Re:Feeding Question

Dear Kim:

Vibrance is a special formulation developed specifically to provide a long-term balanced diet for seahorses when used in conjunction with frozen Mysis. It was designed by a research team of nutritionists and fish biologists in order to meet the long-term dietary requirements and nutritional needs of these amazing aquatic equines. It includes additional highly unsaturated fatty acids (especially the DHA Omega 6 DHA series), along with Vitamin C and essential minerals, in the proper proportions to further enhance the nutritional profile of the protein-rich frozen Mysis. Studies indicate the DHA it includes is essential for high survivability, nerve development, stress management, and proper reproduction. Vibrance is a bright red-orange powder that gets its characteristic color due to its high content of carotenoids, which are an abundant source of Vitamin A and act as natural color enhancers for yellow and red pigmentation.

So Vibrance is loaded with good stuff, Kim, but I wouldn’t feed it directly to your hard corals or soft corals like your mushrooms. It was not meant to be added directly to the aquarium water, but only to be used as a light dusting on frozen shrimp to improve their nutritional profile. It is incredibly rich in lipids and oils, and if you added it to the water like an invertebrates food, you would be adding a lot of excess nutrients to your aquarium and driving your skimmer nuts. If you did that regularly, it would degrade your water quality.

If you wanted to feed your corals with Vibrance, the best way to do it would be to gut-load baby brine shrimp (newly-hatched Artemia nauplii) with the Vibrance, and then feed the enriched BBS to your corals when their polyps were extended for feeding. Otherwise, I would avoid using Vibrance on your corals. Just remember, it was designed to feed vertebrates, not invertebrates.

Best of luck with your corals, Kim!

Happy Trails!
Pete Giwojna