Very Frustrated! Am I Over Reacting??

[FragIt Dan]

I have a big (18" across) long tentacle anemone in the a bunch of sps and lps in my DT. I feed him when he starts to shrink, which is about every 6-8 weeks. By 'shrink' I don't mean the periodic shrivel up, I mean it will actually start to be smaller when fully inflated. I used to feed it every couple of weeks and it got to be about 24" across and was burning all my corals. I have been feeding my fish more often lately (every couple of days) and haven't needed to feed the Ben in a couple of months and he is growing again. My tube dwelling anemones get fed with my fish. I tried feeding them every couple of weeks but they shrink down when I do this. My last long tentacle anemone was fed every couple of months and he was around for about 12 years, eventually losing a battle with a power head.
I think if you feed it every couple of weeks and watch how it does for a couple of months you will be at a safe starting point.

Originally Posted by LeanneP

I was reading some articles here on Canreef and they were saying to feed them every couple of days if they were the size that mine was and that most people underfeed them. Maybe I will cut back and see what happens. I know that Andrew (previous owner) had said to feed less too. Anyone else have feeding input on nems??

Dan

[subman]

I'm by no means a nem expert but maybe it's not fully opening because it's eating so much. It doesn't need photosynthesis for energy at this point so it may be staying closed because there is no reason to open up.

[LeanneP]

Thanks for the info on the nems. I will cut back on feeding him and see if things change.

[subman]

Keep us posted on how things are going

[asylumdown]

I would also say to not worry too much about it, unless things are dying. I have two different kinds of frogspawn that inflate and collapse at least a couple of times a day, operating on a schedule that I have yet to figure out. Most of my LPS are like that actually. Up and down, up and down. I have one brain coral that's actually figured out the schedule of the auto-feeder, and opens up to it's fully engorged, tentacle out feeding state (normally something you only see at night) promptly at 2:45pm every day. The feeder drops pellets almost right on top of it at 3.

Also, when you feed LPS or nems a lot, they also poop a lot. When they poop, they completely deflate and look like they're about 3 seconds from death. If you happened to be walking past them at that very moment you might think they were sick.