How much is too much to feed an anemone?

[Sonam]

Hello All,

Had the good fortune to acquire a bubble tipped anemone that was tank raised. It seems healthy, with good color, sticking to the rock and eating readily (even ravenously).

I've read it is possible to overfeed an anemone to the point it is harmful to its health.

On the other hand, I've also read that losing tentacles is a sign of starvation.

Ours has lost about 4 or 5 tentacles since arriving. It appears to be growing new ones.

We have been feeding it small pieces of scallop and fish every other day. It spit up the piece of silverside we gave it but scallop, salmon and mysis shrimp are all taken quickly with no sign of distress. The pieces we give are small, maybe the size of a fingernail.

Are we on the right track or does it need more?

It is a wonderful creature and we hope to care for it well.

Thanks for any feedback or advice.

 

[thedasher]

You don't have to feed them that much, because i believe they are photosynthetic and get energy from the light

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

You don't have to feed them that much, because i believe they are photosynthetic and get energy from the light

+1 I have several that I've kept for years, and I've never spot fed.

 

[ygon]

I usually don't feed until I see it poop. That's generally a good way to keep from overfeeding it.

 

[Senior El Roboto]

Following

 

[crowracn32]

I am actually lucky enough to never have to feed my nem. I have a maroon clown fish that grabs food, when i feed my fish, and if it fits in his mouth, he will eat it. If it is too big for him, he will take it and drop it in the nem to feed it. I actually have video of him doing this but I am new here and do not know how to post a video.

 

[Sonam]

How did you get your clownfish to host your anemone? We have two oscillaris clowns who do not seem at all interested. That seems a very natural way for the anemone to be fed.
Thanks to everyone else as well. It seems we may be feeding too much.

 

[Reef head]

I too never feed mine.

 

[nwreef]

I was feeding my condy couple times a week, but now my ocellaris does it for me.

 

[crowracn32]

sonam, I did not have any problems with clowns hosting. I have heard of a trick that they say works but I do not know for sure and have not seen it for my self. I had a few friends tell me that they had issues with getting their clowns to host and they taped pictures of clowns hosting, to the side of their tanks and after a while, the clown started to host. I know it sounds corny but they said it worked. If you try this I would love to read the final result on whether or not this worked.