Do you have pictures to share? Feeding a clown by hand is so eay, because they are so gentle. My friends husband just lays his hand in the tank- and the clowns just lay in the palm of his hand for a few moments.
Nothing to do with the topic, I just think its adorable.
The spitting out of the pellets: if anyone is reading this maybe they can correct me- but is it because that is how they feed the anenome - my clown gets the food, goes back to the BTA and spits the food out, sucks it up if it starts to float away then spits it back out again to the BTA.
Maybe it's just nature.