advantage to live phyto/zooplankton?

I am unclear as to whether there is an advantage between live phyto or rotifers vs. the non-live variety. This would be for feeding my clams (phyto) or corals (rotifers, zooplankton). Can anyone please clarify for me what the advantage is, if any?

 

Would you rather eat dried, dead meat/vegetables or fresh live ones?

I don't exactly the mechanism behind it. But it retains more of the nutritional value and more energy can be taken from it. Also- if it is live, it is not dead and can't rot if it goes uneaten (tank pollution). It stays living in the mini-ecosystem untill it is eaten by an inhabitant or the skimmer. I don't like the idea of putting dead things in our tanks that we work so hard to remove waste products.

If it is dead, why not just put in any old thing that has the same nutritional value? Just add yeast if you want that. The ancient Chinese believed that the closer something is to life, the healthier it is to eatso I've heard); the freshness and life is still in it so it's better. I'd believe that.

 

As far as I know, the biggest advantage is that live = fresh where the dead stuff is....not so fresh.

 

I would definitely rather eat dead meat rather than meat that was still alive. Just saying.

 

Me too. I also like dried meat (jerky, mmmmmm).

Anyway, I hear what you guys are saying, but I wonder if there is any practical difference as to how invertebrates respond to the different products.

 

But can corals and such tell the difference? Studies are mixed on that one. Ones funded by live phyto dealers show live is best, go figure! Studies done by academics with no dog in the fight show both. Corals that eat it, a very few at that, have shown not to care. Zooplankton do very well on non live. Clams (Tridacnids) are a little more selective with what they eat but still will eat non living phyto and will thrive on it.

Not exactly true. Unless there is f2 media(nutrient mix for growing phyto) in the bottle along with the culture, it will decrease it's nutritional value even with minimal light present. I'm not saying all "dead" phyto is the same either, or quiescent, nor even live for that matter.

Our tanks aren't very phyto friendly in terms of nutrients so the phyto won't live for all that long. Believe it or not, skimmers don't pull as much phyto as people think they do. They do pull some, but not nearly enough to clear a tank out of it.

I don't think it's a question which us humans would prefer as we have a highly developed thought process. The marine life you'd be feeding phyto to really doesn't have such an ability.

Yeast in nothing like phyto, even dried phyto has much more Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. There is no comparison in nutritional value that marine life needs between the two.

That saying doesn't exactly jive with their culture though. The Chinese eat way more dried/dead/fermented/pickled stuff then most cultures, leaps and bounds more then your average American that's for sure

 

Go Gresham!

 

I hope you didn't take that as an attack as it 100% wasn't

 

Im going to bet 32 Boom was paying you a compliment on the quality of your contribution

enjoyable thread for me guys, thanks

Steve