Quote:
|
Originally Posted by reeferaddict
Light light light! Keep the supplemental feedings to a minimum... really. When your clown starts hosting HE will feed the anemone.
|
Ok I'm sorry but I have to butt in again...
In nearly ten years of observing this, I can count on my ONE hand (luckily 4 fingers and one thumb) how many times I've seen a clownfish reliably feed an anemone.
And who's to say you HAVE to put a clownfish in an anemone? I have 4 BTA's and none of them host clownfish. So there!
The energy derived from lighting are high-energy/quick-release carbohydrates. The energy derived from feeding/digestion is low-energy/slow-release things like proteins. Subsisting on lighting alone is equivalent to subsisting on those energy bars athletes might scarf down while working out. It's not a suitable long-term nutritional plan.
Ideally you have to have both lighting and feeding taken into account for keeping these things healthy for the long-term.
Having said that, they don't need as much as you'd think. As long as you're feeding the tank something, odds are pretty good they're catching something out of the water column for themselves, even if you don't necessarily notice it.
It does depend on the species. BTA's are less demanding that other species. Some species you should not even dream of trying to keep without trying to directly target feed. If I relied on my ocellaris to feed my ritteri (
H. magnifica), it would have perished years ago. I can literally observe that thing shrink if I go so long as a week without target feeding it. The ocellaris that inhabit it are completely useless in this respect.
In fact, I remember reading one academic who went so far as to suggest that the anemonefish/anemone relationship is not one truly symbiotic, in fact it's more parasitic. I.e., the fish get more out of the relationship than does the anemone. Personally, I think that's a little extreme, but I can sort of see his point. A case could probably be made that says that the anemone benefits more from the anemonefish defending their territory against potential anemone predators. However I would venture to say that too might depend on species. A clarkii might be more boisterous than say an ocellaris. I know my ocellaris couldn't defend their anemone against a fly if one were to fly into the tank..
