Funny you should ask, I just finished feeding. I feed cyropaste about every third day. I have a deep sand bed and tons of tiny tube worms and little crustaceans have appeared. I figure that their spawn can feed a lot of corals.
I feed the tank fairly heavily, it serves to keep the shrimp and crabs away from the corals.
I feed several corals directly: Caulastrea (Trumpet); Plerogya sinuosa (Bubble); Catalaphyllia (Elegans); Trachyphyllia (Open Brain); Blausmossa; and, Frilly Mushrooms.
The technique varies. Tonight I went to the grocery a half mile away and got a large scallop (they cut nicely into small bits when raw and slice like a water chestnut when frozen), a shrimp and the butcher threw in a sole filet. I cut into pieces of appropriate size for the mouth.
The Elegans is the best eater. I am trying to resuscitate him from the point of death. He gets a piece per mouth about a little over a quarter inch in size. I place the food next to the mouth and brush the tentacles to close him up before the shrimp arrive. It takes about 15-30 minutes to consume the food. He is fed every third day.
The Bubble gets a bigger piece, Ã"šÃ‚½ inch or a silversides minus the head. I push it gently into the bubbles. It is also consumed in 15-30 minutes. Shrimp do not steal food from her. Fed at least weekly, sometimes twice a week.
The open brain gets smaller pieces placed between the ridges. It is a slow eater. It is a job keeping the shrimp away, probably because I feed with the lights on and it takes a while for tentacles to appear and grab the food. If it is dark and the tentacles are out, the feeding goes faster and the shrimp are less of a bother. Fed every three days.
The Trumpet gets a 1/8 inch piece placed into the tentacles. Shrimp have not tried to steal this food. Fed weekly, occasionally twice a week.
Frilly mushrooms are difficult. They are slow and do not grab the food like the others. It is easily brushed off the mushroom. Small pieces and a watchful eye for thiefs. Fed randomly when I have the patience.
Blausmossa, small mouths. I have tried brine shrimp with limited success. I have lured newly hatched peppermint shrimp into its mouth. Tonight, I noticed that it took some small pieces of sole that I had chopped in a food processor and squirted in its direction. Fed irregularly until I find a food that it takes easlily.
I usually throw in some extra food to keep the shrimp and crabs busy and use a long piece of rigid airline tubing to keep brushing the shrimp and crabs away.
The soft coral get what is in the water column.
I have only been doing this about 7 months, but the bubble, open brain and elegans expand tremendously. The trumpet has grown from a two trumpet fragment to about 12 trumpets in 4 months. The Basusmossa was a 3 polyp fragment and is a little bigger than a golf ball now and a perfect sphere.
Of course, I may be wrong.
TimS