'nem Noob Question About Growth

[airewreck]

Hello all, this is my first post so take it easy on me. I have been reading the forums here for a few years now and finally had a question that I couldn't find the answer to.

I got a GBTA about 2 weeks ago and have a question about how they grow. I've read that when they are starving, their tentacles will start to shrink and look like nubs. I've noticed that the outside rim of tenticles on my anemone are short and stubby. Do anemones grow by generating tenticles around their outer rim or is my 'nem just starving. I've been feeding it mysis shrimp about every other day and it seems to eat it pretty well. I'm trying to work up to silversides but my first two tries didn't work so well.

If you need to see pictures I'll do my best. After placing it front and center, it decided to walk to the worst possible position for viewing in the whole tank.

I also have another question. Does anyone else here have a maroon that likes to nip at the tips of the tenticles? I know that this is normal in the beginning so that they can get used to the new BTA but it seems like recently I'm missing a couple of purple tips.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Eric

 

[GSMguy]

[welcome]

 

[GSMguy]

pics are the only way i can really tell but sounds like its ok

 

[z_rivers]

Re: 'nem Noob Question About Growth

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9194279#post9194279 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by airewreck


Do anemones grow by generating tenticles around their outer rim
Eric

Yes they do. Maroons are known to bite the tips off of tentacles. They can be very aggressive towards their anemone. Its hard to determine what shape your anemone is in from what you described. If you can get a picture of it it would make things a lot simpler.

 

[raoul]

I've been feeding it mysis shrimp about every other day and it seems to eat it pretty well. I'm trying to work up to silversides but my first two tries didn't work so well.

You can also try other meaty foods, sometimes nems prefer one type of food over another. We use scallop and shrimp mostly. We've done silversides with our crispa, it appreciated them, but I totally play the girl card when it comes to breaking frozen fish apart - yuck! Krill is another food you can try too, we haven't yet, but it's on my list
Good luck!

 

[airewreck]

Well, I fed half of a silverside last night and it sucked it down pretty quickly. This morning it looked pretty fat and happy. I'll try to get a picture of it later tonight so you guys can tell me what you think. Thanks.

 

[airewreck]

Here's some pictures... The more I look, the more i think that it's not eating enough.

Day #1 with actinics only:

Today (~14days later) in its new position:

Moving the toadstool out of the way:

I think I'm going to try some different meaty foods. What do you all think?

 

[raoul]

How often do you feed it?

Do you watch to see if it expells any later? Sometimes nems will take more than they should, and they'll spit it back out later.
Since it's taking silversides, maybe trying smaller portions (pencil eraser size is recommended a lot) will be helpful.

Good luck and keep us posted

 

[airwreck]

Thanks raoul. I have been feeding it every other day but I am going to start doing it every day. Yesterday I noticed that it had spit out about half of what I had given it (about half of a whole silverside). I'm going to try smaller portions as you suggest and will keep adding pictures as the days go by.

 

[raoul]

Every other day may be fine at this point, sometimes they need time to digest their food before you add more. That's just my opinion, and it's free, so take it for what it's worth Hopefully others will chime in on it too.
Good luck!