geo*SanAnto
New member
can i frag an anemone like a mushroom.Just a thought, but isnt an mushroom a sort of anemone?has this been tried already?Im curious.
anemone fragging
- Thread starter geo*SanAnto
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ClownReef®
Bubbletrousing
I wouldnt do it.
Some have done it, they cut right through the middle of the mouth all the way across..although i would NEVER EVER do it. Anemomes are delicate as it is..no need to jeopardize it.
Some have done it, they cut right through the middle of the mouth all the way across..although i would NEVER EVER do it. Anemomes are delicate as it is..no need to jeopardize it.
geo*SanAnto
New member
thanks for the "how-to" on the fragging ireef69.i have an extra anemone so that i can sacrafice this one in the name of science and more importantly my curiosity!haha.
finding nemo
In Memoriam
Sad, kill an anemone just to see if it works?
Do you really need another one that bad to risk killing one?
Do you really need another one that bad to risk killing one?
boyooso
New member
My dog doesn't live naturally underwater...but my anenome does. I don't understand that point.
I do understand what you say about the 'natural' splitting of an animal.
But, if I cut my one of my dog's legs off that does not mean he will be happy or survive.
HEALTH, HAPPINESS and PAIN should be a consideration when pertaining to life.
Corey
Thurge
New member
Dogs don't reproduce by fission, but anemones do. Also considering that one of their natural forms of reproduction is to physically tear themselves in half, Pain is highly unlikely to be a factor.
Keep in mind that this Hobbie is about as hypocritical as you can get. We make claims about only being interested in the health of the animals. If that was truly true we wouldn't be in this hobbie. Probably 90% of what we keep today, would have been consigned to a death sentence 10 - 15 years ago. Only throuh experimentation were we able to find out how to successfully keep them, and a lot of that research came from hobbiests.
Been reasearching how to cut them as my bubble tip seems to be dead set against splitting for me. I wouldn't recommend trying to quarter it or such, just a simple binary split. You have to get the whole anemone out of the tank, and place it in a dish with some water. You will make a clean cut all the way through the mouth and down through the foot, splitting it in two. Then give it about 10 15 minutes because its going to produce large ammounts of slim, and its better to let it slime up the bowl than your tank. After that give the halfs a quick rince in another bowl of tank water and put them back.
There is one point I am not entirely sure about and that concerns putting them back in the tank. Obviously where it came from is probably the best place to put the halfs as the mother colony was hapy their. But I came across some posts alluding to you not wantingthe two halfs to be in contact. I am not sure why but I got the impression that they may reconnect, like the T-1000 Terminator.
Hopefully someone who has sme experience will chime in.
Wryknow
New member
I believe that Anthony Calfo did exactly what you are proposing at an aquarium conference one year just to demonstrate that it works and also how resilient anemones are in a healthy environment.
I certainly would not want to risk killing an anemone but it can be safely done I believe. As humans, it is perfectly natural for us to anthropomorphize with our pets, but comparing an anemone to a dog seems a little extreme to me. Anemones don't even have a central nervous system, as such. Yes, they respond to stimuli, but to say that dividing one is "painful" to the anemone seems unlikely to me (particularly given that this is a common reaction to naturally occuring damage in the wild for them.) I'd love to get the opinion of some research experts on this though.
I am opposed to harming healthy anemones, but wouldn't it be a good thing if forced divisions reduced the demand for wild animal collection?
I certainly would not want to risk killing an anemone but it can be safely done I believe. As humans, it is perfectly natural for us to anthropomorphize with our pets, but comparing an anemone to a dog seems a little extreme to me. Anemones don't even have a central nervous system, as such. Yes, they respond to stimuli, but to say that dividing one is "painful" to the anemone seems unlikely to me (particularly given that this is a common reaction to naturally occuring damage in the wild for them.) I'd love to get the opinion of some research experts on this though.
I am opposed to harming healthy anemones, but wouldn't it be a good thing if forced divisions reduced the demand for wild animal collection?
dantodd
New member
I don't believe that anemones feel pain. I am quite certain that they don't have an emotion such as happiness. As for health, I think that was the question, can an anemone be forcibly split without danger to its health. I know that it has been done on certain species and seems like a viable area of research to allow more people to enjoy these animals in their aquaria without damaging the natural populations.
geo*SanAnto
New member
thanks for expressing you opinions on my question.For those who are intrerested i did the deed last knight.I had been thinking about doing this for a while so i had bee feeding the anemone well.oh i thionk its a sebae,anyway i did like Thurge was describing I took the anemone out of the display.I then placed it in a towel and allowed it to fully deflate. I flattened it out to where I could see its mouth and then made one clean cut from top to bottom.It wasnt hard at all.The anemone didnt scream j/k but really I placed it in a shollw dish in my sump and had a small hose of water from my display flowing into it.Sorry i running on, long story short I now have two more anemones they seem to be alive.I mean they didnt melt away or anything.
Amphiprion
Premium Member
Anemones (and pretty much all cnidarians) possess a rudimentary nervous system that is merely designed to react to basic stimuli--emotion or pain being none of them, but that is somewhat subjective. However, anemones are very different from dogs, not in their form of reproduction, but rather, the actual abilities of the cells. Anemone cells are pluripotent, so they can individually differentiate into any cell that is necessary. Such capabilities vary, but usually hold true in all cases. The problems with some anemones is their tendency to contract infections as well as the general inability to cope with large stressors in sub-optimal conditions. Unless you are confident of the anemone's energy reserves and overall health, I wouldn't even consider it (IMO).
ClarkiiClownfish
Active member
You can easily, and successfully frag SOME species of anemone.
Ritteri's you CANNOT.
BUT.....BTA's.......you CAN! And I have read other threads here from people that have done it intentionally and had success.
And it is easy too!
I have 2 very large rose bta's.......one day, one of them decided to go for a walk, got sucked (partially) down my overflow. It eventually tore into 4 pieces. All of them lived, and are now growing in my tank. And since then....one of those 4 has since been partially sucked down an over flow...tore in 2 and both pieces survived....they and just smaller anemones now, but they are fine.
Now....11 years ago, when I first got my ritteri.....it wandered and got partially sucked into a powerhead when I was at work. The thing was shooting pieces of anemone out of the front when I walked in the door. I thought wow....this thing will surely die now.
But......i still have it to this day....it is HUGE, healthy and there are absolutley no visible deformities. It grew all its tentacles back, but the pieces that got torn off did not grow into new anemones.
Before my female clarkii clown died (rest her soul, had her for 11 years too) she would get very angry if she had eggs and I came near the tank. She would get mad and bite off tentacles of the anemone and spit them out. When she did it to the ritterri, the pieces would die. But when she did it to one of the roses......it would form into a small anemone....absolutely tiny.........i had some in my tank that were not much bigger than a pencil eraser......now they are the size of a half dollar and growing.
So it can be done..and with bta's....I would say it is done rather easily. One thing I would make sure of......water quality must be tip top or there could be an infection........if that happens....well.....that could lead to a total crash and tank melt down.
Again, the only species I can confirm that it works is BTA's. And it doesnt even need to be a 50/50 split.....just tear a hunk off and it will grow......at least they do here. I started with 2 and now I have at least 10. I know it is 100% fact that BTA's can be forcefully split. Ritterri's I would say with pretty much certainty that they cannot be cut........but I would give your sebae a very good chance of it working.
Please keep u updated!
Ritteri's you CANNOT.
BUT.....BTA's.......you CAN! And I have read other threads here from people that have done it intentionally and had success.
And it is easy too!
I have 2 very large rose bta's.......one day, one of them decided to go for a walk, got sucked (partially) down my overflow. It eventually tore into 4 pieces. All of them lived, and are now growing in my tank. And since then....one of those 4 has since been partially sucked down an over flow...tore in 2 and both pieces survived....they and just smaller anemones now, but they are fine.
Now....11 years ago, when I first got my ritteri.....it wandered and got partially sucked into a powerhead when I was at work. The thing was shooting pieces of anemone out of the front when I walked in the door. I thought wow....this thing will surely die now.
But......i still have it to this day....it is HUGE, healthy and there are absolutley no visible deformities. It grew all its tentacles back, but the pieces that got torn off did not grow into new anemones.
Before my female clarkii clown died (rest her soul, had her for 11 years too) she would get very angry if she had eggs and I came near the tank. She would get mad and bite off tentacles of the anemone and spit them out. When she did it to the ritterri, the pieces would die. But when she did it to one of the roses......it would form into a small anemone....absolutely tiny.........i had some in my tank that were not much bigger than a pencil eraser......now they are the size of a half dollar and growing.
So it can be done..and with bta's....I would say it is done rather easily. One thing I would make sure of......water quality must be tip top or there could be an infection........if that happens....well.....that could lead to a total crash and tank melt down.
Again, the only species I can confirm that it works is BTA's. And it doesnt even need to be a 50/50 split.....just tear a hunk off and it will grow......at least they do here. I started with 2 and now I have at least 10. I know it is 100% fact that BTA's can be forcefully split. Ritterri's I would say with pretty much certainty that they cannot be cut........but I would give your sebae a very good chance of it working.
Please keep u updated!
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Amphiprion
Premium Member
Knowing this species as long as I have and observing its behavior, I would not.
phender
Active member
I would think that since there have been ritteris that have split in aquariums and sometimes are found in small and large colonies of what appear to be cloned individuals, they would logically be the next species to try. The fact that your ritteri recovered from its ordeal says a lot about its powers of regeneration. It doesn't surprize me that the minced pieces didn't survive.
I'm not saying you're wrong, because I have no idea. I'm just looking at it from a different angle.
I'm not saying you're wrong, because I have no idea. I'm just looking at it from a different angle.
