what type of meaty food are you feeding it? most people feed it fine chop shrimp or mysis shrimp. squirt it gently on the tentacles to where the meat stick to it. when it close, the meat will just follow it to its mouth.
Being the newbie I am at this, it didn’t occur to me that it would be a good idea to shut off water flow momentarily while i fed him. Once I shut off the water flow, I took the pieces of finely chopped shrimp and placed them gently by the mouth just using my fingers. HE LOVED IT. There’re two heads on mine, so I fed them both and man does he look happy as ever. Been…6? days now and he’s looking even better than he did in the store! I’m officially addicted to coral.
PBJ!
A couple things to keep in mind.
-Freshwater is great for killing marine invertebrates.
-Cold temperatures are great for killing tropical animals.
-Many people use freshwater to thaw their frozen foods.
-Duncans are a tropical marine invertebrate.
If you give frozen foods a chance to thaw in saltwater and warm up to at least room temperature you may be able to avoid a retracting reaction.
Duncans, and many other similar corals, will eat food both large and microscopic. Very small foods likely make up the majority of their diet.(just a guess here) Cyclopeeze, smaller frozen foods, and the many varieties of liquid supplements on the shelf may help to provide a well rounded diet for your coral.
Keep in mind food is not required at all for their survival.(practically speaking as I assume you feed your fish and will have some nutrients available even if your are not target feeding your corals directly) Coral foods can often be over fed leading to very high, very unnatural nutrient levels which can both slow the growth of corals and increase the growth of unwanted algae, bacterias, and so on.