BTA Digestion

[johnny]

Dr. Ron,

I have been feeding my bubble tip anenomes pieces of cocktail shrimp for the last 3 or 4 months. Is there any benefits to feeding silversides or a mixed diet? Also I read somewhere that BTAs digestive fluids (not a bio major ;) ) grow accustomed to their usual diet and leave them unable to break down new foods after a short period of time (I kind of disregarded this as myth, but thought I'd ask). Thanks for any help you can give.

Nick

[rshimek]

Hi Nick,

Try feeding a variety of foods and see what the animal likes. Acceptable foods will stick to the tentacles and be injested, unacceptable foods will be rejected and be dropped off the tentacles.

Try to feed whole foods, guts and all. Feeding just muscles (cocktail shrimp) is not a balanced diet. These animals evolved to have prey that had a lot of minor nutrients in their guts and organs.

They retain their full suite of digestive enzymes through their life.