How often do you feed your BTA?

[MarvinsReef]

alright, I just fed last night for the 3rd time. I try to feed the BTA's once/week but what I noticed is some of the BTA's would spit the food they just ingested in after lights out or after the actinics goes on in the am. I'm only feeding them small amounts of PE Mysis. some of BTA's aren't too big, only 2"-3" fully expanded so I'm trying to feed them once/week to get more growth. should I try other food? if so, what would you recommend? Silverslides & Krill I think will be too big for some of the BTA's that's why I was hoping the PE Mysis would work fine. at least when they spit out the PE Mysis, the fish end up eating most of it, so it doesn't really go to waist.

also, what are the real benefits of feeding besides getting BTA's to grow/split? I thought good lighting is all you need to keep them happy.

any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[bige]

I stopped feeding mine. I use to feed it but I never saw any benefit. It actually looked better once I stopped feeding. Thats my experience. I have not fed mine in over a year now.

 

[starfiretank]

I feed mine frozen brine and mysis daily. Those are mine in my avatar picture.

 

[Aquaph8]

I've never fed mine. Clowns drag stuff in there all the time though.

 

[Saltgator]

My 10 inch eats either 1 broke up silverside soaked in garlic extreme or roggers reef food every other week (one feeding during that week)

Country boy using tapatalk on Evo 4g

 

[MarvinsReef]

I think the newer BTA's are still acclimating as I didn't see the older BTA's spitting their food. I'll wait a week before I feed the newer BTA's. I was just surprised yesterday as I tried to feed one and it accepted it. so I ended up feeding the others. LoL.

Thanks again for the feedback. I think I'll keep on the plan of feeding once/week. this is the only time that the tank gets frozen. I feed only pellets, specifically TDO and Otohime to get good colors for the Picasso's. the other fishes don't seem to mind it. when the Picasso's get bigger, I'll mix in some Spectrum and flakes to get more variety.

 

[gfox]

I have RBTA for 4 years now and i dont have a regular feeding schedule.It seems grow and split about once a year no matter if i feed it or not.This one gets about 6 to 8 inches and splits into.

 

[MarvinsReef]

I have RBTA for 4 years now and i dont have a regular feeding schedule.It seems grow and split about once a year no matter if i feed it or not.This one gets about 6 to 8 inches and splits into.

awesome! that's the kind of BTA I like. not the ones that get to a foot and never splits. :hammer:

I hope the Lemon Drops and Flame Tip I just got are the splitting kind. :wink:

 

[Troylee]

Mine gets fed daily since I drop flake and spectrum pellets right onto it hoping the clowns will dig in haha.... The nem doesn't seem to mind... I did try a silverside and it took it down but at night when it deflates it was to big and came out.. I think small pieces would be the ticket maybe cut them into 1/4" chunks...

 

[MarvinsReef]

Mine gets fed daily since I drop flake and spectrum pellets right onto it hoping the clowns will dig in haha.... The nem doesn't seem to mind... I did try a silverside and it took it down but at night when it deflates it was to big and came out.. I think small pieces would be the ticket maybe cut them into 1/4" chunks...

yeah, I saw some nems chowing down some pellets too. so I might try that to alternate with the PE Mysis. maybe I'll thaw out the PE Mysis and find the biggest ones and hand feed the nems.

I've never fed silversides so I'm gonna check them out at the LFS. just sounds scary feeding it to nems. LoL. maybe, I'll get some Rod's Food also to try out.

 

[lostmyz]

I feed my RTA every other day a cube of frozen (slightly thawed) squid. Since I have started doing that its grown a lot in comparison to what it normally looked like... aka too small for my black and white clowns. and its color looks beetter

 

[redtop03]

I hand/spot feed mine once every month or so with frozen shrimp or silver side,they get plenty when I feed the fish,I think if you want 'em to get large and split often,feeding more often might help

 

[trukgirl]

I have a rose BTA. Used to have a green but it committed suicide after I moved it to the new tank, and my clowns still want nothing to do with the new rose 'nem. I squirt some PE Mysis at it every couple days. It also gets fed 1-2x/wk with the froz seafood mix I give my eel. Once the clowns start going in it I will cut back.

ETA: I never had good luck with silversides feeding ANY anemone. I think they do better on the mysis and seafood mix (clams, mussels, octopus, squid, shrimp, soaked in garlic guard)

 

[MarvinsReef]

Thanks again everyone for the input. much appreciated.

 

[gfox]

When i do feed it i will thaw out a piece of frozen krill.I never see it spit it back out.

 

[gfox]

As far as not splitting,i was up at Preuss last week they have a huge RBTA in one of there show tanks.I was talking with the owner and he said that one has never split.It has to at least 2 feet wide!

 

[MarvinsReef]

As far as not splitting,i was up at Preuss last week they have a huge RBTA in one of there show tanks.I was talking with the owner and he said that one has never split.It has to at least 2 feet wide!

yikes! they found a solitary species. hope I don't have one of them in my tank right now. I currently have 13 BTA's and look to add some more at the Jan swap in Lansing. :wink:

 

[MarvinsReef]

quick observation from earlier. I fed the nems two days ago and earlier Brine Shrimp plus and Hikari Mysis. I think they are responding better with these two combo as to the PE Mysis. I've never seen the BTA's look better. I plan on feeding them every other day for the next week or two, depending on what response I get from them. if they continue to look like they did today, man... the feeding makes a difference.

I think I also bleached my RBTA's. you can see from my vids that they are pale. a week or two ago, I turned on the 2 other bulbs. one had a 6500 and one Blue+. and I forgot I increased photoperiod. so now, I'm back to 7 hours photoperiod for 5 bulbs and 1.5 hours with just 2 blue+ for dawn/dusk. the RBTA's are still healthy, expanding everyday and they look like they are starting to get some more color during the past 3 days since I caught the issue. hope to get the colors back in a few weeks.

 

[Just Clownin Around]

good thing you caught it

 

[Zombie]

I never feed them. I started with a small GBTA, sold three splits and now have four huge ones. I am not keeping them when I set up my new tank, they climb on my corals too much. I had them for about five years now.