tips on feeding silversides to BTA?

[Snakebyt]

i have 3 BTA, 2 rose and one green. I want to try and feed them silversides, but when i do try either the silversides try to float and get away from the BTA, or the clowns wont stay out of the anemone long enough for it to eat.

any tips for feeding them?

 

[OrionN]

The tip for feeding silverside to anemone is DON'T
I always use human grade food. If I don't want to eat it, my anemone won't get it.
Human frozen food get much better care in transit. Many times pet food got thaw out and just refreeze and sold. That can kill your anemone.

 

[Snakebyt]

so just some shrimp from the store cut to appropriate size then would be better?

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

The tip for feeding silverside to anemone is DON'T

x2 or 3
there used to be a well known author around here recommending whole fishes be fed to anemones but I can't agree with this advice.

 

[Snakebyt]

guess ill pick up some shrimp or crab or squid or something from the local supermarket and cut to size. anything from the local market i should not feed?

 

[OrionN]

I would feed them a variety of food. Some of this and some of that but no fresh water fish and no land animal.

 

[D-Nak]

Depending on the anemone, frozen food (like Rods Reef) works fine, since it's easy for the nem to digest. If you want to feed seafood, I usually recommend wild-caught salmon chunks (farm raised salmon has color enhancers and other unknown ingredients/additives) or shrimp soaked in a vitamin enriched solution such as Selcon. I personally prefer salmon since I can get it fresh and I can cut it up and remove any bones. Most of the shrimp we buy -- unless it's alive when purchased -- is frozen. If it's in the seafood case, it's simply defrosted. The reason I don't like frozen shrimp is because it's usually treated and frozen at sea, and we don't know exactly what they put on it. The ingredients of the shrimp sitting in my freezer are shrimp, salt, and sodium tripolyphosphate. I have no idea what that last ingredient is, but I don't like that part of the word reads "phosphate".

I normally cut up the salmon into pieces the size of a pencil eraser, at some Selcon, and let it sit in the fridge overnight. I then feed a chunk or two the following day, and lay the rest out onto plastic wrap so it forms a thin layer.I wrap this up and toss it in the freezer. When I want to feed again, I remove the package and break off a small piece. I defrost in tank water, then feed to the nem.

 

[Mavrk]

I use silversides as well as other foods (variety is good). If the anemone is not grabbing the food, it is probably too big of a piece (or the anemones are new to the tank). Make sure the fish is defrosted first and give small pieces. I use chopsticks to feed it (some people use tongs). They also help shoo away the shrimp and other fish.

 

[Hdhuntr01]

I feed my Sherman RBTA half of a Silverside every other day. For ome reason it likes the tail half better than the hed half. I pull it out of the freezer, cut it in half and place it on a small piece of foil for about half and hour to let it thaw a bit. Using a pair of tongs I then stick the Silverside down into the Anemone near the mouth. My Anemone closes around the Silverside and eventually will consume the entire piece. I don't have any issues feeding this nemone like this. The Anemone is about 3" to 4" in diameter. I ahven't had this one very long at all.

 

[worm5406]

Mine will not eat it. I will keep it for later on if they change their diet.. But right now I am only out a small package of it.