Feeding my Anemone...

[Salty O'Shen]

Yesterday I fed a previously frozen krill (thawed before feeding in water pulled from my tank) to my long tentacle anemone. today it disposed of what looks like the "uneaten" remnants of the krill's carcass. is this normal? perhaps the LTA hated it? yesterday he took it quite quickly and i thought he enjoyed to offering....he's looking a little unhappy - tentacles are a bit shorter than the length normally, slight darkening. the only other changes to environment from yesterday is a 10% PWC (checked Sg of replacement water, created by me with RO water and Real Ocean salt mix) and the heater he was under is now on the other side of the tank.

it's a 6 month old 20 gal tank with:
1 LTA
1 False Percula
1 Damsel - Fiji Devil
1 Turbo Snail
2 blue legged Hermit

lighting:
24" coralife 65 watt 50/50 bulb (10,000k/True Actinic Blue 420 nanometer)

my tank param:
Temp: 80F
PH: 8.1
SG: 1.0235
Calcium: 440 ppm
Magnesium: not measured
Carbonate Hardness: 11 dKH
Ammonia: Undetectable
Nitrite: Undetectable
Nitrate: Undetectable

now I'm worried about the choice to feed the krill to it...

[Elegance Coral]

He just pooed. If you feed it shrimp with the exoskeleton on it or fish with bones and scales, it will poo. It has to shrink up to discharge these remains. It's perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. He should be back to his usual self tomorrow.

If you want to avoid this in the future. You can feed chunks of larger shrimp meat and peel it first. You can also use fish meat with no skin or bones. Nothing bigger than half inch by half inch. If you have a good sized LTA that is.

[jenglish]

Salty is that a single 65watt PC bulb?

[Salty O'Shen]

not sure what the PC stands for....sorry,

but it's a single lighting fixture with a dual bulb in it.

[jenglish]

is it dual ended or is it "bent" and has a single connection point?

so there are 2 seperate bulbs? 1 that is 10000K and one actinic?

[Salty O'Shen]

not bent, it is two bulbs with one connection, they are joined at each end and would remove as one piece

[jenglish]

To keep an anemone long term you are going to need a much brighter light and a larger tank.

[Loverotties]

Originally Posted by jenglish

To keep an anemone long term you are going to need a much brighter light and a larger tank.

Ditto.

[justin23]

I agree about the more light.
The same behavior can be seen when feeding silverside. Nothing to worry about.

[Elegance Coral]

How long have you had the anemone?

[Salty O'Shen]

i've had the anem for 10 days now. i moved the anem to a piece of live rock that has a hole in the middle and he settled into it immediately after I introduced him to it. laid the live rock on the broad side with the hole facing upwards, so he has room all the way around him to stretch out. today he looks the best he's looked since i first saw him, even better than at the LFS, with purple tips becoming evident on the tentacles. extremely happy about that!!

come to find out the idiot at the LFS didn't even give me the right name for the anem I have. it's actually a condylactis anemone, so got totally ripped off on the price ta-boot. incredibly it was the dude at PetCo that helped me figure it out when i went in to buy some frozen brine shrimp, i described it and he said it wasn't a LTA and found a book with pics to help me identify it, very helpful guy, he's got a 200 gal display at home (I have since written off the other guy's store, 2 strikes, they're out)

i've just added 2 more blue legged hermits and another turbo snail to help with the litter and algae build up. the hole in the LR used to be my damsel's favorite spot, but i built up a nice arch with the remaining pieces of LR so he seems happy with the new hiding spot...i'm planning to start up on the conversion of my 55 gal from freshwater in th next few weeks so the 20 gal is a temporary home. it'll be turned into a sump soon after the 55 is ready for stocking.

i'll be working on collecting equipment for the next few weeks and the lighting I will put at the top of the list. with the knowledge i'll prolly need a couple more for the 55gal anyway.

Thanks for the input!!