Can I stop feeding my BTA? slow the growth.

[sebrofjr]

Hi all, I was wondering if it would be okay if I stopped feeding my BTA silversides and clams to stop it from growing soo fast. It is paired with my Maroon Clown and is in my reef tank. I have never seen the clown feed him, but it is very healthy. Full of brown and green with a colorful pink base, and it florescent's a lot under led moonlight (full of zooxanthellae). My lighting is 6 X 54w T-5 and he is mid-level in the tank.

I want to stop feeding as this is a reef tank that I eventually am going to be putting SPS in and I don't want him splitting and growing too much. He has already split once.

 

[NirvanaFan]

I wouldn't stop feeding totally. You can probably cut back though. How much and often do you feed now?

 

[sebrofjr]

I only feed about half a silver-side a week and give him some clam pieces for a treat every now and again. Been doing that for about 1 1/2 years.

 

[sebrofjr]

You can see my anemone here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_4xAgUMBNA
click HD.

 

[NirvanaFan]

I was feeding my BTA about once every 2 weeks. Some people feed once a month, and some never feed. I'd say you can safely cut back to once or twice a month.

 

[sebrofjr]

Just testing trying to embed that video:

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[Toddrtrex]

Nice video.

But from watching it I personally would like the BTA to be about twice as big --- Maroons are notorious for loving anemones to death. After that I would only feed once every 3 weeks or so, that is what I do with all of my anemones.

Should note that I did that with my last BTA, but it was still over 15" across when I sold it. I personally will never keep an BTA in a SPS tank ever again, even with limited feedings mine still got too big and would split every 3 months or so.

 

[sebrofjr]

Yeah my maroon will not leave that BTA alone, unless its leaving for food. I've heard many bad stories about BTA and SPS tanks too and thats why im trying to slow it down before I start and will only have SPS on the upper levels. But still, I heard the anemone can get up to a foot wide. I will have to see how my SPS experience goes, then decide If I have to just sell off the anemone, and maybe the clown with it.

I like the symbiosis of the two, but I think now Im more into my Yasha / pistol shrimp pair. If I had to start again I wouldn't have a clown and anemone as well, just getting tired of everyone calling it nemo....

 

[Ebisan]

I stopped feeding mine. Started with one and now I have 11. Used to feed a silverside to each every other day which caused water quality problems for the small tank. Then I started to cut back on feedings because the btas were getting huge and kept splitting. Currently I dont feed them anything for the last year or so. They still look great and remained the same sizes.

 

[Mako72]

When I first started with an anemone..a year ago...I didn't feed him at all....he began to starve and his tentacles became nubs.
Once I realized what happened I started to gently force feed him.. three times a week...after several months he recovered completely and is nowing growing dramatically.