which involved placing as many 1mm spectrum Thera A sinking pellets on as many heads as possible. After about 2-4 weeks of feeding, the tissue plumped up and now the favia is looking fantastic and the feeding tentacles are almost all back out.

So my question is, when feeding a favia do the polyps that actually grab and ingest some food share the nutrients with the other polyps in the colony? I ask because while I tried my best to target feed every polyp, many polyps (at least 25) are on an angle and never actually grabbed and ate the food but they are looking plump and healthy as well. Also, if it does share that would make future feedings SOOOOOOOOOOOO much easier.

Thanks,
Jay

 

[LeviT]

I'm sure some stuff gets shared..... but I'd still try and feed as many as I could.... even if it's only from time to time. my 2 cents.

 

[badbread]

So I'm assuming they do share in that foodie goodness as well, I mean I'm pretty sure none of these side and upside down polyps ever grabbed hold and ate some food so they must share right?

Are there any corals out there where this has been proven? Do things like Zoa's for instance that share a common mat share nutrients as well? How about acans? I guess the question is do LPS corals with individual polyps but with shared mats or skeletons or whatever spread nutrients around the colony when fed?

 

[A_Lee]

It is common in stony coral polyps, octocorals, hydrocorals, and zoanthids to share, exchange, and transport nutrients via a network of gastrovascular canals which connect polyps in colonies. With regards to your favia, I would definitely try to make an effort to feed as many polyps as possible (which sounds like what you're doing with good results), though depending on the orientation of colony, feeding all can be understandably difficult. Maybe you can also rotate feeding the polyps, or try basting some small meaty foods like mysid onto the hard to reach polyps when the feeding tentacles are out. Maybe even try basting some cyclopeeze, or brine shrimp in those areas as well. HTH.

 

[badbread]

Cool, thanks Anthony, I usually try and slowly squirt some cyclopeeze on it as well so it gently lays to rest on the coral.

Thanks!

 

[Lyn]

Good questions Jay.

I noticed that sometimes one or a few polyps on my Acans will have their feeders out, but not others on the same colony. The ones that are out are most likely to feed, so I wondered about the other non-feeding ones.

Thanks for asking the questions.