Tropic Marin PRO-CORAL ZOOTON

061910624602
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  • Item #: 061910624602
  • Manufacturer: Tropic Marin
Our Price $16.99
Sale Price $10.00
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PRO-CORAL ZOOTON

 
Natural zooplankton is an important source of energy and nutrients for stony corals and other plankton filter feeders. PRO-CORAL ZOOTON is a well-balanced plankton replacement for stony corals, specifically, small-polyped stony corals and other plankton filter feeders in a saltwater aquarium. It consists mainly of selected marine ingredients rich in trace elements and minerals. Spirulina is carotenoid-packed and if combined with brewer's yeast will provide the natural B vitamin requirements and, in particular, vitamin B 12.

 
Composition: Fish and fish by-products, shrimp and shrimp by-products, algae, brewer's yeast, Spirulina.
Art.-N° 24602  100 ml can

 

 Corals have to be feed!

Even if it is an often overlooked fact with respect to plankton filter feeders that are often fastened to the substrate: all animals depend on ingesting the energy for motion and metabolic processes from the food they eat. The spectrum of marine invertebrates that cover a part or their entire nutritional needs from zooplankton or phytoplankton ranges from sponges to soft and leather corals all the way up to whales. Reef-building stony corals also belong to the family of plankton filter feeders, even though another source of nutrients is available to them because of their symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae.
 

   Plankton ingestion methods
 
The branched tentacles of the small-polyped stony corals and horn corals are perfectly designed to filter and ingest each and every nutritious particle from the water sweeping over them.
 
With their sensory cells corals discern the chemical traces prey leave behind in the water and then the corals will extend their tentacles to capture the prey. Cnidoblasts ? they are the most highly advanced cells in the animal kingdom ? shoot out microscopically small harpoons and turn every little plankton crustacean within the reach of their tentacles into sure prey. Some corals secret films or use strands of mucus to capture bacteria or fine organic particles from their environment.

Leather corals and soft corals have finely feathered tentacles with which they filter plankton out of the water; special digestive enzymes can even break down the complex carbohydrates of marine algae. Plankton captured in this way not only significantly contributes to the energy supply and the growth rate of corals but also delivers all the main and trace nutrients in a concentrated form that are vital for the properly working symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae. Scientific tests have verified the growth promoting effect of a plankton diet in reef-building, small-polyped stony corals (Houlbrèque et al. 2003 and 2004).
 
Literature:
1. F. Houlbrèque et al., Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 296 (2003), 145-166
2. F. Houlbrèque et al., Journal of Experimental Biology 207 (2004), 1461 ? 1469