I was feeding my fish tonight and my dad was over, so I asked him if he had seen my anemone eat lately. He said he hadnt so I asked if he wanted to see it make a chunk of silverside vanish.
I put the silverside in the tank as usual and directed it into the anemone, which promptly closed over the food and started ingesting it, when my serpent star came shooting out of the rockwork looking for the food. The star started crawling onto the oral disk of the anemone, and the next thing I knew, the anemone had tentacles wrapped around 3 of the star's legs, had pulled it off the rock it was holding on to, and had it upside down on the sand and was pulling it in. I managed to get my feeding tube between a couple of the legs of the star that the anemone had a hold of, and my intervention caused the anemone to partially retract, so it eventually let go of the star and the star was able to escape back into the rockstack.
Other than the interesting life and death struggle I observed, should I be concerned for future conflicts between the star and anemone? I am specifically worried that the star could get swallowed and before its is completely dead, tear the anemone internally. The star is just over an inch in diameter across the body with about 5inch long legs, and the anemone is about 10inches across the oral disk with 3-4inch tentacles. Im not particularly worried about future feeding time conflicts, because now that I know of the potential for the star to try to steal the anemone's food, I will spot feed the star first.
I put the silverside in the tank as usual and directed it into the anemone, which promptly closed over the food and started ingesting it, when my serpent star came shooting out of the rockwork looking for the food. The star started crawling onto the oral disk of the anemone, and the next thing I knew, the anemone had tentacles wrapped around 3 of the star's legs, had pulled it off the rock it was holding on to, and had it upside down on the sand and was pulling it in. I managed to get my feeding tube between a couple of the legs of the star that the anemone had a hold of, and my intervention caused the anemone to partially retract, so it eventually let go of the star and the star was able to escape back into the rockstack.
Other than the interesting life and death struggle I observed, should I be concerned for future conflicts between the star and anemone? I am specifically worried that the star could get swallowed and before its is completely dead, tear the anemone internally. The star is just over an inch in diameter across the body with about 5inch long legs, and the anemone is about 10inches across the oral disk with 3-4inch tentacles. Im not particularly worried about future feeding time conflicts, because now that I know of the potential for the star to try to steal the anemone's food, I will spot feed the star first.
