RTBA didn't like his breakfast?

[KathyC]

Before I left for work this morning I gave my RBTA 1/2 of a Silverside..around 11:30PM tonight my son came into my office and said 'the red thing in your tank ate one of your fish'. I shot out of the chair and found the following...


Wasn't entire sure of what I was looking at, and then I realized it was the head of the Silverside I'd fed him in the morning...

It was rather disgusting...

He wiggled around a bit to finally dislodge it..

Just about ready to drop it..

And the crowd is cheering him on..especially the Linka who arched one of his legs in hopes of catching the prize...lol

I plucked it out of the tank once he dropped it and before it had a chance to get lost in the rocks.

Do note to the far right side below the Hydor Rotator the appearance of the well dress Scarlett Hermit (from an earlier post)..still wearing it's flowered hat At this point the RBTA was just waving around and looking very pleased with himself.

Do these guys usually spit out their food - which didn't look very well digested - as a regular thing? Remember this was about 15 hours after he'd been fed!

 

[chazertis]

one time i fed my rbta a block of defrosted formula 2. it has eaten them before but this one time i saw it spit it out several hours afterwards, all gooey and mushy. it was gross.

 

[Lenny718]

Cool pics, Thanks for sharing

 

[KathyC]

Thanks guys

Do still need to know if this is typical behavior for an RBTA? Should I bee feeding him something else? Thx!

 

[inkblue]

Thanks... now I feel like throwing up my pancakes

 

[KathyC]

Thanks... now I feel like throwing up my pancakes

Sorry Ink! :sad2:...the thought of that is even more gross than what the rbta did...

 

[JHOV2324]

wow i never seen that b4, im guessin it wasnt hungry, why did u remove the silverside, nothin goes to waste in my tank

 

[russianmd]

I am with Ink - glad I had nothing but coffee.

Cool pics, Kathy!

 

[thepudge]

Cool pic! My RBTA has done that a couple of times when the piece i give it is too big.

 

[Bob 1000]

nice, and I had to open this eating my late nite snacks...lol

 

[House of Laughter]

awesome sequence Kathy - animals are just plain weird

House

 

[Chongpark27]

thanks for sharing the pics kathy, i never seen a rbta do that b4

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

This is very cool.

 

[KathyC]

I hope to never see him do it again! It was grossly interesting..lol
Took 53 pics of the sequence & it took him about 3 minutes to spit it out & drop it. I did find out that he seems to like the tail section of the silversides better, who knows maybe I'll catch that on film (?) one of these days!

 

[Awibrandy]

Kat, had you soaked the silverside in vit. & or garlic? My RBTA spit it silverside out when I forgot, and defrosted & soaked it with the other goods I feed the fish. Just a thought.

 

[KathyC]

No, I'd only defrosted it.
How big a piece do you give your rbta? Someone had suggested I give him a half a silverside, so that's what I'd been doing once or twice a week. He usually grabs some mysis when I feed the fish, maybe he wasn't hungry?

 

[yiliyang]

Hey:

There is nothing to worry about. You RBTA did that all the time, the only difference this time is that you saw it. BTAs have a single ended digestive tract. Your captured image sequence is equivalent of the thing doing number 2. They digest the silverside the best they can and let go of the rest. Your cleanup crew took the left over and happily ate it. Your tank as well as the RBTA looked very healthy, I would not worry about a thing.

I did feel the silverside you fed it was a bit too big, if you gave it a smaller piece, you probably see less fish come out after.

Yili

 

[Awibrandy]

I feed it the smallest pieces, and if there no small ones to be had I break them in half. But usually the clown feeds it. The GS maroon feeds the rbta before she eats. She takes very good care of it.:wink1: And protects it very well as well. Ever since I added the RBTA I can't put my hand in the tank without being attacked by the GS. She has even bit me a few times.

 

[KathyC]

A- Mine are all whole silverside - about 2 inches if you don't include the tail. I have no clowns in my tanks - so it's up to me to feed him I give him a half on one when I do.

Yili- thanks for the info. From the responses I've received here, I'm not so sure that everyone if aware that they expell the undigested portion.
I'd seen indications that he'd dropped a piece or 2 before this but they were where I couldn't get to them, so I just left them. Bet my hermits aren't happy I grabbed the last one!

 

[lfsmarineguy]

You have to remember that anemones have one hole that serves as the in and the out. They do the same thing in the wild, grabbing anything that lands on them and eating whatever they can. Like Yili said, it's normal behavior. I'd also try feeding smaller pieces