Need advice on feeding large sebae anemone "my clowns are pigs and stealing food"

[synyster11]

Ok, I went to ***** with no intention on buying anything... Ending up coming home a very large sebae and a Ritteri long tentacle. These were two of the best looking ones I have ever seen in a pet store and ***** had not had time to kill them yet which is very sad. The second I released them into the tank my 2 very large sebae clowns took two both of them. There were going bonkers over them. Well, here is my question. I am feeding them zooplankton, brine, mysis, chopped krill. This is basically the same thing I feed my clowns. So my clowns end up going bonkers and knocking all the food out of the anemones tentacles and eating it. They feed the anemone some krill but it really does not seem to even like it. How should I feed these guys. Because the clowns are ALWAYS in the anemone it is not getting much food. And keep in mind these anemone's are very large so I do not know how much food is enough with my lighting "440w VHO" Any tips would be great!!! I herd most clowns feed the anemone much more so I guess mine are pigs. Thank you
The tank
75g
100lbs of LR
440w VHO
Seaclone 150
lots of inverts
Mated pair of Sebae Clowns
pair of firefish
Here is a pic the sebae with one of my 4" sebae clowns.

 

[jpribelin]

Ive got a 8" diameter sebae anemone with a sebae clownfish that is a pig too. I went 8 months without even worring about feeding my anemone and had 440w VHO and he grew about 3" in diameter. About three months my LFS told me to feed it Krill. My clownfish eats everything i throw in there. To try and get something to my anemone i throw in the largest pieces that the pig can't eat. My sebae anemone has been with me for a year now and is thriving.

 

[synyster11]

jpribelin:
So the 440w VHO is working well for him. I am very glad to hear that. So yours is around 12" it must look great. Can you give me any other tips your have done to keep yours healthy, water additives, ect. I see you have the same tank size as mine. Where is your sebae in the tank? high middle or low? I hope I have good luck like have with yours. I have been told adding DT's for the anemones will also help keep them healthy.

 

[jpribelin]

I do use DTs about every three days too. Havn't heard that it help an anemone but I have used it since day one. When i first got my anemone it constantly moved around in a circle on the left side of my tank. One day I moved it over to the other side of my tank where in a piece of live rock there is a big cave in the middle of it with about a 3" opening and it hasn't moved since. Its also about 3" from the bottom. Ill try to take a picture of it tonight and post it. Hope you have as good of luck as I have had. I love my anemone. I just wish I would have gotten a pair of Sebae clownfish at the time. BTW, its about 8" now, it was about 4-5 when i first got him.

 

[synyster11]

I got lucky and bought a mated pair from someone that got out of the hobby.

 

[synyster11]

Yes, it can be very hard. Water quality and Lighting are very important. You also have to protect them from in tank heaters, powerheads, ect. BTW, the condy is the hardiest of them all.

 

[broncofish]

I've had Anemone's split in my system before both BTA's and Ritteri's. I can say this very positively anemones need to eat, I feed my Ritteris 2x a day on most days, krill silversides, squid. They need light, fairly intense, and of a good color spectrum 6500k-10000k. I have not talked to anybody keeping them under 20,000k lights yet...I think DT's do not make much of a difference to an Anemone. What I know about Sabea's is they very well may turn out to be the toughest to keep, I've yet to talk to many people that have had long term success...IF you can get past the bleached out white phase it seams it is pretty clear sailing from there. Best line I ever heard about Anemones was
"The second you know and understand all the reasons not to keep an anemone...is the second that you may be ready for one"

 

[mvogel2]

i had the same setup it was sweet... the clowns would eat all of the flake food they could get... but if i put a piece of krill in the clown would actually grab it in it's mouth swim over to the anemone and spit it out into it's tentacles...my jaw dropped, i knew they were symbiotic but i never immagined that the clown would feed the anemone...
try some krill
matt

 

[synyster11]

Well, I am having trouble finding silversides around here. But I do have some krill. I will try to put the krill right by its mouth so it will be able to eat. Now just to keep the clowns from doing figure 8's 100mph while I am trying to feed it. They like to chace eachother throught the tentacles. Poor anemone is probally wondering what the hell is going on up there.
Has anyone tried feeding them freshwater feeder fish?

 

[broncofish]

Originally posted by synyster11
Has anyone tried feeding them freshwater feeder fish?
Do not try that.....they are not a natural frood for an anemone...the one person I know that tried feeding their anemones feeder guppies....It ended up getting a bacterial infection due to the anemone holding the food in it's mouth and not completely digesting it.....I should mention this was a Rose Anemone when they were fairly new on the market and ran $250-300

 

[synyster11]

I am keeping them under 440W VHO
2 URI Super Actinic
1 URI Actinic White 50/50
1 URI Aquasun 10,000K
Do you think this would be a good combo for them?

 

[broncofish]

Here is goes....I'm sure I am going to get flamed here....but yes I think the VHO is perfect...heck if you have it on a dimmer it is even better(to simlate sunrise/sunset cloudy days etc.....) Some people believe that if you stick an anemone under MH your all set. In my opinion here are the most important things for an anemones care in order
1. Water quality(you anemone is mostly water..water quality= anemone quality)
2. Feeding lots of it...they don't get all their nutrition from light
3. Current, strong and random
4. Lighting, intense, but not to the point of sunburning your anemone (happens more than you think with MH's)
Of course their are exceptions for individual species

 

[kmax]

Originally posted by mmmmsushi
I'm now keeping some BTA under 20000k lighting. NOT a good idea. I need to move them back under a 6500k or something like that.
I posted about a month ago a excerpt from a book regarding the lighting in anems. In it it said something about a buildup of toxins due to constant bright lighting EVERYDAY. If you could put a dimmer on it with a cloudy cycle in it.... that's probably best.
I used to drop a chunk of food in my tank and my clown would bring it to the anem..... brine and smaller foods they would just eat.
I have a rose under 2 X 175W 20K MH with 2 X 55W PC in my 60G. It grew to about 8-9" and split into 3 separate ones about 3 weeks ago. I'm thinking about putting two roses in my 140G under 2 X 400W 14K.
The roses are fed a cube of Formula 1 every other day.

 

[broncofish]

Originally posted by KMax
The roses are fed a cube of Formula 1 every other day.
I think you find statements similar to that from every person who has splitting anemones...fed every other, or every day. Hey KMAX I would love to see a picture, love to anemone pics.

 

[kmax]

Originally posted by broncofish
I think you find statements similar to that from every person who has splitting anemones...fed every other, or every day. Hey KMAX I would love to see a picture, love to anemone pics.
Sure, no problem. I'll get some pictures for you tonight.

 

[xrayharmony]

In getting back to the original question, with a piggy clown, i've had lots of luck feeding the anemone during a regular feeding of the fish. The fish are away and busy darting to get their own food and tend to leave the anemone alone for the most part. I also feed my anemone a larger piece of shrimp that is too large for the clowns to eat. they'll pick at it once in a while but the anemone hangs on to it for dear life! Hope this helps a bit!
Also, i use shrimp that's "fit for human consumption" to feed my anemone... he seems to LOVE it.

 

[uwscotch]

I've always seemed to have a small problem with my piggy clown stealing the food. The smaller clown takes food to the anenome so that the larger can steal it. What I tend to do is feed the anenome (once a week) and immediately following I feed the fish. I "ball up" the anenome food and place it into it so that it gets a really good hold of it. Then, i follow with the fish food and it keeps them busy enough while the anenome moves the "wad" of food into its gullet. I've had problems with my green serpant/brittle star, no let's not get into this argument, trying to steal the food. He gets stung and pulls away but my anenome latches on and has been drug around the tank a time or two. I tend cover the lower anenome that "freaky the starfish" likes to go by with a net during feeding if it looks like he'll be a problem. Rest of the fish leave the food in the anenomes alone.

 

[broncofish]

Heck the biggest problem in my tank is actually the cleaner shrimp, the clowns just leave the food alone, I spot feed the starfish, my shrimp and one little aggresive blue crab..then I feed the anemone's