Feeding small BTA

zman676

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Due to a maxijet encounter, I have recently acquired a small BTA from a friend. It has been chilling in my 20 gallon tank for a couple of weeks and I squirt defrosted frozen brine shrimp at it every once and a while, but I never know if he's actually eaten it. I was wondering if any of you seasoned veterans had any tricks for feeding it, or if I should just let it be 100% photosynthetic. Thanks for your help.

~Zach
 
imo, if you dont have the proper lights for it, just letting it feed from the lights can possibly kill it in the long run. Supp. feed is always good for anemones, you can feed them whatever you like. The more you feed your anemone, the faster it will grow. As far as wondering if its eating or not, generally anything that the anemone "holds onto"' it will eat. You can physically see it eating as its tenticles will move the food towards its mouth. I typically feed my anemones once a week, sometime more sometimes less, I guess it depends on if I feel like fattening them up. Anytime you feed your tank your anemone is going to get food, so remember that. I usually feed my anemones formula 1 cubes directly, and thats done by tossing it on the tenticles. You can feed your anemone silver sides, brine, mysis, formula 1 cubes....anything thats out there really. Just remember tho that anemones like to move around the tank without any notice so make sure your powerhead intakes are blocked off with a sponge or are out of reach of the anemone so it doesnt get sucked up. Enjoy your new addition, they are great to have! and let us know how things are going for you.
 
Very few, if any zooanthella hosting critters can survive (long term, think years) on photosynthesis alone. The energy derived from zooanthella is essentially enough for respiration. Often times we don't realize that our corals and nems are being fed by fish waste, so we think photosynthesis is doing the trick.

Anemone's get energy (food) from three basic sources:
1. Light (as above)
2. "Filter feeding" plankton and tiny critters in the water column
3. chunks! (this is the most sporadic food, in the wild, for nems)

For your BTA, finely chopped shrimp and fish mixed w/ some freeze-dried cyclopeeze, spot fed to it 2x a week is the way to go. Watch it the first time, it shouldn't take more than a minute to eat. Make sure other inhabitants don't steal from the bta.

here's a good article on feeding nems: http://fins.actwin.com/species/anemone.html">Phil Hendersson</a>

hth,

Matt
 
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