Anemone Feeding

[Nigel35]

I've heard mixed opinions regarding feeding anemones. I feed my nems only on occasion and believe they can benefit from meatier foods. However, I would love to hear your guy's thoughts on this subject. Thanks.

Nigel

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

No harm in doing it or not doing it. Just make sure your parameters are right and light is adequate and you should be good

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

I’m sure there are benefits to doing it but I don’t think it would be detrimental to not.

 

[Dolphins18]

I've heard mixed opinions regarding feeding anemones. I feed my nems only on occasion and believe they can benefit from meatier foods. However, I would love to hear your guy's thoughts on this subject. Thanks.

Nigel

Never feed them chunky foods directly, just because they can eat them does not mean they should. I have not fed nems directly in over 10 years - though they do get a lot of the fine small food from the water column as they position themselves in flow.
I wish advice was not given to feed these animals large chunks of food!

 

[old salt reefer]

I don't think I should have to, but they evolved with a mouth to eat and poop out of as well tentacles with stinging cells to capture prey and eat it. So I feed mine(as well as my LPS corals) 2 to 3 times a week---all are still alive and growing. And I feed big meaty chunks of LRS nano frozen food.

 

[Ghost25]

They love meaty food. I used to feed my bubble tips whole frozen anchovy. I don't anymore mainly because I have a smaller tank now and I don't want it to grow and split all the time.

I still target feed my rock flowers with LRS Reef Frenzy and they love it.

 

[DKPminus]

Once a week I thaw some various frozen shrimp cubes and squirt a little directly into each anemone with a turkey baster. Seems to work well.

 

[tehmadreefer]

Most of their food comes from “light” but every so often a meaty treat won’t hurt. Like once a month

 

[Poof No Eyebrows]

I feed mine about twice a week. Usually a mixture of mysis and squid. I do not give them much. They also get a healthy amount of fish eggs that I broadcast feed the entire tank every now and then.

 

[Dolphins18]

Most anemones are incredibly sticky - picking up much food when you feed your fish, as they typically will move themselves into an area that receives high flow and small pieces of food.

Attached are a few photos of my babies over the years, different tanks and different looking nems - all from the same place. Warfare with other nems started the sexual reproduction (among other things) - warfare again could easily end it so I stay careful. These guys haven't been fed directly in 10-15 years

 

[outhouse]

same here, have not fed in 15 years and started with one 25 years ago, and now I have over 130 rbta

 

[PeterEde]

I don't think I should have to, but they evolved with a mouth to eat and poop out of as well tentacles with stinging cells to capture prey and eat it. So I feed mine(as well as my LPS corals) 2 to 3 times a week---all are still alive and growing. And I feed big meaty chunks of LRS nano frozen food.

Seems somewhat cruel to me not to feed them.

 

[Intense37754]

Seems somewhat cruel to me not to feed them.

Old thread but it doesn’t hurt to feed very small bits of food once a week and not silversides, besides catching food themselves the clownfish makes sure they are well fed

 

[PeterEde]

Old thread but it doesn’t hurt to feed very small bits of food once a week and not silversides, besides catching food themselves the clownfish makes sure they are well fed

feeding land based meat to a marine animal seems out of place to me.
My state has banned using land based animal as crab bait for crab pots.

 

[CanuckReefer]

Seems somewhat cruel to me not to feed them.

It takes a lot of their energy to feed, so as @Intense37754 alludes to, keep it chopped up and smaller doses imo. You will have wildly different opinions on whether or not to feed them. I am in the feed camp, but do so fairly sparingly, and give small pieces every 10 days or so.

 

[CanuckReefer]

feeding land based meat to a marine animal seems out of place to me.
My state has banned using land based animal as crab bait for crab pots.

Oh no! Did someone say feed them land based food???? I hope not lol....

 

[Intense37754]

Oh no! Did someone say feed them land based food???? I hope not lol....

Chicken!!!

 

[CanuckReefer]

Seems somewhat cruel to me not to feed them.

Another thing Peter.... do you feed live phytoplankton to any of your inhabitants? I do and I often concentrate on the Nem here. They'll be a few that disagree with me ,but in my experience it keeps the zoo's within the Nem very happy. This is the symbiotic relationship. Since dosing about a year ago, my Nem has grown exponentially. Almost at the point of outgrowing my tank. Just 'food for thought '

 

[Intense37754]

I’m in both camps lol
I’ll go weeks without feeding and then I’ll chop up small pieces of krill, clams, squid. It’s a chore feeding all our nems

 

[PeterEde]

Another thing Peter.... do you feed live phytoplankton to any of your inhabitants? I do and I often concentrate on the Nem here. They'll be a few that disagree with me ,but in my experience it keeps the zoo's within the Nem very happy. This is the symbiotic relationship. Since dosing about a year ago, my Nem has grown exponentially. Almost at the point of outgrowing my tank. Just 'food for thought '

I expect if I manage to keep it alive it will out grow my tank fast