Anemone spit out some shrimp

[diverdown69]

I am not much of an expert on Actinarians....
I fed my warty anemone a chunk of shrimp yesterday and he seemed to readily accept it. This morning I looked and found about half of the chunk discarded on the live rock. I immediately removed the chunk of discarded shrimp and put it in the trash. Anyway, I assume that means that the other half was digested and absorbed.
TIA!

 

[alrmc4]

hi my bubbles have spit the food back when i either feed them to much or it was 2 cold because i did not thaw it long enough since it ate half i would say he just had enough

 

[diverdown69]

Cool. Thanks. He looks better now, but the mouthparts are still everted a bit. I just added a couple of fish to the tank, so maybe that is why the anemone is everting his gut.

 

[seaham358]

If the food is too big this is one reason that they will spit it out, like almic says to much.

 

[diverdown69]

Thanks. I think I may have just come up with a way to make sure that I don't feed too much again. If it works, I'll post it up.

 

[diverdown69]

I also don't think the anemone is really happy with the new tank inhabitants. The fish aren't harassing it, but it doesn't seem to be too comfortable with the whole arrangement. If it doesn't come around in a little while, I may put a couple of fish into another little tank I have for the time being.

 

[seaham358]

with new tank mates Im sure the ammonia levels may change causing discomfort to the anemone for a shot time till the bacteria builds up.

 

[diverdown69]

with new tank mates Im sure the ammonia levels may change causing discomfort to the anemone for a shot time till the bacteria builds up.

I suspected that, but I really didn't think it would happen so quickly. Of course, saltwater fish osmoregulate in such a matter as they are constantly urinating. (I know they excrete nitrogenous wastes thru the gills too.) I'll check pH in a few hours to see if it has changed any. I should probably check nitrates too while I am at it.

 

[XXFirefighter]

how old is your tank?

 

[diverdown69]

I started it on about the 3rd of the month. It has gone through a good cycle and the filter is established, but I did have to change a lot of water out when I had a catastrophe...my 3-year-old (I think he was the culprit) tried to "help Daddy" by dumping an entire bottle of dechlorinator in it. It killed my LTA, but this little guy seemed to be okay. In fact, over the last few hours, this one looks much better. It is fully extended and looking healthy. I added some fish to the tank earlier (as above) and he wasn't too keen on that, but I think he has decided it is okay. This anemone is a warty anemone...I think it is a B. texansiae (Texas warty anemone) and that it actually came from the local area and wound up in Petco somehow. I have been watching the tank for quite a while now and the whole thing seems to be okay. WQ is stable AFAICT. I am going to take a water sample to work tomorrow and do a full set of analyses on it with the spectro.

 

[Hara]

It is best to put anemone in established tanks. Established in this case would mean
aged. As far as the fish making it unhappy, unless they are picking at it, that would not be the case. You need to be adding fish slowly as well. Even though the filter is somewhat established, you do not want to be adding to the bioload in big batches.

 

[diverdown69]

The anemone was attached to a piece of live rock I got. The fish aren't unhappy. It's the anemone that was unhappy, but I think his misgivings about sharing his home have disappeared. We'll see...