Feeding a BTA

[fatdaddy]

All my anemones except my BTA's are greedy eaters. Whatever I give them, it sticks to their tentacles and they either consume it or it releases after a few minutes.

But, the BTA's just don't seem that interested. Food just slides off there tentacles. The only way I know to get oldest one to eat is to put a few mysis shrimp in it's tentacles and then squirt my coral puree into it's tentacles. It will generally close up and (hopefully) eat the shrimp.

Any other tricks? What's up with the BTA's?

 

[Anemone]

What are you feeding? I've found my BTAs have definite preferences - the females love shrimp (so I feed frozen Krill), while the males don't seem interested in the shrimp, but really like silversides.

What you can do to get your BTA to eat is to hold a chunk of meaty food gently against the BTA's mouth (When I've had to do this I use my thumb and forefinger to get the food into position, then gently hold the food against the mouth with just my index finger). The BTA's mouth will generally slowly expand, and/or the BTA will close up around the food. IME, if you do this a couple of times a week for a few weeks, the BTA begins to react more quickly to the presence of food and you can let it start grabbing its own food.

FWIW,
Kevin

 

[fatdaddy]

I started with shrimp and after a period, it rejected that. I've tried krill. I can try that again. It's never taken a silverside. It does seem to like rehydrated freeze-dried plankton.

I'll try training it as you say. Thanks for the suggestion.