Anemone refusing food?

[GuOD]

Hey everyone,

I've been trying to get my Sebae (H. Crispa) to eat but I've been having some problems.

At first, I thought it was just not grabbing the shrimp (from grocery store) that I offered so I went to the LFS (didn't have those fish) so I got a few feeder goldfish just to try.

I held the goldfish to the anemone for a bit and eventually it ate it and swallowed it. 2 hours later it regurgitated it. So, I cut off a much smaller piece and then fed that only to see it spit it back out this morning.

I realized that the main problem was my cleaner shrimp stealing the food from it before it would eat. So, I gave it a small piece of shrimp this morning (smaller than piece of goldfish) and held it there while fighting off the shrimp. It slowly took it in and as far as I can tell it ate the piece. Is this normal? I thought it'd gladly take food but the shrimp are FAST and grab it away.

 

[O'Man]

Get a strawberry basket & cover it when you give it food so you lock out the cleaner shrimp. Feed with small pieces & check after to see if it spit the food out. I lost a H Crispa recently. It would take food in & spit it back out. You want to watch for uneaten food & remove it so you don't develop an ammonia spike from uneaten food laying around. Good Luck!

 

[GSMguy]

gold fish are full of nasty stuff and can contain copper i would only feed frozen foods or stuff from the grocery store like frozen shrimp

 

[GuOD]

Thanks... I know goldfish are bad I just wanted to try a "fish" food for it to see

Strawberry basket isn't an option because of its position. I have 7 cleaner shrimp around the tank and a starfish that lives near the anemone so it makes it difficult. As far as I know it did not reject the small shrimp piece I gave it earlier today.

 

[rogart]

7 cleaner shrimp????? I have the same probelm with only two shrimp. I found a few methods that work.

1. I drop a bunch of small peices (equivalent to whta I would feed in one peice, just cut up) in the anemone, with the intent the shrimp will get a couple. this usually keeps them busy while the anemone consumes the rest, if they don't steal that much more for the anemone. OR

2. Place a large peice of food somewhere else in the tank (oppoaite end) let them get occupied stealing and fighting with each other then feed the anemone (may not work with 7). OR

3. Use an object to chase the shrimp a few times at feeding, i.e. tongs, net, or something else. Do it very aggresively trying to get 'em. Then when you feed just place it near the anemone and they will stay away. You have to reinforce it every one in a while. Again may not work against an army of 7.

 

[rogart]

You could also try silver side peices, a lot of anemones like them and they will shred when really thawed and shrimp try to steal them.

 

[GuOD]

Just as an update I've been feeding it small pieces of shrimp and it's eating!

The tentacles aren't sticky and its very slow to react so I have to fight off shrimp for about 5-10 minutes while it slowly decides to eat.

I feed it a nice piece of shrimp this morning and tonight it just spit out the skin part (but none of the meat) so I guess that's a great sign.

I also noticed that it has its base buried back in a rock about 4-5" and it's stretched far out to where it comes out during the day... is this normal? It looks strange when you can see it from the side almost like it's stretching too far.

 

[RedSonja]

Smaller pieces are better, as it sounds like you've discovered. A good frame of reference is no pieces of food larger than a pencil eraser, to be sure they can digest it and not regurgitate it later.

The stronger it gets with good feeding, the faster it will eat and the less time you'll have to spend guarding it against the shrimp, too.

-Sonja

 

[GuOD]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9405110#post9405110 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RedSonja
Smaller pieces are better, as it sounds like you've discovered. A good frame of reference is no pieces of food larger than a pencil eraser, to be sure they can digest it and not regurgitate it later.

The stronger it gets with good feeding, the faster it will eat and the less time you'll have to spend guarding it against the shrimp, too.

-Sonja

Thanks for the advice.

For the first time today it is NOT retracting after the lights have gone out. I don't know whether this is a good sign of healthiness or if it's going to move... but it's a change.

I'm going to continue to feed it very small pieces every few days for awhile until it hopefully regains some color.

Hopefully it will get sticky/strong enough that I don't need to fend of f the cleaner shrimp. It's fairly annoying to fight 2-3 at a time and also a starfish!