Feeding Anemones

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3geclipse86

Guest
How often should you feed an Anemone. The guy at the store that I bought it gave me krill for it. He said about every 3 days. I just wanted to get a few more opinions, thanks.
 

kirkland

Member
Originally Posted by 3geclipse86
http:///forum/post/2626167
How often should you feed an Anemone. The guy at the store that I bought it gave me krill for it. He said about every 3 days. I just wanted to get a few more opinions, thanks.
that sounds about right if you don't have clownfish bringing it food. in my experience, if you feed anemones food that is chopped up instead of something like whole krill, they don't ever spit out stringy stuff. i could just be lucky with the 2 anemones i've had over the past year though.
 
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3geclipse86

Guest
yea, i cut about half a krill up yesterday and kinda layed it right in the middle of the anemone. At first it didn't do anything then it balled up. Not to get off topic, but when I came home from work today 1 of my clowns is like taking teritory by the anemone and kinda holding the other 1 in the corner of my tank. They were both playing in it yesterday?
 

lexluethar

Active Member
The clowns are displaying dominance and one will become the dominant female.
As for the anemone, with proper lighting (MH/T5) feeding is not necessary. I haven't fed my BTA for about a month and it has grown quite a bit. If you must give it supplimental feedings feed it about once a week, small pieces of food no larger than its mouth. I usually feed mine pieces of silver sides or raw shrimp. Just place the food near or on its tenticles and allow it to grasp the food and draw it towards its mouth. Do not place it on the body or mouth of the anemone, b/c if it isn't hungry or doesn't like the food it will shrivle up in defense and become stressed.
 
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3geclipse86

Guest
I see. I have a coralite fixture that's putting out 135W. one bulb is the actinic and the other one I left it alone. Am I running enough light?
 

perfectdark

Active Member
Originally Posted by 3geclipse86
http:///forum/post/2626788
I see. I have a coralite fixture that's putting out 135W. one bulb is the actinic and the other one I left it alone. Am I running enough light?
PC Lighting right? 36 Gal? Is this a bow front tank? If so then no IMO it is not enough light, and you would need to feed your anem to help sustain it. Couple times a week I would offer it small pieces of food no larger than its mouth, perhaps soak it in selcon or superselco. The added omega 3 acids and vitamins will help.
 
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3geclipse86

Guest
I do have a bow front. What do you mean by PC lighting? I bought some krill to feed it. I fed it 2 day's ago. What is selcon or superselco, omega 3 acids and where can I get it?
 

perfectdark

Active Member
Originally Posted by 3geclipse86
http:///forum/post/2627028
I do have a bow front. What do you mean by PC lighting? I bought some krill to feed it. I fed it 2 day's ago. What is selcon or superselco, omega 3 acids and where can I get it?
PC lighting is Power compact lighting. Basically a flourescent tube that is u shaped with a straight pin connection or a square pin connection. PC lighting is basically the same as std tube flourescent. The benifit of it is that it can hold more wattage in a given area. However it doesnt mean they are more intense.
For long term health for your anemone you will need to upgrade your lighting. In depth explaination of the differences are lengthy however as a general guideline watts is a term often used when referring to the amount of lighting needed. However it is incorrect to use this term alone as it is only 1 of 3 important factors needed to know when determining the correct lighting for your tank. The other 2 are height of tank and the type of bulb in question. PC lighting has its uses but for higher light demanding invertabrates they have major drawbacks. They are not as efficient as other available options are, and replacement wise are more expensive in the long run. Your other options are HO T5 lights, AKA Hight Output T5's or Metal Halide. T5 lighting is the most difficult to get a handle on IMO. The reason is your options there are a lot of them. This is a bulb that looks like any other flourescent light, except for its diameter. Its 5/8 of an inch in dia. its a higher out put bulb which means it produces more lumens per watt than std flourescent or PC lights. And now the tricky part. Alone in comparason to PC lighting HO T5's are not worlds apart from eachother. But manufactures utilize the small diameter bulb to their advantage. They now have room to place individual reflectors over each bulb, this takes any light that would normally be wasted to now be directed down into your tank. Coupled with the HO bulb makes T5's worlds apart from PC or std floures. lights. There are lots more benifits, options etc available for T5's, than PC's can offer too. Options vary, depending on how much you want to spend, typically the quality of the fixture will follow suit. If you have the $$ you can buy a high end HO-T5 fixture EG. An Aquatinics fixture with individual parabolic german reflectors, over driven ballast and high end bulbs, this set up in many peoples opinion rival that of Metal Halide. Or for a more economical fixture current USA has a number of HO T5 fixtures available which are still good but have slightly more limitations. Tank height being number 1, but still far superior to PC or std flourescent. Last option is Metal Halide arguably the most intense light offered. Many options available, and as to what you can keep. Well if you have the proper wattage for the size tank you have, then the sky's the limit. There is much more detail involving these lights, type, wattage, par, lumens, etc etc... but hopfully you get the jist. HTH.
As for supplements, Selcon and Superselco are additives that contain omega 3 fatty acids and vitamins to help boost the immune system of your tank inhabitants. This will help keep your anemone as healthy for a while. But it is not a long term solution, correcting your lighting is important. Good Luck.
 
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3geclipse86

Guest
Thanks for the explanation, it's going to take me a little bit to register what you wrote. I do have PC lighting right now and it's pushing 130W. Now I just gotta measure the light fixture I have so I can find a T5. O yea another question, how do you determine the amount of wattage per gallon?
 

lexluethar

Active Member
Total watts divided by gallons - which is a horrible way of determining what is and is not adequate. Just make sure you have the proper lighting (T5 or MH) and you should be safe (assuming you aren't putting something rediculous on the tank like a 75 watt MH pendant on a 150 gallon tank.
 

perfectdark

Active Member
Originally Posted by LexLuethar
http:///forum/post/2627534
Total watts divided by gallons - which is a horrible way of determining what is and is not adequate. Just make sure you have the proper lighting (T5 or MH) and you should be safe (assuming you aren't putting something rediculous on the tank like a 75 watt MH pendant on a 150 gallon tank.
In order to use the watts per gallon theory, you first need to establish what I have explained above. So, now you know what type of lighting you are going to need for the inhabitants you want to keep, and the height of your tank. Now is when you want to determine the correct amount of wattage for your set up. In your specific application your tank is 22" tall 36 gal bow. So, for higher light demanding corals and anemones, I would recomend nothing less than HO-T5's and in the area of 5 to 7 watts per gallon.
My 36gal bow is going to have a 250 watt Metal Halide light above it, a bit over 7 watts per gal. But the bulb type is intense enough to keep what ever I want happy no matter where I put it in my tank.
 
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3geclipse86

Guest
My fixture right now is 30 inches and is just about as long as the tank across. How long is your halide?
 

perfectdark

Active Member
Originally Posted by 3geclipse86
http:///forum/post/2627749
My fixture right now is 30 inches and is just about as long as the tank across. How long is your halide?
My Halide fixture for the 36 gal is 30" long, the light itself is a double ended 14K 250 watt bulb that is about 5 to 6" long, but a metal halide bulb will sufficiently light a 24x24" tank area. This doesnt mean the 6" left are dark they are just not as bright. So less light demanding corals can be placed there.
 
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3geclipse86

Guest
Where did you get your fixture at? All I've really seen were fixtures that were 36-48inches. If I can find a 30inch that would be great.
 
sunpod fixtures are very good. i love mine (2x 150). its 48 inches and on my 55. i also love the moonlights, which some people say will help in clownfish breeding if your interested in that. the moonlights also relax the fish more since they can see a little (its not pitch black at night in the ocean). either way, current MH fixtures are very good IMO.
 
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3geclipse86

Guest
Originally Posted by PerfectDark
http:///forum/post/2628175
google current usa. sund dial t5s come in a 30" and their sunpod mh comes in a 30" either 150 or 250
I looked at that sundial and the wattage was really low on them. I think it was like 4x24. My mistake, I just looked up sunpods. Would I be ok with 250Watts, if so I'm going to buy it. The price seems resonable.
 
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