Anemone Healthy??

[Bdubz]

My co-worker has a BTA that has split three times and he gave me one of them about a month ago. I wasn't sure if my lighting is sufficient, but I thought i would give it a try. I have LED lights (Current USA Orbit Marine LED Saltwater Reef Lighting System, 72 Dual Daylight/72 Dual Actinic LEDs, 144 LEDs Total, 36 watts). My tank is a 46 gallon bow front.

After one month, the anemone looks to me to be healthy and it eats whatever I give it (I feed it generally once a week).

I believe that it is stretching so far because of the insufficient light, but I won't be able to upgrade lights for another year. Do you think that the anemone will be fine if we stay the course for the next year?

Any thoughts would be great.

 

[JamesWang]

IMO he looks beautiful and healthy. Anemones are funky creatures- can hide in the rock work for two weeks and then pop out and be huge for a year.

Whatcha feeding him? Silversides? Mysis?

Ive heard somewhere that a stretching Anemone is looking for food, but don't have anything to back that up

 

[Bdubz]

I feed him small pieces of raw shrimp and frozen brine shrimp (thawed of course)

 

[hotelbravo]

im a firm believer in squid and oyster for feeding BTA's. I also feed fish, shrimp, and scallops. usually ill cut chunks of each and feed the mixture.

 

[Bdubz]

Do you just buy those at the grocery store then?

 

[remiball]

im a firm believer in squid and oyster for feeding BTA's. I also feed fish, shrimp, and scallops. usually ill cut chunks of each and feed the mixture.

Why Squid and Oysters, I have been using raw shrimp sliced thin. If those two are really better I would switch.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

remiball, I also feed raw shrimp you can buy at the grocery store and feed that to my SBTA. I feed about once every 5-7 days. Some weeks maybe twice. I also feed my tank Kent Microvert, pellets, mysis and brine shrimp so my SBTA gets some of all of that also. It's growing like a weed :dance:

 

[hotelbravo]

Do you just buy those at the grocery store then?

I buy fresh from the local fish market to ensure no chemical additions added for increasing their shelf life.

Why Squid and Oysters, I have been using raw shrimp sliced thin. If those two are really better I would switch.

I have fed shrimp, fish, oyster, scallops, and squid. one thing I have noticed is a pattern of health after feedings. with the oyster and squid the BTA is more open and healthy looking then if I were to feed the other alternatives. keep in mind I rotate the foods every feeding between all of the options and the pattern is very clear for me that the BTA looks better after eating squid and oyster. idk why, I cant tell you but that's my experience.