Tropical Fish Forums

[NOAH]

I was reading dales artcile on filtration and he mentioned selective feeding of coral,polyps & anenomes.what do these creatures eat? mainly the anenomes are in question.In the wild these would prey on small fish and other creatures caught in there tentacles correct? what is avalable to us as hobbiest and what is best that may not be readily available to feed them?
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simplicity works best with a little patience

[dale]

Hi Noah.

I suggested "targeted feeding" which has more to do with how you feed your livestock than with what you feed it. Targeted feeding means directing food right at the livestock with prongs, eye droppers etc... Maximum digestion with minimum waste in order to keep the the water column as nutrient free as possible.

I'm not sure on the anenome question. Hopefully someone with more direct experience will chip in. For my mushrooms, GSP's zoo's, coco worms, feather dusters and other softies etc... I dose with live phytoplankton, live rotifers and the occasional mysis bits. I also add vitamin/amino acids and calcium. Oh, and some light!
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Intelligence is not having all the answers; it's knowing how to think!

[FloridaBoy]

Noah, the problem with anemones is, one expert says one thing and another expert says something else... the fact is, there simply isn't a lot of long term success for many species.

For the purposes of this discussion I will limit my suggestions to the Bubble Tip (Entacmaea quadricolor) as this is the only host anemone I can suggest attempting by most hobbyists, and I do not support the trade of Heteractis varieties or Ritteri (H. magnifica), Sebae (H. crispa), Long Tentacle (H. malu), Giant Carpet (S. gigantia), etc.

Bubble Tips can be maintained on a steady diet of rotating chunked shrimp, scallops, and clams as well as frozen feeds like Formula One.
Please read Jim Black's excellent article here for more details:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/inverts/cnidaria/anthozoa/bubbletipanemones.htm
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Keepin' marines happy for 25 years

[NOAH]

you responses have anwsered my qustions and pointed my reseach in the direction it needs to go. hopefully my set up of my own reef tank will go smoothly.
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simplicity works best with a little patience

[djchristone]

target feeding is best achieved when you turn off your power heads so there's no water movement if you have mean fish or inverts that will steal from your corals, use a cut up 2 liter bottle top to cover the coral while it eats

and dale, no offense but I disagree. some light? no. corals need a helluva a lot of light ESPECIALLY anemones! noah, if you do not plan to get a mh lighting system, DO NOT get a nem. you'll only kill it. they need incredibly high lighting and also need to be fed. not your beginner reefer's coral/invert but no really, if nems only needed feeding, then they wouldn't die so easily

also, the smallest nems grow up to 10 inches I believe. is your tank large enough to support such a creature? and remember it WILL move around and sting things in it's way. there's a lot more to think about than just feeding it.

one last thing, don't consider the wpg (watt per gallon) rule to keeping nems. it's really useless. consider only how tall your tank is and how much light is getting diffused into the lowest parts of the tank. people generally say 8-10wpg for nems but once again, this rule is pretty much useless like the inches of fish per gallon rule.
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MY FISH IS BETTER THAN YOUR FISH!!!!!

[dale]

Djchristone,

You either need to read properly or to stop being purposefully argumentative.

If you actually reread my reply and the thread in general, I stated I wasn't addressing the needs of anemones so.. unless you are disagreeing with the fact that I don't have an opinion your statement doesn't make any sense. As well, no one suggested anemones didn't need adequate lighting.
I also stated that I was describing the feeding regime of my livestock. Of the other species mentioned, two are inverts and need no light, the rest are moderate light corals. Do you disagree with the way I feed my livestock or are you suggesting I need "a helluva lot" of light for my featherdusters?

Contrary to faddish popular opinion - not all corals need high light. Some do well in low light, some do well in moderate light and some do well in high light. This primarily has to do with the positions and depths they are found, on the reefs and the nutrient acquiring strategies they have developed. It is best to speak in specifics and from our own personal experience - and to research the needs of all livestock.
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Intelligence is not having all the answers; it's knowing how to think!

[djchristone]

ah indeed you weren't and no I was not being argumentative on purpose and it may have seemed so because when you stated "Oh, and some light!", it sounded like you barely needed any lights whatsoever.

nevertheless, any coral can be acclimated to any amount of high lighting. generally, this also allows for a coral to grow much more and much faster or expand faster. this is why people even have metal halide lighting over 3 gal pico tanks and what not. indeed for your tank you don't need too much light unless of course, it's a tall tank.

anyway, back to the nem. at n-r.com, I don't think I've ever seen a successful nem being kept under anything else tahn mh. also cover your intake and power head. tentacles can get sucked in. make sure you don't have anything that can also hurt/kill nems. any nems can be fed anything really. I believe someone on this forums uses black mollies since they are a brackish fish who have no idea what nems are. if you prefer not to use feeder fish, then silversides would work well too. either way, I wouldn't suggest a nem if you just want to try it out. please only get a nem if you're serious about it. nems live in the wild for hundreds of years and many meet a horrible fate in reef tanks due to inadequate conditions.
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MY FISH IS BETTER THAN YOUR FISH!!!!!