Reefer's Guide to Quality Reef Foods
Updated: Apr 29, 2019
Sure, it's easy to pick a brand of pellets, throw some in each time you feed, and get stuck in a routine. But are your fish, corals, and clean up crew getting the nutrition they need from the same dry ingredients everyday?
Our philosophy at Salty Blues is to try to replicate our fishes' natural diet in the ocean, while still keeping it easy and economical to feed twice a day. In this post, we'll go over each reef food we offer at Salty Blues and fill you in on how each can benefit your aquarium.
COPEPODS - These tiny bug-like critters are a live food source for fish and invertebrates. They are most commonly discussed as a food source for Dragonets, but all fish will enjoy them. Doubly, they eat detritus deep in your rocks and sand bed. You can pour the bottle directly into the display or refugium. They will reproduce most rapidly in the refugium without any predators and plenty of surface area on macroalgae to adhere to. There are many species of copepods. The ones we culture and sell at Salty Blues are Tigger, Tisbe, and Apocylops. They feed on phytoplankton, therefore we recommend starting a phyto dosing regimen if your goal is to increase the pod population in your tank. Our go-to is Reef Nutrition's bottled Phyto Feast.
BOTTLED FOODS - In addition to live copepods, we feed prepared bottled and refrigerated foods by Reef Nutrition. These foods are highly concentrated, so you can be assured you are not paying for excess water or fillers. Each kind will feed different reef inhabitants. They are extremely convenient to feed- just grab a bottle from the fridge and squeeze some into the tank, or mix in a cup for a perfect portion.
Tigger-Pods® are Reef Nutrition's single species (Tigriopus californicus) live copepod product. These are great for feeding fish directly as they are larger and more visible than other species of copepods. Just let the bottle sit at room temperature for two hours and pour into your display or refugium.
Phyto-Feast®, as we mentioned before, is a great choice for phytoplankton. Phytoplankton is at the base of the marine food chain and will benefit all aspects of your reef. We notice better water quality overall when dosing phytoplankton. It's especially nutritious for filter feeding invertebrates, such as Porcelain Anemone Crabs, Gorgonians, and Feather Dusters. This is the phyto product we use in our copepod cultures at Salty Blues.
Arcti-Pods® are not live, but they are whole, large, arctic copepods which are high in carotenoids. Carotenoids bring out the colors in your fish and corals.
R.O.E.™ (Real Oceanic Eggs) are high in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and will be enjoyed readily by fish, corals, and clean up crew.
Oyster-Feast® is a very fine particle food perfect for SPS corals and picky LPS like Goniopora. All corals and clean up crew will enjoy the Oyster eggs and ovarian tissue in this Reef Nutrition blend.
Roti-Feast®, similar to Oyster-Feast, is a fine particle food suited for SPS, LPS, larval fish, and clean up crew. Made with highly nutritious Rotifers.
Beta-Brine™ is made of Dunaliella enriched Artemia salina raised in saltwater ponds in Australia. This product has a high beta-carotene content.
Mysis-Feast® is an all around crowd pleaser for corals and fish that like meaty foods. It is one of our favorite products to feed at Salty Blues. Piscine Energetics harvests Mysis diluviana shrimp from cold freshwater lakes. The shrimp feed on phytoplankton before they are harvested, which makes them high in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.
FROZEN FOODS - The absolute best food for your fish, LPS coral, and other omnivores is the raw ingredients those animals naturally feed on in the ocean. LRS Frenzy Foods are packed with human grade seafood expertly prepared by the Larry's Reef Services staff in North Carolina. All ingredients are free of any Triphosphate preservative. Just thaw an appropriately sized chunk for the number of livestock in your aquarium and feed as desired. Packs are 8oz besides Nano which is 4oz.
Reef Frenzy® - LRS's most well known blend has all the nutrients necessary for fish, corals, and clean up crew to thrive. Also available in a 4oz Nano pack.
Ingredients: Scallop, Shrimp, Ocean Perch, Whitefish, PE Mysis Shrimp, Squid, Krill, Oyster, Clam, Zooplankton, Rotifers, Seaweed, Blanched Broccoli Flowers, Oyster Eggs and Ovarian Tissue, Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids, Ascorbic Acid (antioxidant), D. salina micro-algae (beta-carotene), LRS Probiotics.
Fish Frenzy® - This blend has added black worms and fresh fish eggs. It does not have all the extra goodies that Reef Frenzy has for corals which makes it excellent for daily fish feeding without much waste. This is the blend we primarily feed in store.
Ingredients: Scallop, Shrimp, Ocean Perch, Whitefish, PE Mysis Shrimp, Squid, Krill, Oyster, Clam, California Blackworms, Marine Fish Eggs, Polychaete Worms, Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids, Ascorbic Acid (antioxidant), D. salina micro-algae (beta-carotene), LRS Probiotics.
Herbivore Frenzy® - This ultimate blend for Tangs is loaded with seaweed and seafood.
Ingredients: Scallop, Shrimp, Ocean Perch, Whitefish, PE Mysis Shrimp, Squid, Krill, Oyster, Clam, Porphyra seaweed, Blanched Broccoli Flowers, Lettuce Ulva, Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids, Ascorbic Acid (antioxidant), D. salina micro-algae (beta-carotene), LRS Probiotics.
Chunky® - Large pieces ideal for Puffers, Triggers, Eeels, and other predators.
Ingredients: Scallop, Shrimp, Ocean Perch, Whitefish, PE Mysis Shrimp, Squid, Krill, Oyster, Clam, Ascorbic Acid (antioxidant), D. salina micro-algae (beta-carotene), LRS Probiotics.
Fertility Frenzy® - The ultimate blend for breeding fish. It is made of small particles held together by an unflavored gelatin binder allowing it to easily be eaten by small fish. Includes four strains of probiotic bacteria, color enhancers Astaxanthin and Beta-Carotene, and vitamin and mineral supplements. This blend can used for encouraging fish to spawn and feeding broodstock.
DRY FISH FOODS - Pellets and flakes are still good to incorporate into your fishes' diet for more variety. We like to feed New Life Spectrum Thera+A® pellets because it contains garlic and oils that entice finicky eaters. PE Mysis also makes great flake and pellet foods that are enjoyed by fish and corals. Reef Nutrition's TDO Chroma BOOST™ is another high quality pellet made with Haematococcus, a source of astaxanthin for superior colors. Sometimes we throw a few pellets in with Reef Nutrition/LRS foods when we target feed LPS corals and Anemones.
POWDERED CORAL FOODS - We swear by Benepets Benereef® and Polyplab Reef-Roids® for optimal coral feeding response, color, and growth. In our frag tanks at Salty Blues, we broadcast feed Benereef twice a week (as directed). Reef-Roids is excellent for target feeding all kinds of corals. Just mix with some tank water and target feed each coral a small amount with a syringe or baster once or twice a week.
VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTS - American Marine Inc makes an awesome product called Selcon™ Concentrate. It contains Omega-3 HUFA, Vitamin B12 and pure stabilized Vitamin C. We soak our pellets and frozen food everyday with it and our fish love it. It also benefits filter feeding invertebrates and helps reduce vitamin deficiencies in fish which can often lead to HLLE.
SEAWEED - Dried seaweed, also known as nori, is an essential daily food source for tangs, rabbitfish, and other herbivorous fish. Nori is also a good supplement for clean up crew like snails, sea hares, and crabs when algae is scarce. One step further, you can feed your herbivores, fresh macro algae like Sea Lettuce Ulva and Red Gracilaria.
Overall, we believe variety and fresh ingredients are the key to a balanced reef diet. We hope you'll stop by the shop and check out all these awesome products for your fish friends! We use all of these foods at Salty Blues to keep our fish and corals happy and healthy. You can always ask for a feeding demonstration of any product! Psst... it's really cool to watch Scolymia or Rock Flower Anemones eat!
Thanks for reading and Happy Reefing! Follow us on Facebook & Instagram for new shipment updates.
Salty Blues
1938 SE 6th St, 105
Des Moines, IA 50315
(515) 410-2779
*All products names are registered to their respective companies. Salty Blues is a liscensed retailer of the products mentioned in this blog post.