Please Help me feed my Condylactus

[FishyMel]

Hi,

I got a beautiful pink condy with an orange base from my LFS last Friday. He keeps wanting to hide behind rocks making it difficult to feed him. Yesterday I moved the rock and he happily took 3 large size krill and enveloped them into his mouth. Today there was a pile of krill sitting next to him. They were fully formed but very soft. Did he digest something or completely spit them out? What am I doing wrong if anything. I also attempted to move him today and the very sticky tip of one of his tentacles came off I feel like I am doing everything wrong.
Anyone have any good tips on how to keep these guys happy and well-fed?
How often do they eat? What do they eat? How do you get the food to them? Is there anyway to keep them from hiding behind the rocks?

TIA!

 

[Bearfan]

I feed mine a blender mush of shrimp and scallops.

 

[HoopsGuru]

Let it move and settle down where it wants to...trying to move it yourself can damage its foot. After it is comfortable and open, you can feed small pieces..maybe 1/4" or so of fresh seafood. Anything larger can be taxing to digest. Assuming you have good, strong lighting...I would not be overly concerned with stuffing it with food. Feeding your fish will provide a fair amount, and can be supplemented with a small feeding once per week if you like.

 

[ambulocetus]

IMO it is best no never move them, as they are mobile themselves they will go where ever they feel is best. Its a pain because you spend money on something that then runs off and hides somewhere, but its one of the breaks of the business! As for feeding - don't try and give it too much at once, it is quite a lot of work to digest and then excrete large amounts of food.

 

[ambulocetus]

lol hoops beat me to it!

 

[FishyMel]

So...3 large pieces of krill may have been too much? Would a few mysis shrimp work better? They are smaller. How much light does a condy need. I was told at lfs that they are non-photosynthetic. I am not running pcs. Just regular fullspectrum plus actinic. I have about 1`watt per gallon.

 

[nodoubt471]

dont worry that he spit it up, my condy did the same thing when i got him, andwouldnt keep food dowwn for a week. i had my condy in just a 5G (by himself!!) with full spectrum lighting also, but thats pretty shallow.

HTH

 

[fishman]

I feed mine frozen krill...I feed him one small krill every other day and he has been in my tank now for about 4-6 months AND I have crappy lighting and he still looks good. About to upgrade the lights hopefully this weekend though. Just start with feeding it smaller peices and he will get the hang of it.