Feeding Silversides

[Gary Majchrzak]

It takes a trained eyed to spot fish bones among bolus

It takes a trained eyed to spot fish bones among bolus

IME even the notorious fish eating Stichodactyla haddoni spits out fish bones.

 

[kduen]

Yeah I have seen three chromis, two anthias and a 5 inch copperbands bones being released from my Haddoni. But thats all that was left was bones.

 

[davocean]

I know for a fact that mine spits out any bones, my crispa ate 3 baby blond naso's that all 3 swam straight into it's mouth on intro(I've since given up on baby naso's after 3 strikes)
Each time I got to enjoy seeing the skull and bones spit out of my precious lil naso's, poor guys.
It did take a full day to spit them out, but they do get spit out.
This is one of the reasons I don't feel the need to feed them fish, and every nem I've had has been outstanding in size, color, and health.

 

[Paul B]

They like picking out the bones. :lol2:

 

[elegance coral]

My anemones have about a 12 hour cycle. If I feed them anything with bones, scales, exoskeletons, or anything hard, they discharge those hard parts about 12 hours later.

 

[phender]

The couple of studies that I am aware of that examined the stomach contents of host anemones in the wild showed only plankton sized organisms.

My anemones eat what the fish don't get. That seems to be plenty. When I choose to target feed, my anemones only get food that was meant for human consumption chopped into fine pieces. I don't trust pet food distributors to be careful in handling frozen foods.

 

[smbrach]

I don't trust pet food distributors to be careful in handling frozen foods.

Why is this?

 

[dunk373]

all quality has gone down nowadays. That is why I dont trust foods. Just imagine when its shipped or how long it sits how many times its frozen and thawed. You can never tell. when i used silversides it always smelled bad. I left mine out before and refroze it it smelled the same as the day i bought it that can't be good....

 

[Paul B]

I don't trust pet food distributors to be careful in handling frozen foods.

I feel the same way

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I'm not one of them, however

I'm not one of them, however

there has been more than one experienced anemone keeper on this board that suspects spoiled commercial frozen food killed his/her anemone.

Back to the original subject, I agree with what Phil posted. Although anemones are opportunistic feeders and (in most cases) surely won't reject a dead fish, studies indicate they consume mostly smaller items.

Obviously, lighting plays a large part in how much food any anemone must consume to maintain body mass (less light = more feeding required) but it's probably not best to feed your anemone silversides regularly.