BTA Splitting? How long does it take?

[oahureefer]

So this past saturday I bought a RBTA from a local reefer, in his take it looked happy and healthy. I noticed a small tear in the foot when i was placing it in my tank. I drip acclimated it to my tank and the next day it had inflated other than there were no "bubbles". Day two I noticed the oral disk appeared to be splitting and it seems to still be the same way today. I tried to get a picture of it but can't seem to get a good one. I have heard that stress like a tank transfer will cause them to split but just not sure if that is in fact what he is doing.

So my question is how long does it take to split? it's been since sunday and the split in the disk is getting bigger. Should i be worried about something other than a split?

I have attacked a picture of him today but i couldn't get him to cooperate for the picture of the split.

Tank Parameters are stable and hover right around these numbers
Test Date 8/30
SG 1.026
PH 8.0
Alk 9.5
NH3 0
NO2 0
NO3 0
CA 400
MG 1380

 

[oahureefer]

Here is a better picture showing the tear on the top of the disk

 

[Dkuhlmann]

BTA's split for many reasons, over feeding, wc's and stress from moving to a new tank all stress them and some to the point of splitting. Some take much more to get them to split then again other not so much.

I have a rainbow BTA that will split if I do a large WC or if I over feed it. It's given me about a dozen clones that I've either given away or sold.

How long does it take? There is really no normal amount of time but some can split in half an hour and others might take a day. It all depends...

There really is no solid answer for how long do they take to split.

After they split do not feed them for at least two weeks 4 is better. This gives them time to heal