Carpet Anemone Not Eating

[malx]

Hi, Guys.

I've had my carpet Anenome for about 9 months now. He looks great, has good color, also have fully recovered from his encounter with my MP10 4 months ago. Here's a question I have. Once per week I would give him a little chunk of shrimp that he would happily take and eat. I've noticed that in the last 6 weeks though he hasn't eaten. I'll stick some shrimp in him and it just falls away, as if he's lost his stickyness.

I have head that some people don't even target feed there Anenome. Collecting everyone's opinion on this.

Thanks!
Joey

[ReefNomad]

Your carpet is probably recovered to the point where it prefers photosynthesis to gut-feeding... many photosynthetic organisms prefer to gather energy via the free mechanism... the algae they host do all the work, they get all the benefit. There's relatively little waste to expel and the process is easy to regulate by expanding or contracting to expose more or less algae to the light.
Gut feeding, on the other hand, requires an expenditure of energy to process, can introduce potentially harmful unknowns like venom or contaminants, and at the end requires another expenditure of energy to void the waste byproducts of digestion. During the whole process, from capture to consumption to expulsion, the anemone is vulnerable because it cannot completely deflate in the event of harassment.
If your anemone is maintaining size and mass, if it's remaining open for the majority of your photo-period, and it's keeping a vibrant coloration, then don't worry about it. Your system is feeding it for you!

[malx]

Originally Posted by ReefNomad

Your carpet is probably recovered to the point where it prefers photosynthesis to gut-feeding... many photosynthetic organisms prefer to gather energy via the free mechanism... the algae they host do all the work, they get all the benefit. There's relatively little waste to expel and the process is easy to regulate by expanding or contracting to expose more or less algae to the light.
Gut feeding, on the other hand, requires an expenditure of energy to process, can introduce potentially harmful unknowns like venom or contaminants, and at the end requires another expenditure of energy to void the waste byproducts of digestion. During the whole process, from capture to consumption to expulsion, the anemone is vulnerable because it cannot completely deflate in the event of harassment.
If your anemone is maintaining size and mass, if it's remaining open for the majority of your photo-period, and it's keeping a vibrant coloration, then don't worry about it. Your system is feeding it for you!

Good news! Yeah he looks good. He's active to. He moves around, opens, closes, has good color, his mouth is closed.

I run ZEOvit too and I've read alot of people who have moved to ZEO had their nem's stop eating.

So I guess I'll just leave him be. Thanks for the advice.