I've a got a pepp shrimp and and a couple hermits that practically destroy my new acan frag when I try and feed it mysis, so I made one of these plastic bottle covers for it. How long should I leave it covered before taking it off? How long does it take for the acan to digest the mysis to the point that the critters wont feel the need to dig it out of their mouths?
Covering acan to feed... How long?
- Thread starter motoxmann
- Start date
willietang021
New member
My cleaner shrimp does pitch my dendrophyllia so they will release the food inside them and the cleaner shrimp will eat it. At first I use the plastic bowl with drilled holes to cover them, but now I just feed a larger piece of the food that I am feeding to my cleaner shrimp before I feed my corals. My shrimp had not bother my corals any more because he is too busy eating. As for the hermits, cover your corals for 15 minutes would be enough for it to have the food inside them. At least my hermit will only grab the food when it is still on the corals' tectacles but they will not dig through the coral. when the food is no longer visable.
klrreef
New member
I would leave them covered a little bit longer than the when you can not see the food because they possibly still have not began breaking down the food at this point. If this the case, the shrimp can shove its claws down the acan's mouth and pull the food out, which makes the coral even more upset than it would be otherwise. This is from my own personal experience with small shrimps and LPS feeding. Like stated above, I would also suggest adding small holes in whatever you use for covering so you can slightly extend your time period allowed for acan feeding.
Thanks for the replies.. I used the bottle top last night and left the acan covered for about 45 minutes. Cut a bunch of holes in it so there was some flow. The acan was able to eat and no one was able to get to it. I've tried feeding the shrimp some bigger stuff to keep them busy, but it's never seemed to work. They lose interest too quick and harass the acan. Once the acan gets a little bigger and I set it on my rock work, covering it probably won't be an option so I'll probably end up removing the shrimp. The crabs are slow enough that I can fend them off fairly easily.
Sorry don't have pics but it's literally just a water bottle cut in half with holes poked in it for a little flow
