To feed or not to feed....

[jasond56]

Hello all! Has anyone heard of REEF SNOW by Three Little Fishies? My LPS told me that this stuff would be ideal to feed to my anemones. So, every three days, I turn off my protein skimmer for an hour or so and pour 1.5 caps of the REEF SNOW into my tank. Of course I also do regular doses of S&M, Iodine and Calcium. My question is, is this enough for feeding anemones? Should I be feeding "meaty" food directly? I think my Condylactis might take hand fed food (not sure though) but I'm not sure about my Flower Anemones - especially since one only opens up at night. Plus, the Flower Anemones aren't that "tenticly"...in other words, I don't think they could "grab" and retain food for ingestion. Feeding those by hand would be a big pain. Any suggestions or ideas?

Just an FYI. I think they are all doing really good right now. Although, the Condylactis does not bury his foot in rockwork at night as of late. Instead, he just sort of lays around on the substrate until the lights come back on, then he moves around to a comfy spot once again. He only started doing this a few days ago. Should I be worried?

Also, I just found out that one of my Bumble Bee Snails is actually a small Hermit Crab! How cool is that? I'm not sure what type of crab he is - he's got blue legs and black and white spotted legs...and he's tiny! He looks so cool with his black and yellow striped shell! Does anyone know what type this might be?

Thanks in advance

Jason

[jasond56]

Also, has anyone ever taken the time to look into your aquarium late at night, with say, a flash light or something? I don't know what's cooler - looking in during the day or at night with the lights off!

[Bruce]

What a coincidence, i just got a bottle of Reef Snow. I'm not sure how I like the stuff...I don't see anything wrong with it...but i cant even tell that i put it in the tank. I like bio-plankton better because i can see the particles. As for anemones, i would feed them some sort of frozen prepared food. I feed mine a cube of reef-prime every week. I like looking into my tank at night, my fish look so peaceful sleeping. With the new moonlights i dont even need a flashlight anymore

[jasond56]

I've been dosing with the Reef Snow for about a month now. Make sure and keep it in the fridge after opening and shake very well before you dose. When added, it looks like snow in the water (I know, I know ) or like white, whispy strands. They'll float around for about a half hour or so before dissipating completely. While dosing, drop it in in front of your tank's water return so the water pressure disperses it throughout the tank. Many times, my fish will eat it while it's floating about, and I assume my anemones are filter feeding the stuff. Just stuff I figured out through trial and error.

Anyway, any suggestions on how to feed anemones prepared food? When you say that you feed yours a cube of reef-prime every week, do you mean each anemone gets a cube? How many are you feeding on one cube? How exactly do you feed? I’m especially wondering in the case of my Flower Anemones because they don’t have length in their tentacles to grasp (or so it seems).

Thanks for your response!

Jason

[Jay]

Your hermit crab sounds like a blue legged hermit crab. You can buy them by the hundred pretty cheap, they do a good job trimming the algea and are coral safe. I feed my anenome silversides and mysis shrimp.

Jay