anemone with food too big for it?

[serotonin]

I'm not sure if my anemone is sick or if the food i gave it is too large for its mouth. AFAIK, a healthy anemone should ingest food within about a minute or so. I've given my guy a 1-2 pea sized piece of shrimp. This RBTA is about 3" in diameter. I'm curious what it will likely do if the piece is too large? It's been holding onto the food quite securely for 15 minutes now. I had to give a piece to the cleaner shrimp as it is getting dangerously close to the anemone, which is sticking to the shrimps tentacles as tries to get to the food.

I did have a temperature crash in the tank on Saturday when my return pump decided to stop working. There was about a 5degree drop which i slowly raised back up over 12 hours (74F to 79F ) Since that event (SIGH) the anemone's tentacles are not as bulky as previous and it is receded into the rock work a bit. It's not stringy looking but i'd say retracted to 1/2 the size at most. Surely the guy is pretty stressed out from that whole fiasco.

I have been feeding it on 2 days on 1 day (approx) off lately to encourage growth. Even since Saturday, it has quickly consumed its food, though this time the piece is perhaps 50% larger. Again, the piece is no larger than 2 peas next to each other.

Aside from the usual "keep your water parameters as perfect as you can", any suggestions?

Thanks so much all, hope you had a good holiday weekend,

Ryan

[amcarrig]

Stop feeding it for a while If it's not accepting food, it's not "hungry" or its sick. Either way, you can't force feed the animal so wait a week or so then try again.

[serotonin]

I'm pretty sure it's trying to eat it, perhaps it has eaten it now. It did grab the food quickly and held onto it like a kid with a candy bar. It's so hard for me to tell due to its location. I cant see it directly so I'm looking at an angle through the tank so the curve of the glass distorts my view a lot. I question the slow ingestion being caused by the size of the shrimp piece I cut for it. Understandably so, if it doesn't want to eat it won't, i'm not about to try to make it eat. I drop the food and if it won't take it, I know its pal the cleaner shrimp has google eyes over the feast

Curious, since it's been getting fed at a higher rate over the last couple weeks would you think it could stress out by not getting fed for such a long time? Regardless, I'll take your advice and hold off on the feedings for a few days and see how it goes.

Thanks for your advice ! always appreciated

Ryan

[amcarrig]

Nah, anemones don't stress for lack of solid foods because if there's none to be had, it can rely on photosynthesis and occasional meals of fish food and phytoplankton to sustain itself. I never fed my BTA when I kept one and it did very well for several years before I sold it.