GS Maroon Clown taking away anemone food

[slammy16]

It seems everytime i try to feed my LTA a piece of krill or silversides my GSM clown will come in and take the food in his mouth and spit it out. Is this common ? Does he know better than i about when and what to feed a aneomne.. I have fed my anemone these things before, just lately the clown has been doing this.

 

[thegrog]

Try feeding the clown first so it is full.
If that does not work you could try feeding the clown its normal food, then a full cube of brine shrimp to fill it up. Brine has little nutritional value and won't load your tank too much with excess nutrients....but it will fill them up quickly.
If that fails, you may have to try guarding the anemone until food is safely inside.
As to why, I really don't know. Clownfish do funny things....thus their name!

 

[jacob_poly]

I hate my clowns for exactly this reason. When I upgrade I will be getting rid of my clowns. They look cute but are a big pain. The feeding problem is exacerbated if your anemone is weak and takes too long to eat. My BTAs are fast eaters and so just keeping the clown away with a food prong for 5 minutes works. My LTA though eats real slow. And sometimes I have to keep the clown away for a good half an hour or more before my LTA is done. My clown sometimes even forces its head into my anemones mouth to try and get the food out. I was on the verge of having him for dinner yesterday with the frustrations its giving me. Its really a lot of effort having to stand with a prong in hand for 30 minutes at a time because of a greedy clown. Clownfish are not funny or cute anymore to me.....

 

[slammy16]

ya thats what he did today.. I stuck a small piece of krill down on top of my LTA's mouth and the clown come over and took it right out he had to dig down in there to do so. thanks for the advice i will try it out.

 

[jacob_poly]

though dont put food directly into the mouth of the anemone. Put it on a tentacle thats close to teh mouth and it should move it towards its mouth by itself. As your LTA gains strength though it will eventually take lesser and lesser time to eat. Dont overfeed it though. Good Luck and keep us posted.

 

[slammy16]

well i put the food close to its mouth then fed the clown he seemed pre-occupied with eating so he didnt bother it to much. When he did go and inspect what the anemone had i would put my hand close to the glass and he would pay attention to my hand instead of the food. IT worked this time so hopefully it wont be this complicated in the future.
Thanks