The sea squirt is the best feeding tool ever!

[phoenix20]

So I picked up one of these sea squirts so I could spot feed my LPS with white snow plankton.

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~category~Kent_Marine_Nautilus_Sea_Squirt_Feeding_Prong_Saltwater_Aquarium_Supplies_Food_Feeding_Equipment_Tongs___Prongs~vendor~Kent_Marine~SearchStr~sea+squirt~action~view~idProduct~KM2711~idCategory~FIFDFETP.html">http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~category~Kent_Marine_Nautilus_Sea_Squirt_Feeding_Prong_Saltwater_Aquarium_Supplies_Food_Feeding_Equipment_Tongs___Prongs~vendor~Kent_Marine~SearchStr~sea+squirt~action~view~idProduct~KM2711~idCategory~FIFDFETP.html</a>

The feeding prong is worthless, it really wouldn't be much use unless a coral could grab something large and meaty off of it and give a good tug.

So I've been trying to feed my plate coral, and every time I drop some sort of food on the guy, the pepp/fire/cleaner shrimp all stampede for the grub.

Tonight, I took a frozen cube of brine shrimp, floated it in the water for a few seconds, then used the sea squirt to start "sucking it in"... The squirt is too small to actually take in solids, but the cube stuck on the end of the intake because of the water flowing inwards! It created enough suction to where I could move the brine around anywhere in the tank I wanted. I was then able to drop about half of the cube (other half disentagrated) directly over the plate coral's mouth.

It took the plate coral about a minute, but then its mouth started to slowly eat the brine. Next thing I knew, here came the shrimp and friends! Once the brine was over its mouth, I used the sea squirt to fend off the shrimp. It kind of felt like an offensive lineman protecting a quarterback!

The shrimp were relentless. They tried circulating the LR every which way they could -- they tried to gang up into teams -- then they all tried bum rushing the plate coral from different directions to try to get some of the brine shrimp he was ingesting. I sucked up water into the sea squirt and lightly squirted the shrimp off! Not only were they caucious of the tip, but the water I used to blow them gently backwards kept them at bay.

It was like a game between me and the shrimp! The plate coral was able to eat all of the brine (about half a cube) and now looks fat as ever!

Woo Hooo!!!:yay: :yay: :yay:

And I didn't even get wet. Not too bad for a 24" deep tank.

 

[raisingtwo2006]

Awesome, Anyone local have them, or did you buy it online?

 

[gwhiz]

I've got one too...and I use the feeding prong to feed anemones...they can grab shrimp, etc., from it and it works well if you don't impale the food to strongly.

I got mine from Pet Showcase in Tyrone.....a bit away from you, but on your way to ATL...

 

[roundman]

Aquabuys carries them on the web site

 

[stacy22]

Nice job, Phoenix, protecting against the blitz! Shrimp are **** funny. They are total clowns in an exoskeleton.

 

[phoenix20]

George: I'm in the Pet Showcase like every other day either getting RO/DI water or something else. Scott and I are good friends to say the least. I talked to him about becoming a sponsor of ARC.

Scott said that he was interested in becoming an ARC sponsor. I sent the site admins here Scott's email address to contact him. There is some section on this website to request becoming a sponsor. I never heard anything back, so I'm not sure if someone has contacted him or not...

If any of the site admins or ARC officers want his email address to contact him about becoming a sponsor, shoot me a PM.

 

[jaustin]

I have one. It ROCKS! Bought it in town (Valdosta) from Exotic Fish. Worth every penny.

Now if i can only find a pair of grabbers that are made well.

 

[flyingarmy]

Yep..been using one as a target feeder since I set up the 160. Being 36" deep it is a invalueable tool! Not like Raj....he's just a tool!

 

[rostato]

I like mine to feed my anemones with the prong, however it is horrible to try and feed meaty food to "shy" fish. It always ends up just sucking up a ton of water and diluting the food to the point where it is useless to me. Any tips?

 

[phoenix20]

What type of food are you trying to feed the fish? I found that if I stuck a frozen cube straight from the freezer into the tank water, that the cube is still "solid enough" to stick together.

Start sucking in water, and move the tip towards the frozen cube. It'll attach the cube to the end of the squirt, and will allow you to move the cube anywhere you want to go. As the cube thaws more, it starts coming apart, so you only have about 30 seconds before the food looses suction.

I found that my fish are always scared whenever I put my hands / sea squirt into the tank. They all go and hide in the live rock, so I dunno if this would work too well with trying to spot feed fish.

 

[rostato]

I usually just take frozen brine or mysis shrimp and thaw it out in some tank water and soak it in garlic. Then I suck it up in the squirt and try to feed the fish. My fish will eat right out of it (especially the shrimps), the problem is that it constantly sucks up more tank water, and because it has so much volume due of its size it just dilutes the food and it becomes a hassle to get the food out of the squirt.

I finally just started to dump the food in the tank and let them fight for it. Hell, my clowns, shrimp and serpant star will just eat right out of my hands. so I really only need to worry about the wrasse and firefish. But, they eat when I dump food in.

Now, when I get some corals that need feeding the squirt will be a usefull tool if I can get it to stop dilluting the food so much.