Injured Anemone?

[Newreeflady]

Well, after feeding what was apparently too large a piece of fish for this bta yesterday, it took him 1+ hours to finish the meal. I noticed a spot at his mouth area that looked like it had gotten slightly damaged. Today he isn't opening all the way, kinda has his bottom half protecting his damaged mouth. It looks like there is sort of a hole, or that it is opened and you can see inside, something silvery and black. I am wondering if this is unconsumed silverside and if he is having a hard time purging it? Or, is it something else?

Poor guy, I should have known that piece was too big. I tried to get a picture, but his tentacles keep getting in the way. Thoughts? Is he just going to spit it up, or is this maybe something else?

Thx,
-A

 

[Newreeflady]

ok, I think it is the silverside head. Maybe this is normal, hopefully he is spitting up bones. I thought they did this at night, but guess not.

-A

 

[dantodd]

happens sometimes. If he wants to spit it out he will have no problem doing so. It is very unlikely that he will injure himself eating they just spit it out if it's too big. However; the longer it takes for the anemone to consume it's food the more chance there is for a tankmate to try and steal the food. It's usually this stealing that damages the anemone.

 

[Newreeflady]

Well, I watched the whole time he was eating to be sure the shrimp didn't try to steal it. I fed the shrimp probably more than I should have so he was not at all interested.

Usually they would spit it out right away if it were not the right size, though, right? Why next day?

thx,
-A

 

[Azurel]

There is also the danger of the food rotting in an anemone when the food is to big for it to physically consume. That is why it is better to feed smaller amounts at a higher rate then one large amount at a single time. I have done the same thing except I lost the anemone to gut rot....They can and will spit stuff back out, this can also foul your water conditions also. Better to be on the safe side....It takes a little learning to see how much and how long it takes them to consume different size pieces of food. In one of my Anemone & Anemonefish books they explain it like this..." In the wild there is virtually never a time when an anemone will receive large chunks of food down on the reef, all food the does get received will be of the smallest amounts. Any large chunks of food get consumed by fish and or crustaceans before it ever gets to the point when the anemone has the chance to receive it." Not verbatim but you get the point. I do not feed any of my anemones large pieces of food, I only feed them mysis and cyclp-eeze. If what they say is true in these books then that would be of a more natural food then large chunks of fish that they would never get in the ocean anyway.Just my .02 and something to think about...
James

 

[dantodd]

It may take him a while to figure out how much he ate. As James said most anemone's including BTAs live primarily on small pieces of food in the wild. Of course, carpets are an exception.

I've never heard of gut rot but I suppose it is possible.

 

[Azurel]

That's what I call it.....I was told what happened was that the food I gave was to big and it started to decay faster then the anemone could eat it and spit it out as we all know how fast things in marine aquariums can start to decay. Carpets do eat fish that is true, but even then it isn't a constant thing at least from what I understand the books to suggest. Although they do say that they can and will sense fish close and reach out and touch them...if you know what I mean....They are by far the most physically capable anemones(carpets) to go fishing.

 

[Newreeflady]

Well, he finally opened up all the way. The piece of food was barely hanging on to his mouth so I went ahead and just removed it. I have learned my lesson with large food pieces, hopefully no harm done. He appears to be fine.

Thanks,
Angela