Do anemones prefer Reef roids?

[AnandBT]

Hi All,

 

Post researching i came to an understanding that majority of the aquarist feed in meaty food like prawns or shrimps to their anemones. However, I did come across a few folks who use reef roid for feeding their anemone.

 

Two points to undestand:

 

1. Can an anemone be kept healthy with a pure reef roid diet?

2. Since I generally have mealworms and goldfishes always in stock for my arowana, can I feed the anemone mealworms and goldfish?

 

[pokerdobe]

If you're talking about bubble tips, you can skip the feedings altogether. They'll do fine without the supplementary food. 

[seabass]

I was just going to post that you don't necessarily have to supplement a rock flower anemone, but you probably should feed a BTA at least once a week.

 

Reef Roids might be suitable for baby RFAs, but something more substantial should be fed for larger anemones.  Something like mysis shrimp (or other frozen foods) is ideal.  However, even flake food can also be used.

[Tired]

Please avoid using live fish as food, whenever possible. It's more humane to pre-kill them. Also, don't feed freshwater or terrestrial organisms to saltwater creatures.

And I think there's a concern with fatty liver disease when feeding goldfish to predatory fish? I've never kept something that would only eat live fish, so I don't remember for sure, but I could swear there was a reason you're not supposed to use goldfish as food. 

 

Anemones in some tanks do fine without additional food. It depends on if they catch enough food bits from when the rest of the tank is fed. 

 

I give reef roids to my RFAs sometimes. They get very excited, at least as anemone excitement goes, about the smell. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work as an exclusive diet, but that might get expensive with a big anemone. And I'm not sure it would offer any notable benefits, Big ones might also have a hard time getting the roids to their mouth, since it's a fine powder. They aren't really made to catch a whole swarm of plankton at once, after all- they do better with a single chunk of food to engulf.

[Clown79]

I gave reef roids to my rfa's once in a while, my bta's I gave them mysis  once a week, they often caught the fishes food and ate that otherwise.

[DISQUALIFIED-QQ]

I'm feeding my mini carpet reef roids and frozen coral foods. It's an optional thing, but I like the idea of having a big anemone that actually fits in the confines of a 20 long.

[AnandBT]

Thanks for all the inputs. However, I have always been fascinated to keep a bubble tip anemone and watch my picasso pair host it. However, feeding it with prawns or shrimp meat is a problem for me considering the vegan background. I am absolutely fine to feed it reef roids. However, I am unsure if a reef roid only diet would suffice along with the Hikari Marine S that I feed my other fishes in the tank(That the anemone might be able to grasp). Lighting wise I don't think I should have an issue as I presently have a Radion XR30 on a 55 gallon 36*18*18 (in inches)

 

Seeking some direction if getting an anemone with such feeding limitations is possible. I just don't want to kill it with some feeding restrictions; rather I would not keep it.

 

 

[seabass]

48 minutes ago, AnandBT said:

However, feeding it with prawns or shrimp meat is a problem for me considering the vegan background.

I assume it's the look of the shrimp, as Reef Roids and Hikari Marine S are animal products too.  I've witnessed BTAs expelling undissolved hard pellets (which were previously eaten), so I try to feed them something more easily digested.  As I stated earlier (if you are looking for something indistinguishable), I've found flake food to be well accepted, while not containing distinguishable animal parts.

[AnandBT]

Any suggestions for the flake food? 

[seabass]

I use the Ocean Nutrition line of flake foods (most of them would be fine).  I stir it in some water, then use a feeding pipette (or turkey baster) to place the food on the tentacles.

[hinnenkm]

I feed my btas reef roids and they happily accept it.... shouldn't be a problem at all. They do benefit from additional food they catch when I feed my fish, but ultimately are photosynthetic and that's where the majority of their energy comes from 🙂

[Matteo]

I feed my BTAs reef frenzy seriously like 2-3 times a week. Overkill? Probably but they get huge and my main rainbow has already split three times and made me some cash 😎

 

You don't need to feed that often by any means but Reef Frenzy is the best nem food IMO. 

[Tired]

All suitable feeds for your anemone (and for basically all saltwater fish) are going to be made out of fish and crustaceans. If you just want to avoid the look of it, flake food is probably a good try. Or you could have someone chop up some big shrimp into un-animal-like pieces. 

[Tamberav]

I don't feed mine at all. Sometimes my clownfish will though.

 

You could buy larger pellets or flake. They all contain animal products though as most fish need that to remain healthy. It's a fish eat fish world.

 

[mcarroll]

On 8/8/2020 at 12:51 PM, AnandBT said:

Hi All,

 

Post researching i came to an understanding that majority of the aquarist feed in meaty food like prawns or shrimps to their anemones. However, I did come across a few folks who use reef roid for feeding their anemone.

 

Two points to undestand:

 

1. Can an anemone be kept healthy with a pure reef roid diet?

2. Since I generally have mealworms and goldfishes always in stock for my arowana, can I feed the anemone mealworms and goldfish?

 

Unless you're keeping an unusual tank, you shouldn't have to feed them directly at all – they are photosynthetic polyps just like corals after all. 

 

Feed your fish well and that's all is should really take in terms of nutrient input.  Fish excrete, almost like clockwork, near-perfect liquid and particulate coral food.

 

If there is any "catch" with anemones vs corals, it's the anemone's humongous polyp mass.  

 

An animal that size does have serious demands for nutrients, including dissolved nutrients like nitrates and phosphates, even compared with most corals.  As long as the tank is healthy, that should only be a difference of growth rate not base-health though.  Anemones are subject to more or less the same nutrient deficiencies as other soft, photosynthetic coral.

 

IMO most folks feed their anemones just because the act of seeing them eat is cool.  So you can do it for that reason too....but doing so even if you didn't want to would be succumbing to peer pressure.  So feed your fish and don't worry about the anemone after that, IMO.

 

That's the bottom line, but some more thoughts...

 

On 8/9/2020 at 3:51 AM, AnandBT said:

However, feeding it with prawns or shrimp meat is a problem for me considering the vegan background.

Herbivores abound on the reef...but they tend to be migratory and on the larger side in many instances (tangs, parrotfish, etc)....or they tend to be snails.

 

There aren't too many other non-meat eaters on a reef.  (Virtually everything loves to eat plankton.)

 

For example...

 

All photosynthetic corals are genetically descended from deep-water carnivores (planktivores, generally) but through adaptation and evolution happen to utilize dinoflagellates (Symbiodinium) to gain the benefit of their photosynthetic abilities...also eventually consuming those dino's (among many other microbes) in the process.

 

This makes the photosynthetic coral – when fully considered with its supporting community of microbes – a hybrid consumer-AND-primary producer.  Very efficient!

 

There are still groups of ancient deep-sea corals today (e.g. Lophelia) that are uninfected by photosynthetic dino's and so are still more or less pure carnivores. 

 

Opportunistic herbivores that might be thought of as mirroring our vegetarian or vegan patterns are around too....of these, hermit crabs are probably the most well-known to us.  In certain tanks hermits seem to eat nothing but algae, but they aren't especially built for it....and in general they are not herbivores, but carrion scavengers with strong tendencies toward opportunistic omnivory.  (I.e. a strong survival instinct)  

 

Several fish thought of as herbivores are more like this as well..including Tangs, which consume not only the algae but all its epifauna, and especially Parrotfish, which consume the algae, its epifauna AND the entire benthic substrate along with everything growing on and in it!  

 

Crunchy!!  

 

Obligate herbivores....critters that almost eat nothing but algae, such as Turbo snails...are actually on the rare side among the larger group of herbivores who also have other modes of nutrition, whether alternate or complementary.

 

Most dino's that aren't symbiotic seem to have dual feeding strategies....even dino's that have traditionally been thought of as only photosynthetic or only phagotrophic.  Seems like most are now considered "mixotrophic".

[Softytankdieing]

Can someone give me a good light schedual for my BTA every one I try the shrivel up a little more and more . The aquarium store says it’s because my water is to clean but I don’t know . I have a 40 gallon breeder with one  Al prime 16 “ light maybe 4 inches off the surface . Someone help 

[seabass]

Welcome to Nano-Reef.com Softytankdieing.

 

It's hard to say from this limited information (new tank? new anemone? new light?).  If it is reacting negatively to your light at normal intensity, maybe you need to acclimate it.  Generally that means using a low setting and increasing it by 5% a week until you reach your preferred setting (acclimating your anemone to a higher light intensity).

 

BTAs usually do well in a mature aquarium with moderate to high lighting.  They should also be fed once or twice a week.

 

12 hours ago, Softytankdieing said:

The aquarium store says it’s because my water is to clean but I don’t know .

What are your tank's phosphate and nitrate levels?  I'd recommend a phosphate level of at least around 0.05 ppm and nitrate of at least around 5 ppm.

[Tamberav]

15 hours ago, Softytankdieing said:

Can someone give me a good light schedual for my BTA every one I try the shrivel up a little more and more . The aquarium store says it’s because my water is to clean but I don’t know . I have a 40 gallon breeder with one  Al prime 16 “ light maybe 4 inches off the surface . Someone help 

A full tank shot and list of parameters would help us diagnose the problem too. 

[CarolinaShoreReef]

My BTAs all thrived with frequent krill feedings. Started growing/splitting like weeds. 

[Tired]

If you're having problems with soft corals and anemones dying, and the LFS says your water is too clean, probably your water is too clean. They need to absorb nutrients from the water, so if you have no nutrients in the water, they'll die. You should aim for no less than 5ppm nitrates and 0.03ppm phosphates, and for soft corals, higher than that is probably better.