How bad was it?

Orion

Orion

Ultimate Fish
Moderator
#1
Feb 10, 2003
5,803
3
38
Kentucky
www.thefishcave.net
#1
I was at the Chevy dealer getting my van worked on and wondered over to a sorta new LFS that I never visit cause I'm only on that end of town when I'm getting my Van serviced. They had some anemones (sp?), and while I was there the dude working took some goldfish and feed them to the anemones. While I'll admit it was interesting to watch an anemone eat, I can't help but wonder what type of dangerous implications that might have.

I would first think the same thing goes for SW fish as well as FW, that feeding feeder fish carries the risk of parasites and other diseases. Or does the difference in the salinity harm, or outright kill most FW parasites that are commonly found in feeders?

Also I'm sure it depends on the species, but the dude fed the anemone by bare hand. I would be worried that I would get stung knowing my luck. lol

Neat to witness as I hadn't seen one eat before, but something about it just didn't sit right. And I'm not talking about just the feeding of the goldfish either. Is this really safe or a common practice? I remember seeing all sorts of additives and supplements for anemones in Foster and Smith's magazine, so I just assumed that they need more than just a goldfish to live on.

And yes, I'm in the SW section. Get over it :p
 

Lorna

Lorna

Elite Fish
#4
Mar 3, 2005
3,082
4
0
NE Indiana
#4
Whaaaaat we play nice.... at least most of the time :)

It is not common practice to feed anemones feeder fish in fact it is not recommended to feed any fish that are not normally a part of the animals normal prey. I haven't heard of goldfish swimming around in the ocean so I wouldn't think that they are normal prey of anemones. I feed mine frozen lancet or silversides occasionally but for the most part they depend on photo dependant also and I also feed them by hand as they don't really have a strong enough sting to be felt. A healthy anemone has sticky tenticles.....but I have never been stung by my anemones.....now corals on the other hand....that is another matter, I have had some really nasty stings on my forearms from my frogspawn....resembles poison ivy, itches like hell and blisters.....
 

F

FishGeek

Elite Fish
#5
May 13, 2005
4,294
5
0
37
South Carolina
#5
Yes you Salties generally play nice ;)

I always fed frozen (well thawed when fed :p) Silversides and Krill to my Anenomies. I think someone on here told me not to feed feeders once........cant remember though. :)
 

Orion

Orion

Ultimate Fish
Moderator
#6
Feb 10, 2003
5,803
3
38
Kentucky
www.thefishcave.net
#6
lmao-you bunch of loosers :D

Cool, thanks Lorna. That makes since about the normal prey. I had sort of pondered that as well, didn't know how an anemone would take to goldfish guts.

I've always thought that the anemones were very interesting. I kind of thought of them as plants that walked around and ate things. heh, I'll still probably just live my SW life vicariously though the rest of you guys though. :)
 

CAPSLOCK

CAPSLOCK

Elite Fish
#9
Jul 19, 2004
3,682
33
48
38
Cape Cod
#9
Putting a FW fish in SW should kill off all parasites though (as well as the fish itself), so it should be okay from a contamination standpoint. Conversely, you can do a FW dip on most SW fish to kill off a lot of different parasites on them - the FW kills parasites much more quickly than it will harm a fish, something like a minute or two to kill off most parasites.
 

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