what does your Haddoni eat?

[WILDTHING]

I just read an article by Anthony Calfo stating that anemones and esp larger anemones like carpets are mostly detritus and plankton eaters.

My 2yr old carpet will not eat anything that small. If pieces of my seafood mush which has chunks in it fall on him he slowly moves them down till they fall off of him. I've had whopping turbos land on him and again he won't touch them, same with a very stupid cleaner I had that used to go and try to eat food that fell on him. He has however snagged a tank inhabitant or 2 in his day.:rolleye1:

He also will not eat cocktail shrimp, he does however like silversides (until he discovered tentacles)and octopus and squid and fish I cut into strips for him.

So what does your carpet eat? And have you observed it eating small plankton sized things?

 

[apayne]

Silversides

 

[WILDTHING]

how long have you had it? Have you ever seen it eating small particle sized items?

 

[Mr Bojangles]

mine eats silver sides, shrimp, tangs, conchs, just about anything

 

[dwake]

Silversides here.

 

[Heterodonut]

Ditto, silversides. I have heard many people say their haddon ate their tusk fish, firefish, pygmy angel, even ocellaris clowns. Mine has always behaved itself, and loves silversides. A healthy Haddon eats regularly.

 

[Slakker]

It's possible that in the wild they eat detritus, as there's a lot more room for fish to avoid them and they aren't being target fed by anything. Just a thought.

 

[WILDTHING]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9078397#post9078397 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Slakker
It's possible that in the wild they eat detritus, as there's a lot more room for fish to avoid them and they aren't being target fed by anything. Just a thought.

actually another article alluded to that fact, that they got the occasional fish that blundered into them trying to escape another periditor or whatever. The same article said that upon dissection that they often found sea urchins in the gut! Imagine that, wonder how they do it with all those spines?

 

[WILDTHING]

So nobody has observed their carpet eating small particle sized foods while feeding the tank or by accident as bits of food fell on them?

 

[ChunksInClemson]

I just feed mine Gem Tangs......once a week.....

 

[apayne]

So nobody has observed their carpet eating small particle sized foods while feeding the tank or by accident as bits of food fell on them?

Nope, just silversides and a cleaner goby.

 

[LesMartin]

Silversides, Krill, Dusky headed jawfish, Algae blenny.

 

[Mr Bojangles]

I am sure a small flake or food will hit him on occasions, but they dont have the same effect as far as engulfing themselves around the tiny speck of food

 

[WILDTHING]

well with the exception of Heterodonut I think all of our guys have had some expensive snacks.

I guess whats puzzling to me is that if in the wild they will eat these small particles or plankton why in our tanks do they seem not even to respond to it as food. When I was heavily feeding my guy there were a few occasions where he took food but then spat it back out with a slimy white coating on it. He obviously responded to the stimulus of feeling, something that triggered a "food" reaction. But he has no reaction whatsoever to small particles in my tank. These guys are not smart, they can't learn a new behavior.

Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[Slakker]

Maybe it's something about the type of debris that's falling on them? Whatever it is in the tank just may not have the same chemical composition that triggers any kind of feeding response.

Or perhaps it's something as crazy as the pressure exerted on the anemone in a tank is different from that in the wild, and this somehow affects their feeding response.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

All of the large anemones I've ever dealt with consume small particulate foods that occur naturally in the reef aquarium (ie: plankton) as well as prepared planktonic sized foods (ie: Cylopeeze).
Anemones aren't "smart" but I would question whether or not they can "learn" a new behavior.