Anemone feeding

This section is about feeding.  I dont feed fish – I feed anemones – the corals that two clown fish play with.  There is a special way to do that – just follow proven way – do not invent new ways, please!   I feed them every day because most of the food is eaten by fish and some food goes to the bottom and crabs and snails eat the rest. 

 In the drawer, there is a small white porcelain bowl – take it to the kitchen and put on the counter near the fridge.   Open the top part – the freezer and on the right, there should be frozen trays with fish food. There are 4 types of frozen cubes: Brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, some greenish cubes and brown cubes.  I do alternate cubes, so every other day there is a different food in the reef.  Take a brine shrimp tray and put up side down above the porcelain bowl and push the aluminium, so the cube is landing in the bowl.  Put the tray back in the cover and back in the freezer.  Take the bowl to near reef tank. 

 And now pay attention to the following process that is absolutely critical!  Open the door below the tank notice two cables: white and black on the right that are plug into the extension -  using right hand hold the extension and using left hand unplug both.

Now, using left hand lift the main lid and when lifted a bit using right hand close the small lid open the main lid fully to vertical position and place it against the wall carefully try not to look into lights.  Using right hand remove a small plastic bottle and place it on the counter on the right side of the tank.

 Using left hand lift the black lights a bit and using right hand lift the glass up and place it on the pillow  on the smaller sofa  and put the black light on the top of the tank.  Now, put the glass on the bigger sofa under speaker – and do not sit in this place! 

Now, take a white rubber pump that has a clear plastic tube from a drawer and pump water from a tank to a pipe and fill it carefully a bowl with frozen cube.  You may do this twice to make sure the water is above the cube.  Wait two minutes and stir it.  The cube should turn into brown mass with little shrimps floating in water. 

Watch from top how anemone reacts to lack of water current and what is going on in the tank !  After like two minutes of stirring the bowl, the brown cube should dissolve in water and now gently push the rubber and ssuck a small amount to the tube.

Place the end of clear tube close to anemones.  I have a certaing order not to forget any of them unless one happens to be closed at this time.

So, while feeding anemones, fish will steal the food anyway.  Place tube close to anemone arms and squize food slowly and observe how anemone grab it using its arms.  Do this a few times when you know that all anemones were fed.  Notice how anemone turns into onion shape with no visible arms – it means it protects food from fish or crabs. Try to find an angle that will reach anemone that maybe out of reach.

This is my order of feeding that I maintain every day:

1. One is hidden on the right upper corner where water flow into filters – hold light using left hand to see the nem and food gets to it. 
   
2.  One is more reddish nem on the right hanging rock on the back. 
   
3. One smaller whitish nem is on the left rock on the back close to main water inlet. 
   
4. One tiny dark nem is located on the left bottom near the beginning of big rock in the sand. 
   
5. One big rosy nem on the lower right part of the tank.  
   
6. There will be many nems on the front hanging rock – turn the rock around to get a better view: there is one white, one greenish, one raspberry, and one reddish and one looks like pink/yellowish 
   
   
   
   
   

I leave 1/3 of amount of food inside the bowl for the second round later on that day.   Observe how fish look for food. Use your small skinny brown stick from a drawer to correct things that are out of order -  you may turn rocks a bit left or right or move them slightly and check all macros.

 When you are satisfied that all is good, start to cover the tank in reverse order.  Get the glass and place it carefully on the top of the tank between grooves on the top of tank.  Make sure it does not move left and right.  Move the glass towards front a bit, so the lid will have room to close and  not touch the glass on the back.

Place black light very close to front edge on the glass and take a small round plastic bottle from the counter and place it close to the middle of black light towards the middle of glass.

Using left hand hold the main lid and put it down and just before touching the little plastic bottle, using right hand open a small lid and place it on the top of that small bottle make sure that main big lid does not stand on glass on the back!  Wait about 5 minutes observing what is going on in the reef – do fish eat all food?

Now plug back white cable only using both hands.  Water should start stirring from left and right pump – see how rest of food circulates around the reef and fish should eat it.   Wait another two minutes – food should be eaten by now.  Observe the top of water if there is any food floating.

If there is no visible food anywhere in the water or on the top of water, plug the black cable below the tank and close the small door.   Notice if the water level is rising to maximum level just below black plastic around the tank.  See if anything unusual happens: are all rocks ok? are all macros in right position? are all fish there and none jumped out of water? are all lights on? are all timers are working fine?

The switch on timers should be in down position.  Light might be off at this time because it was a time to turn of the particular light.   Test the timer by switching to upper position to see if light will turn on.  If it turns on, then everything is ok.

In the event that timers switch is in upper position and light is not on, then there is a problem.  You should first push timer deeper into socket of extension cord to make sure it seats properly.  If this is not helping, then remove the timer from the socket and put the light cord directly bypassing the timer to see if the light will turn on.  If the light is not on, then check the switch on the top of the main lid – it should be click-click sound – closer to you deeper position is on – further is off.   If closer does not turn the main white or blue tube lights on, then it means either there is no power in the house or the light bulbs are not good anymore.

They have to be replaced by removing them slowly from a socket and calling the store to see if they have a replacement light. Well, call me for instruction.

 Anemone should be fed every day at least once, so they will be happy and NOT moving around the tank. If they move, then monitor them because they may move to a filter, pumps or water overflow blocking the water to go down to water pump. When anemones are on a flat surface, it is easier to remove them and place them on another rock. If you feed twice daily using the same ¾ cube once and the rest later that day then all should be fine.

Do not over feed!  

Absolutely, no food once every two days, but more at once, please.

 It will ruin the reef! As it happened before!