BTA Splitting? (pics)

[Pandora]

My green BTA has been acting funny lately. I had posted earlier about how it was pushing out through 2 holes in a hollow piece of rock, and Anemone (the mod) mentioned how it might be splitting, and that if it did, something about the mouth looking like a V (I lost track of where that thread went).

Something funny is going on with the mouth today that wasn't there yesterday (like part of it bulging out), and part of the body is more shrunken than the rest. Does anyone have good pics of a BTA in the process of splitting?

What it looks like today (sorry, couldn't get clearer pics of the mouth):

What it looked like before:

Today, it looks kind of like "bubbles" of tissue rather than a round oral disk as previous.

 

[finding nemo]

I have pictures on my web site of a rose splitting.
But I have seen many of these animals pucker there lips up after eating.
And sometimes when they are hungry.
It is not unusual and not usually a sign of splitting that I have seen.

 

[Pandora]

Thanks finding nemo. That's too bad, was hoping for good news. Maybe I just need to feed it more often? It has been growing large lately. I feed it 2-3 X /wk, small pc of raw shrimp.

 

[Javeo]

My GBTA has been behaving in a very similar manner recently, it also looks very much like your one, size etc. It has been expanding its body out of various holes in th rock it lives in, and it was moving around today. I had to poke it with a baster and it went back. I feed 2 silversides a week.

 

[finding nemo]

Pandora, here is a picture of one of my anemones, he puckers up when hungry so I feed him , which is usually every few days.
He stays puckered up for about 10 minutes after getting the fish down then is back to normal.
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/karenssaltwater/eatingbest2.jpg" alt="Image hosting by Photobucket">

 

[JIM260]

I think your splitting. Not based on the mouth shape but by the body shape. One BTA has turned into 16 in my tank. When it happens the body gets elongated and a crease starts to form on the outer edges. The mouth will form on the daughter after the split.

It gets to be a real pain as the daughters will migrate and possibly sting corals. Also, anemones are not easy to remove from a tank. In the last year I have CAREFULLY removed 11 of them because of the danger to my corals (they have killed a couple). My LFS has given me $20 apiece. I have inadvertantly made $220 this year from one $40 animal.

By the way, I never feed them. I do feed a 20" Heteractis Malu I have though.

Wholly smokes! Your avatar is not what I would expect a military psychiatrist to look like. I should have joined the services instead of college... many years ago. Is 42 too old to go through boot camp...

 

[Pandora]

Thanks guys for the opinions. If it is going to split, it has not done so yet, I think it might have gotten irritated or something lately (I injected a non-aiptasia pest anemone day before yesterday on the other side of the tank, and a little bit of the extra kalk from that may have dissolved in the water more than usual). Yesterday, it was mostly shrunken in for no apparent reason (day before, it was half the anemone that was shrunken, which was why I was thinking about splitting). Then this AM, it started crawling out of its cubby hole in the cave rock, which it hasn't done in 2 months, and is more expanded (but it is hard to tell exactly since I left before lights on). Who knows what they are up to sometimes.

JIM thanks lol... I have gotten that before with the fuzzy hat comment. :lol: Pimp hats have yet to become regulation wear for the army, so that's a little out of context... I do have a dress blues pic in the lounge sticky by dc on RC member photos.

 

[JIM260]

Have you tried a natural solution for aptasia? I had it pretty bad when I first setup my tnak. Added pepp shrimp and six line wrasse and have not seen a one in 4 years.

Not sure how to access "lounge sticky by dc on RC member photos." Guess I aint so smart. Ashame after 5 years college and 7 years running a company.


__________________

 

[Pandora]

JIM--it's not aiptasia. It's not majano either. It is a small anemone about twice the size of a zooanthid and stings the bottoms of corals. I have done searches on WWM and a bunch of other ID sites and have not found it. I am not able to get good photographs of it, because it is grayish and positioned poorly, under xenia, in a corner against the wall. Closest I have found is a similar unidentified anemone photo in this thread (scroll down to gastone's post):
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=765647
Mine looks similar but is smaller and more invasive. From about 5 lyps which I had originally and which I thought looked like cute zoo's, I now have about 15. The bright side is that they do not spread nearly as fast as aiptasia and are easy to kill; plus they are more attractive.

JIM, it's just in the lounge forum of RC, at the top "roll call" post. LOL, nevermind. You end up in the lounge when you are bored and posting on RC long enough.

 

[JIM260]

Sorry for sounding like I under-estimated you. Never heard of this type of nusance anemone. Have you tried pep shrimp? Sounds like the anemone might be too big for them though.

Never have extra time to visit the lounge. Only sleep about 5 hrs a night. The other 19 I am moving. Only reason I have time now is that am in a hotel in chicago by myself waiting for a trade show to start.

30 gal octopus tank? I kept a 30 gal octo species tank when I lived in florida. I love them. Too bad normal lifespan is only a couple years. Mine lasted about a year and a half. Ironically... I believe an unusally large aptasia that came in on live rock may have stung him and caused untimely demise.

I better not look in the lounge. Women in uniform do something to me. I am still in a daze over a traffic stop two years ago by a blonde female Michigan State Trooper.

Well... maybe I will peek.