Shrimp stealing food

[Britott]

Good evening all,

Does anyone have any neat tips or tricks from preventing a shrimp from digging into an anemone and taking it's food, my blood shrimp seems relentless on the poor bugger.

Thanks all.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Shrimp are jerks. So not really.


Also.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/feeding-your-nem-stop-and-read-this-first.321885/

 

[Britott]

Thanks mate good read that.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

I have fire and skunk shrimp and when it's time to fee my carpet nems. they know it. So using a long pair of tweezers I will hold a smallish sized piece of the same food the nems are getting near where the shrimp hang out at prior to feeding the nems. This allows the shrimp to eat and be occupied while the nems eat. I will posture up near the nems with my tweezers just in case they finish before the nems finish. Takes about 5-10 min but it works.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I have fire and skunk shrimp and when it's time to fee my carpet nems. they know it. So using a long pair of tweezers I will hold a smallish sized piece of the same food the nems are getting near where the shrimp hang out at prior to feeding the nems. This allows the shrimp to eat and be occupied while the nems eat. I will posture up near the nems with my tweezers just in case they finish before the nems finish. Takes about 5-10 min but it works.

And probaly kida fun too.

 

[theKoolAidMan]

I feed the shrimp directly. As he eats his stuff I quicky shoot some food as close to the nem's mouth as possible so he can close up enough that the shrimp can't steal it.

 

[rkpetersen]

I just use enough food so that everyone gets some. Give the shrimp a nice big chunk of meat to hang onto first, and it won't try to steal the nem's.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

And probaly kida fun too.

It's entertaining, and somehow the little buggers know when it's feeding day for the nems. They will post up near the biggest one waiting for me to feed them. Not sure how they do as it's not daily, but every 2-3 days that I do it. And the nems get fed after the fish so they wont try to steal the food either.

 

[Britott]

Thanks guys all great ideas will give them all a shot, not sure if just waiting for the nem to close up over the food will be enough, I guarded the nem as he took the food closed up over it and after about 5mins he started to reopen I then stepped away thinking all was safe only for the blood shrimp too dig deep into it's gut and grab the piece of meat out. Now could it be maybe I fed just a little bit too big of a piece, the nem is only small at the moment I would say around a few inches the food was maybe a little less than 1/2 an inch.

Thanks for all the advice guys it's greatly appreciated.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Depending on the type of nem you have or are feeding, getting them to respond quickly may take a little finesse. My Rock flowers I sometimes have to hold the food and wiggle it around a little bit on their short face bumps to get them to respond. My RBTA I just have to place the food near the mouth and it goes to work on it instantly.

You can try using a large water bottle as a feeding shield. Get one that's a little larger than the nem, cut the bottom off and drill some holes in the side for water flow. Place the food for the nem in it near the mouth and move it around to trigger the feeding response. Once the nem grabs hold, place the bottle over it and wait for it to finish eating. Sometimes they get a little finicky and don't want to eat right away. This usually happens for me if I go to feed them too frequently. Such as every 2 days for the bigger rock flowers they tend to be a little meh at feeding. If I wait another day or two I will get a much more aggressive response. My RBTA on the other hand will happily eat daily provided it's smaller pieces of squid, silver side, or scallop. Anything else like krill it may reject.

 

[Britott]

Depending on the type of nem you have or are feeding, getting them to respond quickly may take a little finesse. My Rock flowers I sometimes have to hold the food and wiggle it around a little bit on their short face bumps to get them to respond. My RBTA I just have to place the food near the mouth and it goes to work on it instantly.

You can try using a large water bottle as a feeding shield. Get one that's a little larger than the nem, cut the bottom off and drill some holes in the side for water flow. Place the food for the nem in it near the mouth and move it around to trigger the feeding response. Once the nem grabs hold, place the bottle over it and wait for it to finish eating. Sometimes they get a little finicky and don't want to eat right away. This usually happens for me if I go to feed them too frequently. Such as every 2 days for the bigger rock flowers they tend to be a little meh at feeding. If I wait another day or two I will get a much more aggressive response. My RBTA on the other hand will happily eat daily provided it's smaller pieces of squid, silver side, or scallop. Anything else like krill it may reject.

Thanks Porpoise Hork, it is a rbta like yours and I do have a bottle I cut up and use a pipe on it too feed my lobos as I had problems feeding them aswell cause of the shrimps lol, guess it's going to be a little bit of trial and error at feeding time but got lots of ideas now so here is hoping.

Thanks mate.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Anytime. What usually works best is feeding the nems last so everyone else is full or busy eating to be concerned with the nems. Good luck with the shrimp as they can be annoying little pests at times.