If you find yourself frequenting online reef aquarium forums you may hear the name ORA allot. Ora is the largest producer and manufacturer of marine ornamentals in the world which produces stunning aquacultured saltwater fish, invertebrates and live aquarium foods for the marine hobby. ORA stands for Oceans, Reefs & Aquariums and is a Florida based company.
ORA Glo fish food is what I use as a staple diet for my reef inhabitants. The reason I prefer this food over all other Fish food pellets is its high percentage in proteins, it contains a whopping 48% and if you compare it to Ocean Nuitriton fish food at 35% you can see why I feed ORA Glo on a constant basis.
ORA Glo comes in two different size packs a 1oz pack and a 4oz pack. I have been using a 1oz pack and it has fed my three fish for nearly a year now. The pellet size is perfect for clownfish, however my small damsel makes quick work of these as well. The pellets are slow sinking, giving the fish time to eat every little morsel. A 1oz package costs in the $2.50-$4.00 range and its zipper seal keeps this product fresh.
You can read more about ORA Glo and there hatchery and fish food Here.
With my last online order I decided to pick up some different food for my saltwater tank. I saw that Ocean Nutrition Nano Reef Fish food was on sale and I had not tried this brand yet.
Ocean Nutrition Nano Reef Fish Food is a small soft pellet fish food that supposedly enhances the natural and boosts the fishes immune system. I went with a smaller pellet because I wanted to see if some of my zoa’s and large stony polped corals would take to it and naturally I have smaller saltwater fish.
My first impression is that this “slow sinking” pellet is not so slow sinking at all. In fact it sinks very fast. The pellet is extremely small so you have to use a small spoon (included) to feed your tank with. When you use the spoon you can get a decent amount of pellets and you basically need to so that the fish can see it. If you choose to use this product make sure that you have a decent clean up crew or a bottom dwelling fish so that they can clean up the ones your other fish miss.
The food is composed of Vitamins, Marine Protein (fish meal, squid meal, krill meal and tuna row), spirulina, Kelp and garlic. It comes in a small bottle (15grams) and is around the $3 range, which is very affordable.
I would recommend this fish food for reef keepers with smaller tanks that have smaller fish. I currently alternate my fish foods that I feed so that I can make sure that my fish are eating variety.
I had planned on talking about laminar flow this blog but an important issue was brought to my attention the other night about my Beneficial Reef Aquarium Snail article. I had a post in the article about the Ilyanassa Obsoleta snail and how it was a good detritus cleaner and scavenger. It turns out that there is a lot of debate about these snails.
These snails can be found on ebay, in fact there so prevalent on ebay that there are literaly dozens of pages with auctions on them. They are extremely cheap and are found in cooler waters which makes them easy to come by, especially on the east coast.
I have used these snails before with a small amount of success, after all Its hard to pass up 50 saltwater snails for $20 and $5 shipping. The auctions on ebay say that these snails do just about every thing and anything. What they don’t tell you is that they can carry nearly 9 types of trematodes and that half of the adult snails carry at least 1 trematode. Wonder what a trematode is? Click here.
Know had I known this information before I purchased these snails some 4 years ago, I would not have made the purchase. My purchase came from an ebay seller and in my hot reef tank only lasted for about 2 months. Many other reefers claim to have success with them and continue to buy them. But buyer beware these saltwater snails should probably be left in the mud flats where they are found with there parasite friends.
This thread has additional information and is a “must” read if you are considering buying these snails.
I would also like to thank John from http://www.reefcleaners.org/. For bringing this to my attention. Check out his site he has great prices on saltwater snails and macro algae.
