Anemone not doing much

Flyboy450r

New member
Well I decided to get out of saltwater a couple years back and sometime a year or so back I got the bug again. So I set up a 20g long as a anenome and clown tank, with metal halide lighting a skimmer, etc. my water quality was never over the top to be honest and hated that tank. Much happier with this 27g cube I recently set up. Either way I waited till my water was stable and added a anenome. I've had it for close to a year and a half and it's never moved even with me moving power heads and even moving it to this new tank, it's never split, never gotten larger and never truly thrived hence why I set up the new tank. It does deflate several times a day and I wonder if part of that was the water quality in my other tank and well my clowns have grown in a year and a half and I wonder if they molest the poor anenome.Any suggestions on how to get this thing to thrive, grow, split and be happy if really like this to be a anenome only tank and well my anenome is lacking and I know it's my failt
 
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Looks healthy. Anemones typically don't split unless they feel threatened. If you want it to get bigger then you can spot feed it. I wouldn't really worry about it too much. It looks great, and like I said, if it bothers you just feed it some Mysis or other frozen fish food.
 
Don't think there's a definitive answer on when or why an anemone splits. Could be stress or could be happy. Mine have been splitting after I feed them. I started with 1 RBTA and I now have 5. They are all in the same area I placed the 1st one at. If it was stressed I would imagine at least one of them would have moved from that area by now.
 
I was wondering the same thing about 6 months ago, why aren't they growing? I stated hand feeding them twice a week using bits of shrimp and they grew like weeds. They went from 3" diameter to 6" in about 3 months.
 
Thanks for the replys I felt stupid even starting this thread. I've never been able to keep an anenome alive much less thriving before this. I've been told by other reefers that a healthy bta will split up to several times a year so that's why I stated it wasn't thriving. Well that and it hasn't grown and that it deflate multiple times a day. I'm really aiming for a tank with multiple clones in it. The tank melvsreef has is my dream tank and I'd like to someday get there. Here is my 27g I recently set up for my clowns and anenome.
 
It varies so much on when or why they split. I got a single green BTA at the same time as that 1 RBTA and it sits right next to all the reds. It hasn't split once. I feed them all about once a week or two some whole jumbo krill plus what ever else they catch in the water column between those feedings.
 
if you want it to split, feed it every other day. I did so to encourage my BTA to grow in order to practice cutting... your BTA should be doubling in size every few months if you constantly feed.

sometimes drastic changes can cause splits.. like a big water change.. but it's pretty random. you can't really predict it
 
How old was your tank when you got anenome? I want one and just got first tank two months ago. I heard you weren't supposed to get one till you tank is 6 months old.
 
The tank had been set up for 4 months. But the rock, water, and sand were from a established tank. I would agree on waiting for at least 6 months if not longer till your tanks settles.
 
That anemone look fine to me. BTA is pretty easy and forgiving. If you want for him to grow, then feed him small piece of seafood every third day or so. Anemone are mostly water so their biomass is much, much smaller than another animals of the same size. Your anemone should get a pencil eraser size piece of seafood every 3 days, he will grow.
 
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