Barnacle

[caelcynndarr]

Today i went to my LPS to take some extra snails back and i saw this little olive nerite with a small barnacle (live) on him. So i got him....

How do i keep such a barnacle alive? Is it a simple as he will feed himself or do i need to add food?


http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k168/cael-cynndarr/IMG_0049.jpg

 

[fsn77]

Barnacles grab food out of the water column. Unless there's a sizeable amount of appropriate food frequently drifting around the tank where the barnacale is, it will likely not survive over the long term. The fact that it's on a snail makes the idea of target feeding it a bit more difficult, since it's mobile and perhaps not always in a location where you can find it. If you want to try feeding it, it should be able to capture and feed upon anything from smaller live / frozen brine or mysis shrimp to phytoplankton / zooplankton. I couldn't say if it would actually eat pellet food, but it might be worth a shot. If you decide to try, I'd crush the pellet food as much as possible, mix it in some tank water, then add it to your tank.