BTA ok??

[Rachelle]

Hi everyone,

I have a quick question. Attached is a photo of how I found my Rose bubble tip anemone this morning. Water parameters are all fine. I can list them later if you'd like, but right now i'm running out to door so i'm not late for work. Also, we fed him a piece of silverside fish last night, which we do 1-2 times a week. All other fish and corals seem perfectly healthy. Our anemone usually always has bubble tips and seems perfectly happy.

This may be completely normal...I don't know as I have never seen this in the 3-4 months that i've had this anemone.

Can anyone please tell me what the anemone is doing and if this is normal?

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[2Addicted]

Looks like it is just digesting the food. The thing that concerns me is that its slightly bleached. Also a lot of us here on rc dont feed silversides because we have had bad experiences with them. Try chopped up frozen krill or little pieces of raw shrimp. I would feed it a very small piece either once a day or every other day until it starts getting some color back. What size tank? What lighting? How long has your tank been set up?

 

[davocean]

Yeah, specs would be nice, and agree, a lil bleached.
I think you are overfeeding too, and that can stress it.
Also not a fan of the silvers.
Scallops have been my preference lately, I notice my nem takes those faster than shrimp for some reason, and mysis at fish feeding.
I may go 2,3, some times 4 weeks w/out spot feeding.

 

[Rachelle]

Hi,

Thanks for your responses, I appreciate it. I agree that it is slightly bleached. This is the reason we were told to feed it silverside fish. I will however stop feeding it this if you say that it is not good for it. I will go out and buy krill, shrimp and scallops and try to feed it small pieces.

The anemone does get mysis when I feed the fish, however it doesn't get enough to be considered as its meal.

As far as my tank goes:
- I have a 35 gallon (will be upgrading next summer to 180, 200 or 225 gallon)
- I have a 30 gallon sump (with Chaeto, live rock and Vertex In 100 skimmer)
- The tank has been running for 8 months, but had live rock and water from mature tanks
- Lighting is 1 Metal Halide, 4 T5's and 2 moon led lights (only at night)

 

[2Addicted]

Dave says scallops and he is the anemone man so go with scallops. I have never tried them. Make sure to feed really small pieces.

 

[Friday Night]

Whats wrong with silversides? just curious why people dont choose to feed em..

 

[reefer4ever]

ive been feeding my GBTA silversides for the last 2 years and its grown from the size of a tennis ball to the size of a soccer ball. obviously not as round but as wide.

 

[bues0022]

There are several people on this forum who have had their otherwise extremely healthy anemones die after feeding silversides. The going theory right now is that the food can become a host for bacteria from multiple freeze-thaw cycles. The product is not human-grade food, and as such has much more relaxed requirements during shipping/handling. Many people have had success, and continue having success, but it's a risk that I'm not willing to take. Furthermore, due to the simplicity of feeding an entire silverside at once, it is easy to feed your anemone far too large pieces of food which is unhealthy. I reccomend only feeding your anemone food that you would consider feeding (chopped up of course) such as scallops, clams, squid, fish, shrimp, octopus, crabs etc. It all must be raw though.

 

[Rachelle]

I like to feed a variety, not always the same thing so I will try a combination of all three. Is it better to feed only scallops, then only shrimp, etc. Or, can I mix scallops and shrimps and feed at the same time? No worries, I will make sure the pieces are small.

I'm also curious...what's wrong with silversides? I found a website that said that that was the best thing you could feed your BTA....which is why I started to feed them.

 

[bues0022]

Separate or mixed, it's completely up to you. Unless you find something your nem doesn't seem fond of (it happens), then leave it out of the mix/rotation.

See above about silversides. There is a LOT of misinformation out there about the proper diet of anemones - much of it antiquated and not as up-to-date as the people active in this forum.

Here's a more detailed idea on what I think of feeding nems:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1835320

 

[Rachelle]

bues0022, thanks for your answers. The thread you started is very interesting. I always look for answers on this forum because I trust the opinions of people here. Just to clarify - I never fed an entire silverside, I always cut up the silverside into smaller pieces and only fed an amount of about the size of a quarter 1-2 times a week.

I never thought about the freeze-thaw cycles...makes sense! Thanks again everyone for your input!