Will clowns feed the Anemone in the tank?

[highquality]

Just what it says. when i try and feed the BTA the clowns go bonkers and thrsh all in the anemone. will i need to seperate them to feed the nem or will they do it?

 

[raoul]

My occell.'s don't feed my crispa. It will catch flakes that come its way sometimes, and they may drop a few crumbs over it when they're eating, but I've NEVER seen them feed it. We supplement it with scallops or shrimp.

That being said...

There are people whose clowns do feed their nems, and some of them have some interesting stories to share about just what their nems have been fed

I don't know if one type of clown has a better chance of feeding the nem than another, it would be interesting to know

 

[seaduck]

Some clowns will drag the chunks of food that are too big for them to eat back to the nem. They will eat all the lil stuff so put some big chunks in there for the nem. Some wont feed the nem. Depends on the clowns.

 

[highquality]

My problem is getting the Saddleback out of the bta so that i can feed it. i will try putting bigger chunks of krillin

 

[bigtyguyy]

i was just reading on my local board there was a post about this topic.....

"Vaporize said"

Just wanted to start a discussion on my observation between tank raised clownfish v.s. wild caught clownfish in terms of the behaviours and manners. Of course these are just my observations and not the 'rules'.

(1) Home Improvement ?

It seems to me that WC clownfish are much more open to the idea of home improvement, that is feeding their anemones. Most of my WC clowns that are hosted by an anemone will feed the anemone or not take the food that I fed to the anemone. However t.r. clownfish will just go into the mouth and dig out the food and try to eat it; they do not tend to feed the anemone too. Assuming the clownfish is well-fed to begin with.


(2) Sleeping around?

When t.r. and w.c. clownfish are put into an anemone-less tank, t.r. ones might just sleep anywhere (on gravel, out in the open, powerhead etc..) while the w.c. ones are more cautious and sleep in caves or cracks. I guess this is obvious as WC ones might not be around if they were not careful in the first place.


(3) Friendly?

t.r. clownfish win by quite a margin, they are just naturally attracted to people (yeah people == food). Some WC clownfish are just naturally so shy.

 

[Duddly01]

And this is obviously not tried and true. My tank bred Clarkii's this morning were bringing the larger pieces of shrimp to the BTA anenome and sticking it to a tentacle. They would then sit and watch the anenome bring it to its mouth before going and getting another. Smaller pieces they would swallow themselves on the move. I think different breeds have different natural instincts. From what I have read from other threads, tank bred False Percs often don't take to anenomes at all. I would assume they also don't likely have the natural instincts to feed them, IMHO.

 

[macperry]

My t.r. black false ocellaris pair seem to be slowly "learning" that if they steal the food out of the BTA.....it ends up being an unhappy anem. After about 2 weeks with the new BTA, they no longer steal the food out of it's mouth like they used to. They haven't quite figured out how to feed it yet though...they just watch the silverside float away if the anem isn't hungry enough to grab it....or my pacific cleaner shrimp wrestles it away.

 

[BigBadBlenny]

i put krill in the tank and my clarkii feeds it to the bta. also he will steal oyster out of the mouth of my CBB and feeds it to the bta. funny to watch, the CBB gived him the stink eye and rarely chases him.

 

[davocean]

For me, both clarki's and maroons have been the best caregivers.
Very common to see them bring food to nem b4 eating themselves.
The occs that I had never did this, nor my pink skunks.
Try feeding your nem silversides, that might help, too big for clowns to run off with.

 

[redvipe2010]

There was some research done by Dr. Daphne Fautin, a few years back as to weather or not clownfish will feed anemones. Dr. Fautin has never witnessed clownfish feeding an anemone in the wild. An experiment was done in captivity with a piece of PVC, and the clownfish placed food in the PVC. Dr. Fautin concluded that the anemone was used for storage. It is believed that the only regular feedings provided to an anemone by a clownfish is through the waste of a clownfish in the wild.