Anemone feeding

[ECU stew]

I've been feeding my gbta chunks of PE mysis because of the nutritional advantages but it got me thinking about the fact that I'm sticking a 32degree piece of ice essentially into my anemone. It is doing fine, 4-5 inches across, nice color, and some bubbled tips but sometimes it rejects the food. Is there something better to feed these guys? I've read silversides and such but they are not very nutritional alone, what suppliment would benifit the anemone the most selcon, garlic guard, clove garlic allowed to sit in the water with the fish before feeding? Is the rejection because its overfed? I feed it every other day. Thank you for your help.

 

[Zylski]

The rejection is probably from being overfed. I think that you should put the food in a dixie cup and let it thaw and then take a syringe and feed it to the anemone. As far as I know garlic does nothing for anemones it only helps out fish.

 

[bues0022]

I would stay away from silversides all together. some have had some pretty bad problems (death) attributed to feeding. You don't necessarily HAVE to feed your nem assuming light and waters quality are up to par (no pun intended). I just feed mine the same frozen food I feed my fish - a mix of frozen/raw meaty SW creatures (octopus, squid, mussles, clams, shrimp, krill, mysis, bbs, oyster eggs, fish). I also have some veggies in there too, but I don't know if the nem actually eats them or just ends up spitting them out.

 

[DustinB]

I feed mine mysis 2-3 time a week. I just thaw 2 cubes in a bit of RO water, shake them around and strain into a paper towel. The cubes thaw in like 15 min. They just still seem frozen from being clumped together.

After straining put them in a small cup with a bit of tank water, just enough to make a shrimp stew. Grab a turkey baster and suck up a good bit. Hold the tip about an inch away from the anemone's mouth and slowly squeeze the food out. The tentacles should contract and grab everything.

I feed each anemone 3/4 of a cube. Then I feed the last 1/2 a cube to the fish with a bit of pellets. Seems to be working good so far.

 

[gweston]

I feed mine mysis 2-3 time a week. I just thaw 2 cubes in a bit of RO water, shake them around and strain into a paper towel. The cubes thaw in like 15 min. They just still seem frozen from being clumped together.

After straining put them in a small cup with a bit of tank water, just enough to make a shrimp stew. Grab a turkey baster and suck up a good bit. Hold the tip about an inch away from the anemone's mouth and slowly squeeze the food out. The tentacles should contract and grab everything.

I feed each anemone 3/4 of a cube. Then I feed the last 1/2 a cube to the fish with a bit of pellets. Seems to be working good so far.

+1 I do about the same.. though I feed 1-2 times a week. I am trying to not let my RBTA grow 'too fast'. Once I get it into a big tank hopefully this summer, then I'll let loose.

I just do thawed mysis in tank water. If it is a quality cubed mysis I found straining isn't all that necessary, but I had a bulk pack that NEEDED straining as the thaw water was crazy nasty. Maybe it was a bad batch. My fish wouldn't eat the stuff. I junked it.. they love the new package of frozen cubes. Then nem likes it better too. It would actually burp up some of the bulk stuff.

Oh. Quantity wise. I don't feed much at all. For my ~5" RBTA maybe 1/4 mysis cube 2x/week. Not any more.

 

[WNTITAL]

I feed mine scallops. I buy a couple of fresh ones. Cut them up and then freeze them in ice cube trays. Transfer when frozen to a zip lock bag. When I need one, I thaw it and place directly in the mouth. Mine has grown from 3in to over 6in in diameter in about a year.

 

[artimus]

I just got a bubble tip, and i'm having some trouble feeding. I bought some raw shrimp at the grocery store and have been trying to feed him that. the nem is about 2-3 inches, and the piece of shrimp i use is about have the size of penny.

I tried the turkey baster method. The first time with much effort, he seemed to eat it. The next time i accidentally shot the shimp at him like a shot gun at point blank range. He never seems to grab the shrimp... Sometimes with my fingers i can place it inside, but then after a few minutes when he loosens up, he lets the shrimp float away...

I don't think Darwin would be proud of this guy...

 

[jdyer88]

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Your bt is probably still adjusting to its new surroundings. Keep trying. I feed chopped sqid every other day, or krill once in a while. This one is not picky but sometimes they are. I have had BTAs that will not eat anything but squid, or krill or whatever it lies. Try some differnt things until you find out what he likes, then stick with it. They usually will not start eating until they stop wandering.

 

[savageAJC]

Agree ^^ dont try to keep feeding it if it just lets its go, if its new give it time to acclimate.

I feed mine frozen raw shrimp from grocery store, it loves it! and so does my clown who sometimes while picking at it will yank it from the nems mouth and cause a feeding frenzy in my tank =D

 

[jdizzle707]

Mysis is messy and I was told it carries lots of phosphates. So I bough sushi grade tuna and cut it up in cubes. I've fed my nem 3 cubes so far this week. He seems to be enjoying it.

How often can these guys eat? I'm trying to nurse my GBTA back to health. Lost lots of his tentacles.

 

[Amphiprion]

I recommend a maximum of every other day. Any more and you risk issues with the food decaying before it can be completely digested. The same can also applied to the amount of food given, as well as the size. Smaller pieces and smaller amounts can be digested more quickly/easily. I satisfied my old anemone's needs completely on an every other day schedule that consisted of about 1.5 tablespoons of finely chopped silversides.

 

[jdizzle707]

Amphiprion: How big was your nem? The tuna is definitely less than 1.5 tbsp

 

[Amphiprion]

At her largest, my female H. crispa was 24" in diameter.