Maroon & BTA ?

[RAY HUNTER]

I know that maroons / clowns, will defend there anemone, but is it normal for the clown to remove the food from the anemones mouth?

My bta is small, only about 2" across. It was the mother and cloned just before I got it about 1 month ago. It is doing well it begs to be fed almost everyday.

It reacts fast when I feed it (every other day), it gets a 1/4" piece of silverside. I try to keep the maroon away until the BTA has time to get the piece of fish down or at least until you can't see the piece of fish.

Today I desided to feed just a little more to the BTA and gave it a piece about 3/8" in length. As soon as the BTA grabbed the food the maroon came over and pulled the fish out of the BTA and moved it about 5 or 6" away.

I retrieved the piece and attempted to give it back to the BTA and was quickly bitten twice by the maroon. I did manage to feed the BTA a small piece and will try again tonight.

Is this normal? I thought the clown would feed the anemone?

 

[garygb]

The clowns will feed the anemone if the piece of food is too large or if they are stuffed and can't eat anymore. A hungry clowns first priority is feeding itself, not feeding the anemone.

You mentioned that your anemone is 2 inches across, how large is the maroon clown?

 

[RAY HUNTER]

"A hungry clowns first priority is feeding itself"

I always feed the fish first, and i feed until they stop eatting. I use a turkey baister(sp). they get a combo flake/ reef cube.

"how large is the maroon clown?"

she is just starting to mature, she is about 2 1/2". the first stripe is just starting to turn gold.
She didn't try to eat the silverside, she just tugged it out of the BTA and took it away.

 

[garygb]

General rule of thumb is that the anemone's diameter should be ~ 3 times the length of the fish. Hopefully your maroon won't love the BTA to death, as sometimes happens.

 

[RAY HUNTER]

Sorry I'm slow anwsering, I'm at work. Ya know at first i thought that would happen because she was reeaally loven on the BTA. but it did'nt take long and she calmed down to a respectable infactuation. she really does take good care of the BTA. she will gently nudge the body and rub on the head with her belly. I would have hated to loose the BTA to the love sick, and i knew that the anemone should have been bought first, but I got it from a local reefer who was moving to another state and basicly gave his stuff away for a happy meal! I bought the BTA for $5.00, a 4" neon green frogspawn for $5.00, 8 stalks of Silver xenia for free! also a huge coral banded shrimp for $5.00.

 

[garygb]

Wow, you got some good deals there. Just watch to make sure the anemone is growing and thriving, if it ever starts to shrink and appear unhealthy you might have to separate them, but it sounds like so far so good.

 

[RAY HUNTER]

Ya, lets keep our fingers crossed shall we. I know the worst is over. The reason it split in the first place was the first owner was trying to "pry" the anemone from the live rock the day before i was to pick it up and stressed the crap out of it. So when i got the bta it had just started to heal its self from the split. I really did'nt think it would make it, but for $5.00, I thought it worth the chance.