How to feed nem hosting clowns?

[BigJay]

So last night I went to give a 1/4" piece of silverside to my two BTA anenomes. When my hand got near the rose BTA hosting my percs, I was bitten twice by the female (the little male just ran away).

I finally put the zoecon + zoe soaked silverside into the nem's grasp. The female clown quickly grabbed it by a piece of stringy intestine that was sticking out of it, and started running for it. This was followed by a 10 minute cuss-word laden chase where I was trying to get the food back from her while she whizzed around my 180 gallon tank with it. She finally let go, and I was able to feed the nem and keep her at bay while she occupied herself with biting my fingers. The nem finally closed up around its food, and I finally let her "win" and took my hand away.

There has got to be a better way to do this. Any suggestions?

 

[psteeleb]

Jay - I got a good laugh:lol:

I always used those cheap plastic tongs to feed the nem when I had one. The tongs didn't work well for 99% of the things I wanted but they seemed to be okay for holding a chunk of meat for nem feeding.

 

[jubjub]

get rid of the clown my suggestion.....i was always told dont bite the hand that feeds you....if any of my fish ever bit me go in the sump then sold/traded, end of story.....

for the most part i just drop the food in the nem, the nem will curl up and eat it, figure thats nature if the fish isnt smart enough to move outta the way then it deserves to be eaten.. in nature when fish host they dont get eaten when nem's feeds...so..shrug

^^ i know sounds a little cold but sometimes we dont give fish credit for how smart/stupid they really are...

 

[phender]

Cut the silverside into 3 or 4 smaller pieces. If the clown steals one, its no big deal because the anemone still gets most of it.

 

[BigJay]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13456277#post13456277 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by phender
Cut the silverside into 3 or 4 smaller pieces. If the clown steals one, its no big deal because the anemone still gets most of it.

Now this is some original thinking. Thanks a lot. Let's see her try to ruin a feeding of five smaller pieces! I doubt the nem will care much at all.

I'll also work on getting a pair of tongs so I can keep my hands out of the tank.

As for being bitten, it's usually a small pinch on my already calloused hands, so it's no big deal. IMO the clown is too pretty to sell, it's still one of my favorite fish, and I figure that she's only trying to defend her home.

 

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

:lol: I had a good laugh with that too..sorry I can't help but to laugh because that sounds like my female ocellaris. She use to bite us all the time but ever since we got her a male she stopped. Now she only bites us if we have our hand in the tank for too long.

This is what I do...I feed the clowns then feed the nem..while the anemone is eating I feed the clowns more food.

 

[BigJay]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13456703#post13456703 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wicked_NaCl_h2o
:lol: I had a good laugh with that too..

It wasn't funny at the time, but thinking about it I wish I had recorded it to put it up on youtube.

 

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

Yeah, it wasn't funny when she took a chunk out of my hubbys finger once. We both laugh about it now and warn people about our little orange and white parana.