Do Anemonies need to be fed?
 

Do anemonies need to be fed. I have a Sand Anemone, Bubble Tipped and two Haitin Reef Anemonies. If they do need to be fed, what can be fed to them and how often?

I feed mine silversides every couple of days. Occasionally a scallop if I'm having it for dinner that night :)

Can Silversides be fed to carniverous inverts and fish like coral banded shrimp and do they come frozen or dry?

frozen, and you can also get anything fresh...i like to get seafood buffet (fresh frozen, no preservatives) from the korean market. we blend it, freeze it, and break off chunks for treats :)

we usually do that about 2, maybe 3 a week...or when i remember

I just recently got a bta and with help from the nice folks on here, found out how to feed. They usualy come frozen, just thaw one out and cut into smaller pieces, my bta grabbed it from the tweezers as soon as it touched one of the tentacles.

You really dont need to feed them that often. I feed my nems maybe once a month. I have an 18" haddoni and a 5" GBTA. Ive had them for a couple of years now. As long as you provide enough light for them they will do fine with less feedings.

With my experience, they do need feeding. I feed my RBTA half a silverside every3 days.
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The anemone has also grown really fast.
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Then again, i do know some people that dont feed their anemone and do fine but they grow pretty slow.

You definately want to feed them once in a while. My clown fish feed mine for me everytime I feed my clowns they take a chunk to one of the anemones. I started with one bubble tip anemone that I got from saltwaterfish.com as a free gift about two years ago. Since then it has split 3 times now I have 4 anemones

My carpet needs to be fed weekly, about 1 31-40 ct shrimp soaked in selcon. It only likes low light, as in 130 total pc watts on a 135. I have a window next to the tank and as the seasons change and leaves fall off trees in the winter, I can get direct sunlight into the tank and even with the gradual light addition over weeks, it doesn't like it. It gets smaller and stopped being sticky so I had to keep the blinds closed. Much happier and sticky as can be and expands out again.

That's funny about yours preferring low light. Not to have brains, they do have quite a few idiosynchracies, don't they?

I feed my frogspawn, hammer, and bubble tip anemone mysis shrimp every 2-3 days.

I defrost a chunk of mysis in RO/DI (I use one of those mesh thingies for making loose tea), drain, mix with saltwater.
I use a plastic turkey baster to squirt a shot of mysis into the anemone. I had to do it very gently the first few times because the anemone would retract in fear. Now that it knows what's in store it greedily closes itself up to surround the mysis.

My anemone has doubled in size since I got it in September.

Tyler

It depends on species
I think most LTA BTA carpets should be fed
I spot feed my LTA once a week
piece of frozen shrimp clam or silverside thawed in tank water
nomore than 1/4 inch or it might regurgitate it,

[url]http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ltafaqs.htm[/url]

he also usually gets some left over mini mysis twice daily from my fish feedings
cleaner shrimp will try and steal its food too.
will deflate reinflate usually after feeding.

Like these I took of my poor puffer!!!! Love sharing these pics....

[IMG]http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j203/danorth/4-2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j203/danorth/7-1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j203/danorth/10-1-1.jpg[/IMG]

Sorry, but I hate seeing pics of poor beautiful fish getting devoured by a coral or anemone. Back on subject, I feed mines about once a month also. Sometimes krill, fresh fish or scallop from the market, or even frozen silversides sometimes.

I would stick to the once a month routine because light is the most important part of keeping an anemone healthy no matter what kind it is. Keep in mind that if you feed your anemone once every three days or week that it could foul up your water quality. Think about the natural selection that happens on the real reefs, and how often they don't have a meal. Do you think a small fish swims into an anemone every three days or week?