pic of my Acan chowing down on mysis and a Question

I jsut wanted to share this pic of my acan during feeding time... two of the smaller heads playing tug of war with the mysis shrimp and the piggy on top is stuffing two down its mouth.



I love these guys!

I have possibly a stupid question about them as an organism, is each eye a separate entity or are they linked together? If only one eye gets food do the others suffer?

 

You don't need to feed every eye. Looks like yours is eating very well.

 

thanks, yeah it eats like a pig. i just take a turkey baster and gently blow a bunch of mysis above it (with the powerheads off) and it does the rest. I then turn on the powerheads after 15 minutes and it catches more with its feeding tentacles.

 

Wow - what an awesome shot!

 

Seeing as none has actually answered your question.

The coral is one entity based of multiple mouths. Food is shared so the other mouths do not suffer. However, the coral will grow faster if all the mouths get food, since there is more food available to the coral and less need of sharing resources.

 

Are those live mysis shirmp? If so how do you grow them? I would love to have these growing my my refugium, or in a seperate container for a live food. Could you PM me or tell me more?

 

Thanks for the info! I try to make sure that they all get one but I wasn't sure if that was necessary. I always feel like I am depriving one if it doesn't get its share...haha. Now I won't feel so bad.

Alas they are just frozen mysis. I thaw them in RODI water and pass them through a screen to get rid of the extra particulate matter. I then do a target feeding with a turkey baster.

I do have a lot of copepods growing in my fuge though ...every now and again i give my chaeto a little shake in the DT to transfer some over. That is mainly for my mandarin though, i have never seen the acan munch on a live one.

 

Interesting! I am not to well versed on LPS but I was the understanding that each eye is a polyp/coral. A group of corals/polyps is a colony. Does this differ in LPS such as this acan?

As for sharing food, I am of the understanding that sharing food does happen in colonies with coral polyps that are genetically the same.