Anemone Splitting

[Annarae]

Currently, I have a green bubble tip that expands to the diameter of a basketball during the day. I generally feed it pieces of clam/octopus/silversides 2-3 times a week, it's under 150 MH's in a 75G tank and my clownfish are obsessed with it.

The problem is it's gotten so big that it's making coral placement very hard as it can't always decide in which direction it will extend and sometimes decides to go for a little walk over to the middle of the tank.

Is there anyway to encourage it to split in to 2 so I can get rid of half of it? I bought it back in November/December when it was only 3-4" and I never really thought it was going to turn in to such a monster.


Thanks again,
Anna

 

[toddsmith1]

There is a RRC member here in Richmond that has a Green bubble tip that has split 5 times in the last 6 months. He did not feed it anything. As you know they produce all of the food they need through photosynthesis. I would hold off on feeding it and see what it does.

 

[ade]

Todd, getting all their food via photosynthesis is very debateable.
Anyway, there are also a few debates on why a BTA splits. Some say it is due to changing conditions in your aquarium, some say to over feeding, stress and so on.. what ever the real resaon for the split, if it is that large if it does split it will not become smaller just two/three about the same size. I have had many BTA over the years some lines do not split and just get bigger and I have had some lines that all they do is split.
You can frag it if you feel comforable cutting it in two/four. Most of the time when they are happy and things do not change in your tank they tend to stay put.
Good luck.