can an anemone eat TOO much?

[skidoll]

So I bought an rbta, had it about 4 or 5 days, something like that...anyway, I've fed it small amounts of krill, and a little mysis, which is accepted willingly. Its tentacles are very full, and its spread out a lot. Looks healthy, but can it eat too much? I tend to feed my tank often, small amounts maybe 3-4 times a day. My clown will bring the nem pellets, chunks of formula 2 (frozen kind), mysis, and it eats A LOT! This morning, it ate 3 medium F1 pellets, mysis, and some spirulina. Do they normally have a big appetite, and eat whenever the tank eats? I can't stop the clown from bringing the food back.

How much is too much? I'm assuming he's healthy because of the appetite, and he holds the food tightly and moves his mouth around to reach the food. I'm so paranoid, as I've lost nems before, though it was a small tank w/ not so great filtration.

 

[bradleym]

The biggest problem with feeding is that the food can sit inside too long and start to rot, causing an infection. Anemones usually require at least a day in between feedings to spit out anything it can't digest in time.

 

[skidoll]

So then the feeding reaction is more like just a response to the food being on its tentacles? They don't necessarily have hunger? I guess I just figured if it wasn't hungry, it would so readily take the food.

 

[Beamers]

If they start to take in too much food usually they close up for a couple days , and look sickly for a few days more.

Small amounts of food the clowns bring them should be digested quickly and cause no problems, but if you start feeding them larger pieces too often it might get sick. An anemone will eat itself sick if there's enough food around to consume.

 

[skidoll]

Since I've been watching him readily eat what the clown brings, I haven't directly fed him in the past few days.