Elephant Ear

[unninair]

During my recent visit to an LFS, I saw one in their tank that was almost as large as a baby elephants ear.

 

I have an "Elephant Ear" given to me by Lee Stearns that had more than doubled its size in the past 6 months. Do I need to hand feed them to get them to grow that big?

[xeon]

It is hard to tell, the genetics of the one in the LFS and the one from Lee's tank will differ. It might and it might not. For the most part mushroom corals can live off what they pull from the water column and through their zooanthalae. I have read that you can feed mushroom corals bits of fish and/or shrimp. I've never fed the three I have and they are quite large. Another tip I have read on how to decide whether or not to feed the mushroom is to stroke the tentacles lightly to see if it will cup up. You want to simulate a small fish playing in tentacles. This is a feeding response that would indicate that the coral would accept food. Or you could just try feeding it a piece of shrimp... wouldn't hurt to try if you want to have it grow larger/quicker.

[Lee Stearns]

I have fed mine in the nano cube some shrimp pellets and it will grow a bit faster- I can not get the same results in my main tank becuase the cleaner shrimp will always steal the pellets no matter ho persistant I am at replacing, and I have found in lower light tanks the elephant muchroom want to "cup" more and will take pellets. IE my sea horse tank that has the same elephant ear from my main tank will cup around food pretty quickly - In my view it is looking for sustenance- Obviously the lights are just not enough- only PCs over it.

[davelin315]

You can pretty much feed any coral that has a visible mouth. I used to feed my larger mushrooms, some of my zoantids, and on occasion, all of my LPS corals. They will all eat, it's just a question of whether they have time to take it in or not before someone else grabs it.