I used to not feed(I knew nothing when I first got mine...I thought it would get most of it's energy from the lighting and from regular fish feedings). It then split a couple times and never regrew. Stayed small and started bleaching. In Nov/Dec of last year, I decided to move a couple of them to different tanks and then started feeding. Once I saw progress from feeding, I started a regiment of every 1-2 days feeding it. When I say feed, I mean heavily overfeed. I have never seen it expell waste, so it is utilizing at least most of what it consumes.
I do not feed silversides, and although everyone seems to love them, I really don't understand why. There are problems that can arise due to silverside feedings and some other noteworthy side-effects. First problem is that anems are completely fleshy like a soft coral. They do not have teeth to aid in digestion. Most people that feed silversides feed it in chunks...this means that no pre digestion will expose many fleshy parts of the anem to a boney structure of a fish carcass. The bones have been known to cause tears in the anems flesh, "choking", excessive waste expulsion(sometimes of whole bone structures), and the possibility of thievary(shrimp/clowns/etc. diving into the anem and stealing whole pieces of food; upwards of four hours later). This means the food has obviously not been fully digested in four hours, which seems like a problem to me. Also, with my prepared meals, my shrimp eat well enough before my BTA gets its food so that it won't bother the anem. Even if it tried, my anems get more than they would require for sustainability.
I use only invertabrate animals, with at most a chitinous shell which is many time much more easily digestible by anems. I use table shrimp, squid(probably their favorite food!), clams, oysters, scallops(they love this too), and just about any other invert that can be bought there. I also use frozen mysis and brine. I use a simple preparing process:
1) remove shell if applicable(obviously N/A on mysis and brine) and remove any beaks(on squid if bought whole). Pretty much remove any pointy, sharp, or hard pieces)
2) Freeze
3) grate with a new(used only for this purpose...trust me, you don't want fishy cheese or cheesey fish) cheese grater
4) repeat steps 2-3 until desired size(I usually do those two steps twice)
5) add garlic and selcon and let soak for a bit
6) Freeze for the last time
7) break off proportional pieces and feed(usually add tank water and let it get up to water temp and spot feed with baster)
This is also a very great way to do it, because everything(all LPS, many softies, most inverts, and all of my fish) loves this and I just substitute their dinner 4 or more times a week with these foods instead of pellets that I normally feed for meals.
