Do you feed you BTA?

[Privateer]

I recently acquired a GBTA and was wondering if people feed them regularly, and if so, how often and what do you give them? I read an article is Coral about feeding them every day and a huge amount, but I though they were photosynthetic. I have pretty good lighting (DIY LED) but I guess that might not be enough.
Any input would be appreciated.

 

[mchartier]

Never feed mine directly, they can catch what ever floats by them. The 2 reasons why I would feed an anemone is 1 - its bleached and the feeding will help it heal. 2- Its too small and the clowns are beating it up too much, by feeding it the BTA will add mass quicker.

 

[MrX]

I rarely fed the Rose nem I had previously... every once in a while I'd squirt some fish goo it's way. Between that, what the hosting clowns brought it, and the light it was doing well.

The 8 nems I have in the 40B now (I know, crazy, they all came with the tank except for the maxi-mini) I spot feed Krill pellets every other day just because they weren't looking so hot when I got them. Two or three are baby ones also so I'm trying to bulk them up.

By the time my new Reef Breeder Photon24 gets here next week and I have better lighting I'll probably reduce their direct feedings.

Heard some people feed theirs pieces of mysis, shrimp, silversides, etc.

 

[GobyWanKenobie]

Once a week I spot feed mine just as a treat. Sometimes I even give them a piece of frozen mysis. By the time it reaches the mouth, it's usually defrosted and the tenticles have caught all the meat. They seem to like it.

 

[higorc]

Never feed mine directly, they can catch what ever floats by them. The 2 reasons why I would feed an anemone is 1 - its bleached and the feeding will help it heal. 2- Its too small and the clowns are beating it up too much, by feeding it the BTA will add mass quicker.

100% Agree with this. I fed my first BTA all the time and eventually regreted it dearly...It grew to almost 12" and started killing everything around it and there was nothing I could do. I moved the corals I could, but I wasn't able to detach the BTA (tried everything u can imagine short of killing it) and it eventually killed 3 Monti caps, cleaned out some softies around it and a few acros.

It was easily 10" before it split. The place where she lived for this entire time looked like where a bomb went off in a war zone!!! SPS and Caps skeletons and more than
"half" dead soft corals pieces.

Lesson learned. DON'T FEED ANEMONES ON A DAILY/FREQUENT BASIS unless you have a lot of space for them to grow. In my experience and from what I read after that, anemones will grow a LOT instead of splitting if fed frequently. As a matter of fact, I tried keeping anemones once after that and gave up. My always grew too much or moved and killed other corals.

This is not the rule, just my past experiences...

Good luck
Higor

 

[SteveDola]

never feed directly unless you want ginormous anemones like higorc said. theyll eventually split but my dads tank has a 15" RBTA that just keeps growing and splitting. after while its just too much unless you like that kind of thing. I have seen jims old anemone/clownfish tank which was all RBTAs and like 50 sm to baby clowns...totally awesome to watch.

 

[mchartier]

Heard some people feed theirs pieces of mysis, shrimp, silversides, etc.

Also if you do decide to feed it, try not to use silversides. They spoil easily and have killed others anemones. The frozen fish food we use do not have the same regulations as human seafood, so if you do feed it I suggest going to a market and just pick up some fresh seafood and use that; raw shrimp, scallops, salmon, squid will be taken very well by any anemone.

 

[Oceangirl2009]

I've never fed mine, and it's doubled in size over the last year, no splits though.

 

[higorc]

I've never fed mine, and it's doubled in size over the last year, no splits though.

That's normal. If they are very comfortable, they grow a lot before they split. It you want it to split, make it uncomfortable or just do the dirty work yourself. Cut it with a very sharp pair of scissors right down the middle of the mouth and let them heal up. Done it twice with no issues.

Higor

 

[Privateer]

Thanks everyone, I have noticed that it has been growing a bit in the month or so since I got it (at the auction). So I will stop feeding it directly. One of my concerns was that the tips are not "bubbled" so I thought that it might not have enough energy (food), but the extra food hasn't done anything to remedy that.

 

[MrX]

Thanks everyone, I have noticed that it has been growing a bit in the month or so since I got it (at the auction). So I will stop feeding it directly. One of my concerns was that the tips are not "bubbled" so I thought that it might not have enough energy (food), but the extra food hasn't done anything to remedy that.

My first nem was sold to me as a RBTA but I think it was just a RA (not 100% sure if there is a difference), but it never "bubbled". It was still cool though.

The nems I have now are all over the place in that regards: 1 is constantly bubbled, 1 does it sometimes, the two baby ones look like they are forming bubbles/tentacles. For some reason my flower, tube, and mini never bubble.

 

[higorc]

Not all BTAs bubble 100% of the time. It's normal for them not to bubble. I think they only bubble under ALOT of light.

Higor

 

[mchartier]

No one really knows what makes their tips bubble or not. There are a lot of hypothesis that it is flow, light, or feeding, but nothing has been proven. I have had clones of the same BTA that never moved after they split so it looked like one anemone viewing from the front but from the top you could see it was 4-5. Some bubbled some did, some never had them including my original.

 

[Bettencourt]

I feed mine pieces of scallops or clams from the fish market. I feed a couple of times a week. One has now split into 6.

 

[Ragingcows]

Rarely feed my 2, maybe once a month if that. When I do they usually get raw shrimp that's cut into small chunks. My maroon clown usually assists with the feeding by grabing the shrimp and dropping it close to the nems mouth. Whenever company is over they love to watch the show.