Free Invertebrate Food

How would you like a free lifetime supply of coral or invert food?

Yes, we can tell you where to get all the free invert food you could ever use. Not only will the stuff be free, but we'll tell you how to harvest all you need, with essentially no additional equipment purchase required!

Now I'm sure all the invert food sellers will come out with counter-claims, but consider first that I don't sell invert food. I have no vested interest in it, unlike them. Right now the overwhelming majority of aquarists in the world have free invert food and throw it away, regularly! So what do corals eat? Besides the byproducts of the symbiotic algae's photosynthesis (sugars & carbs) most of them strain microscopic or very small organics out of the ocean currents as they pass.

Do you have a powerhead or any other type of sponge filter or even a prefilter (cloth type)? It clogs up and you have to clean it, right? What are you getting out of it? ORGANIC MULM! WHAT CORALS EAT!!! So let me share with you my secret free invert food.

When cleaning sponge prefilters from your powerheads or other pumps, ALWAYS do it in a bowl of SALT water from the tank. Whether you learn or follow anything else I say or not, this is very important. If you squeeze your sponge out in fresh water you will kill most of the good bacteria living on it and are starting back at square one when you put it back, without all the good stuff living on and in it.

So, squeeze your sponge filter (or pre-filter) in a bowl of saltwater until it is clean and free of the clogging organic mulm that has filled it up. Now most of you throw this away. This is where we change things.

I use a turkey baster to suck up this organic mulm - biological gold it is - and then spray it over inverts that need feeding. You'll see closed ones open up, and open ones open further. Just put a little over each animal that needs feeding .... note current if necessary to make it fall on the mushrooms or whatever.



Save some for night feeders, like large polyp stony (LPS) corals (Trachys, Lobos, etc.) spraying the magic organic mulm over them an hour after the lights are out.

When basting your free invert food, move around the tank and squeeze it slowly, so as not to scare the animals. They often perceive quick sudden motion or current as potential predators, and retract their feeding tentacles, or entirely retreat if they feel threatened.

Since these sponges or pre-filters need weekly or bi-weekly cleaning there is no need to store it. You can toss what you don't need. I usually spread a baster's worth over 6 to 12 animals, depending on size. You will figure out how much, how often, over a short while.

For instance, this large, beautiful blue mushroom was fed in this manner.




So, I'm not saying what the invert food sellers offer doesn't work. I'm just saying this works FANTASTIC at ZERO cost. You'll have to play with this to get used to how much how often for YOUR animals and bio-load, but it does work. I just don't see the sense in throwing out organic mulm that my corals eat, while buying organic mulm to feed them.

Now if you have some plankton eating coral and you can buy some plankton for it, then by all means do so. But I find it hard to believe some yeast-egg-yolk mixture will provide them with more better nutrients than what comes off of my sponge pre-filters when I clean them.

P.S. Remember to always use trace elements, as they are constantly being consumed by growing inverts.

~ birdfish