feeding the Anemone without the clown getting in the middle of it?

[WXB]

I have been dealing with this for a good 2 years now. Some days it is hit and miss feeding the anemone. I am starting to get mad at the clown. I try to distract her on the other side of the tank. The moment I put in the food rod to feed the anemone here she comes. Some days I could almost say she takes the food and feeds the anemone. I dont know but most of the time i give the anemone its food and here she come and kicks the food out and gets infront of its mouth. any ideas or suggestions? I did try using brine shrip and put some close to it grab little pieces here and there. I dont think it liked it. I think it loves the chunks of food i feed it.
Side question what do you feed your anemone?
I use crab, shrimp, guppies, scalops. I want to give it the best diet possible.

 

[ousnakebyte]

What type of anemone is this?

IME, clown will definitely feed their host anemones. I find that if the food item is too large for the clown to swallow, then it will grab it with its mouth and deliberately swim the food to the anemone and place it in its tentacles. Sometimes, I just "hand feed" the clown at the top of the tank and watch to make sure it swims the food down to the 'nem; other times, I have a long target feeder that I will broadcast the "fish food" (mixture of spirulina brine, mysis, squid, blackworms, etc., etc.) on the tentacles of the anemone.

I feed a mixture of shrimp, krill, crab and smelt (fish) - chopped, but still larger sizes than the fish wants to eat.

Cheers
Mike

 

[bradam]

My maroon female will swim into the bubbletip and rip out the krill I just fed it everytime unless I supervise. I've gotten in the habit of feeding the clowns at the far end to the tank and then sneaking in from the other side and dropping the fresh krill into the anemone. Generally she'll dart over when she sees my hand and attack me, giving the anemone the few seconds it needs to make Mr. Krill disapear. One thing I've found the maroon really hates is flicking my finger (think elementary school bully flicking the back of someones ear) underwater in her direction. Not actually flicking her, just in her general direction makes her back up and pause a few seconds before attempting to remove my fingers again.

Interestingly enough one time I added a cleaner shrimp to the tank and within about 13 seconds to my disbelief the very same nem food stealer maroon t-boned the shrimp, caught his leg in her mouth and proceeded to shove him right into the anemone.

 

[steelhead77]

How often are you feeding the anemone? IME they don't need to be fed very often. They can get all of the nutrients they need from the water column. Think about them in the wild. There is no-one coming along every day to feed them, they may get a stray fish now and again, but they are not hunters. Sometimes a hosted clown will feed them in the wild, but not all nems host clowns.

I only feed mine about once or twice a month and I have three the size of dinner plates. Actually one of the three just split into three, so now I have two the size of dinner plates and three the size of saucers.

 

[qfrisco]

You shouldn't really have to feed your anemone. I do it only occasionally (couple times a year maybe) because it's cool to watch. It should be able to get most of what it needs from the water column and from its clown/s.

As the owner of one of my favorite LFSes asks - how often do you think an anemone out in the wild gets a hold of big chunks of fish? Probably never or very rarely. Occasionally, a fish might get devoured by a bigger fish and pieces might happen to fall onto the anemone, but not very often.

 

[saltyfishlvr]

My Gold Stripe Maroons have taken responsibility for feeding "their" BTA. If I give it something, the female (usually) will take it, spit & retrieve a couple of times, then stuff it back in the BTA.

 

[WDLV]

I would focus on feeding the tank or else put so many small morsels on the anemone that the clowns can have their fill and the anemone still gets some.
As far as I'm concerned, anemones can just eat clown poop and whatever else floats by that they can catch.

 

[ousnakebyte]

IMO, the perception that anemones and corals don't need to eat is a common misconception. Like most inverts, they are pretty much all digestive and gonads - eat and reproduce. They are a battery of stinging cells and a big gut - meant to capture food and digest it (yes, I know the stinging cells can be used for defense as well). Can they survive on their internal sugar factory alone? Probably, but not thrive.

Anemones are carnivorous - they don't directly feed on fish feces. Can absorption of N and P happan across the membranes? Yes, most likely. However, if you directly feed these animals, you can see a significant difference in size, and this is probably one of the keys to unlocking their sexual reproduction - along with seasonal environmental fluctuations - putting energy into sexual reproduction instead of the minimal amount they get into barely any growth.

What to feed? Most likely they would be most exposed to planktonic foods of various larval sizes. So, mysis shrimp would be nice. I also chop up various fish and other crustaceans and individually stick feed various 'nems. I probably feed 2-3 times a week, sometimes more. If I don't directly feed for one to two weeks, both the M. doreensis (LTA) and S. haddoni 'nems will be noticeably smaller in size.

Cheers
Mike

 

[WDLV]

I agree with Mike's assessment. That's why I think small bits of food are the best thing to feed anemones. Large pieces of shrimp, silversides or other foods are generally ingested but later spit out causing more energy expense just swallowing and regurgitating the food than it gains. There just isn't enough surface area for them to properly digest it.
I've only been keeping BTAs for the last couple years because it's just easier overall and with the clowns I'm keeping I can't afford a mishap with the anemone eating a clown.