What to feed my Purple Lobster, and how often?

[woody189]

I recently added a purple lobster to my 46 gal tank w/ 45 lbs LR.
The first few days i tried feeding him, he would begin eating the sliverside, but a shrimp, crab, or snail would steal it from him. He barely had anything to eat (that i know of).
A few days later he took a bite out of my 6line. The 6line is now fine, but i assumed the lobster was just starving.
Since the incident, this is what has happend:
The next day, i gave him about 1/3 a silverside. He ate, i think, the whole thing. I then gave him another 1/3 and he didn't want it.
The next feeding i just threw 1/3 of it in his hole
Today, i gave him the same amount. He ate a little bit, and threw it out of his hole. I'm not sure if he's full, or if he's not interested.
ANy other suggestions on what ot feed him??
How much and how often should i feed?
Do you think i may be feeding too much? I just don't want him to be too hungry and attack my tank.
I know they may be aggressive, and if he attacks anything else in my tank, he's gone. I'm just giving him another chance, because i think he may have only attacked my 6line because he was hungry.
Thanks, and Happy Holidays

 

[bla403]

bump ... Im having the same issue. My lobster likes the mysis shrimp but so does everyone else and he doesnt get that much each time I feed him and most of the time doesnt want to come out of his cave to get the food.
He's fairly big ~4.5-5 inches.
I found a trochus snail shell wedged in a piece of live rock this morning with only a little piece of meat left ... Either he ate it or it was a fire or cleaner shrimp.

 

[joe____17]

Just spot feed and he'll be fine.

 

[pete159]

I would say 46g is to small for a lobster, and your risking any fish that gets to close to him, at least thats what my LFS told me and they have some smart ppl there.

 

[bla403]

Ive got a 55gal long tank so he has some good room but I just want to know how often I should feed him and how much

 

[anonome]

My purple lobster.....going on 4 yrs now....has been fed shrimp pellets since day one, and is doing great. Silverslides will pollute the tank quickly if not all is eaten. I feed the tank, and add the sinking pellets around his cave. He has learned to come out to get the pellets. I would say that he eats about 4-5 pellets a day, I feed twice a day.
Mine is now about 5 inches long.
They can be very territorial, he definately defends his space......even with my large tangs. Any snail that gets too close is definately a free meal for him. I try to rescue the ones that get too close, but you can't be there 24/7. So needless to say, I have to replenish my snail population through out the year.

 

[woody189]

He wound up killing and eating my 6line w/in the next day or two. I used to throw the silverside into the lobster's whole.
My dumb 6line would go into the lobsters hole though, so he was kinda asking for it.
It's weird though, because snails and shrimp used to take the silverside out of the lobster's claws, but he killed the fish.

 

[woody189]

I wouldn't rrely on keeping it well fed as a way of preventing it from killing a fish. Mine was well fed and still ate the 6line.

 

[pete159]

Mr "Woody"....your 6line is not dumb...it did not ask to be kept in a small tank with a purple lobster....in fact, i'm sure he is calling his owner dumb....he was not "asking" for anything....he would have had a happy life, if not for you....
this hobby is not based around you, you are based around this hobby...please learn the difference.
Originally Posted by woody189
http:///forum/post/3042784
He wound up killing and eating my 6line w/in the next day or two. I used to throw the silverside into the lobster's whole.
My dumb 6line would go into the lobsters hole though, so he was kinda asking for it.
It's weird though, because snails and shrimp used to take the silverside out of the lobster's claws, but he killed the fish.

 

[stanlalee]

Originally Posted by pete159
http:///forum/post/3042796
Mr "Woody"....your 6line is not dumb...it did not ask to be kept in a small tank with a purple lobster....in fact, i'm sure he is calling his owner dumb....he was not "asking" for anything....he would have had a happy life, if not for you....
this hobby is not based around you, you are based around this hobby...please learn the difference.
Dude you just said your LFS "told you" a 46g is too small for a lobster and seeing how you nor your LFS know what you are talking about I dont think you really have any business being condescending. purple lobsters max out at 5" and by their nature (virtually never leaving their cave) a tank half the size of his is appropriate for a purple lobster.
Sixline probably does not have the best compatibility with one because they are in and out of live rock all the time by nature but if the sixline was a full size sixline (3") it could probably hold its own even with a 5" purple lobster. With a typical store size sixline (1") the buck probably stops after a coral banded shrimp.

 

[nuro]

Flame war!!!
anyway. the rule i live by is dont keep anything small enough to be temptign to a crab or lobster. they are labled as opportunistic feeders for a reason.

 

[woody189]

WOW.
I wasn't serious when I said it was dumb. If you read some of my other threads, I use a sarcasm and jokes from time to time.. Apprantly this one wasn't funny.
I know it was being itself, and it's not it's fault.
Before I add anything into my tank, I post questions on here. I told you guys that I was thinking about getting a purple lobster, and I got mixed opinions.
If it were 90% of the ppl saying no, and only 10% saying yes, I wouldn't have tried it, but majority of ppl said I could try it.
I just dug up the old thread, and 85% said they had no problem, and 15% said dont try it. I figured I'd take my chances.
Other than that, from what I saw w/ MY purple lobster, it didn't seem like a threat. Like I said,SNAILS used to steal teh food from him, and he didn't do a thing. I figured if he wouldn't hurt a snail, how could he hurt a fish(obviously I was wrong)
I wish I would have listened to the 15%, who was NatclanWY, but I didn't. He told me don't do it, but at the same time I had 5 ppl say they were successful, adn give me the GO Ahead ( not that it's their fault)
I thought maybe it was just a bit of bad luck when the 6line got attacked, and I thought maybe it would have realized it was a bad idea.
I was maybe 8 months into the hobby, and still learning. Now I know. Isn't that what the hobby's all about. Don't think I just threw it in there w/o doing research.
Here's the thread....
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/342628/questions-about-purple-lobster
One guy on the thread, said he had a 46 gal as well for 3 yrs. I know one successful case doesn't make the rule, but what would you have done if you got those replies on the thread.
It's not their fault, just bad luck. BUt I did my research, and I asked questions (like I always do).
There are PLENTY of ppl on here that keep CBS w/ small fish, but I read it can be a problem. This is the reason I never got a CBS, because I was worried about my fish. I made a decision to sacrifice getting the CBS, because My fish were more important. I weighed the odds, from the research I'd done, and made a decision.
There aren't exactly a lot of threads on Purlple lobsters.
And I'm sorry for calling "Niko" dumb, but Sorry to you too Pete, because I don't think I was dumb either.

 

[anonome]

Originally Posted by woody189
http:///forum/post/3042785
I wouldn't rrely on keeping it well fed as a way of preventing it from killing a fish. Mine was well fed and still ate the 6line.
This is why I said that they are very territorial. No matter how well you feed an opportunist it will win if up against a small fish, or invert (snail, shrimp). Once wounded, it is just a matter of time.
That size tank is not a good equation, especially a lobster with very sharp claws, and a keen sense of an easy meal.

 

[woody189]

Originally Posted by Anonome
http:///forum/post/3043411
This is why I said that they are very territorial. No matter how well you feed an opportunist it will win if up against a small fish, or invert (snail, shrimp). Once wounded, it is just a matter of time.
That size tank is not a good equation, especially a lobster with very sharp claws, and a keen sense of an easy meal.
I wasn't directing that towards you.
When I bought it, I was under the impression that if I kept it well fed it would minimize the lobsters desire to kill. I was mistaken.