double saddleback.. letting them eat anenomes?

[adee]

Is it inhumane to get an anemone for a butterfly to eat? Will they really feast on it or more of a picking till its gone.. it sounds sooo wrong, i was curious what everyones thoughts were on the subject. From internet searching I have found they eat them and a meaty diet...
what would you feed one?

 

[valgae]

inhumane no? not too smart? yes. in the ocean they may pick or eat an anemone. what if they do enough damage to kill it? in your tank a dying anemone could wipe your tank out. give some clams.

 

[crypt keeper]

clams. mysis. some live brine shrimp. not a anemone. You have money like that to roll around lol

 

[adee]

Originally Posted by VALgae
http:///forum/post/2961336
inhumane no? not too smart? yes. in the ocean they may pick or eat an anemone. what if they do enough damage to kill it? in your tank a dying anemone could wipe your tank out. give some clams.
thank you.. i dont know why i didnt think about it wiping the tank out. duh!

Originally Posted by crypt keeper
http:///forum/post/2961388
clams. mysis. some live brine shrimp. not a anemone. You have money like that to roll around lol
no, not that i have money like that but an anemone is what $9? (they are around here for small ones) so i figured maybe one a month wouldnt be bad and feed mysis and shrimp.
Thanks you two

 

[sean48183]

how big is your tank? Big enough tank wouldn't be wiped out. I have a 150g and lost 2 condy's. Good skimmer and you should be fine. Nothing wrong with a little natural food.

 

[crypt keeper]

She has 125 with a decent skimmer. I dont know. I agree with the natural food source but at what cost do you allow the risk?

 

[saltn00b]

go to a LFS that sells live brine. this will get them to start eating. step away or even out of the room. after the first day eating that, start mixing in mysid shrimp with the brine, raising the %s every time, until you are not adding brine at all. works everytime.

 

[adee]

no, if there is a risk i would just rather not do it. I have no problem feeding it alternatives. I just didnt know what the "rule of thumb" was to feeding them.

 

[sean48183]

Well IMO with a 125 and a decent skimmer there is very little chance of tank wipe out. And I am assuming she does not have any real sensitive corals in her tank since she has a butterfly in it. I have not kept butterflies but I would think that if they do not get natural diet which is corals and anenomes they will start to look pretty shabby after a years time or so. It is the equivalent of not giving tangs veggies and large angels sponge. Sooner or later they will get sick. A cheap condy would probably go along way towards keeping the butterfly healthy. Heck if the lighting is right and fed enough it might stay alive and still provide food.

 

[adee]

hmm... interesting. I would love to hear more info on it. Where can I get clams to feed? Ill look up the condy now.

 

[adee]

ok so i picked up an anemone and i feel really guilty for it lol.. we did a freshwater dip and stuck it into our QT tank with the intentions of leaving it in there for a couple days but the water is SO COLD down there it shriveled up so i threw it into the big tank and my butterfly went for it immediately. after a few minutes of picking on it the butterfly has left it alone for now.. but at least if nothing else i got some neat pictures...

my yellow tang seems to think it looks like a pretty good idea...

its really interesting watching the anemone move away from the fish...

 

[sean48183]

Why didn't you heat the qt tank? Condy's can handle relatively cool temps. Have seen them in the bahamas in february when the water temp is around 70 degrees. Pics would be cool.

 

[adee]

Originally Posted by sean48183
http:///forum/post/2962983
Why didn't you heat the qt tank? Condy's can handle relatively cool temps. Have seen them in the bahamas in february when the water temp is around 70 degrees. Pics would be cool.
we need to get a heater for it.. honestly everyone here is sick and i wasnt about to run back out and get one..
how will i know when to remove it assuming the butterfly does make a meal out of it? are we talking days, hours, weeks, month? and thats assuming the butterfly doesnt just sit there and peck at it (its already leaving it alone for the most part, it just goes over every little bit to annoy it)

 

[adee]

ok, well that was a bust.. the anemone is hiding under a rock.. its moving ever so slowly to get out of "pecking" sight.. we will see what happens.