My Anemone keeps spitting out his food!

Discussion in 'Fish Food' started by glblguy, Apr 22, 2008.

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  1. glblguy

    glblguy Spaghetti Worm

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    I purchased a condy anemone at the LFS a week or so ago. I've been cutting up small pieces of raw shrimp for him to eat (with skin removed). It eats it, and then during the night spits it back out!

    It's done this 3 times now and I'm a little concerned it's not eating at all. I have seen it grab some myssis shrimp I put it for my copperbanded butterly.

    Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong?

    Thanks!
     
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  3. mandarin11

    mandarin11 Peppermint Shrimp

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    Not sure why it's doing that. Try silver sides. If it is spits that out then I would start to worry. How long have you had it and what lighting is it under?
     
  4. phoenixhieghts

    phoenixhieghts Panda Puffer

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    maybe he's just happy with the mysis and light, I noticed when i fed my duncans with some krill that one head swallowed it and another spat it out! but its always grabbing the brine shrimp i feed the fish with!
     
  5. baugherb

    baugherb Giant Squid

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    Maybe its still acclimating to your tank. Give it some time and see what happens.... JMO!!!!
     
  6. omard

    omard Gnarly Old Codfish

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    Expect you may be overfeeding...:-/

    Give only little bit every week or so.

    Too much food is one of biggest killer of tank anems...
     
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  7. glblguy

    glblguy Spaghetti Worm

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    I have it under Metal Halides about 4-6 hours a day, actinics from about 7:00am - 8:00pm, then moonlight LEDs.

    It did decide to move last night...over next to my polyps :angry: So I moved him this morning further away from them.

    I'll just keep an eye on it. It looks very healthy, and within minutes after the MHs come on, he expands out and is really beautiful.
     
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  9. baugherb

    baugherb Giant Squid

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    Good luck.. Hope everthing works out...
     
  10. glblguy

    glblguy Spaghetti Worm

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    Ah, ok...Thanks Omard. Probably too big of pieces then. When fully expanded, it's about 4 inches from tentacle to tentacle. The base is about 1" - 2" inches wide (when the lights are on).

    I tried a piece of shrimp about 1/2", guess that's too much? What size then 1/8" or 1/4" ?
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2008
  11. baugherb

    baugherb Giant Squid

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  12. Tangster

    Tangster 3reef Sponsor

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    with your lighting there is really no need to feed the anemone..But if you insist on feeding it get some squid bait type is best and a dime sized chunk monthly is all they need . Its not like they catch a stupid fish daily or weekly in the wild .. Manualy feeding them just makes them get Larger and split often and thats not a good thing if you keep it in a reef tank.