forcing a split

[chilihedkc]

Has anyone had experience forcing a BTA to split? My LFS was talking about putting a rubber band around the nem would cause it to split effectively "fragging" the anemone. Was I being fed a line of crap?

 

[LTCrunch]

Ive done this a bunch of times with mushrooms and it was worked with great success. it is also pretty easy to just cut them in half with a razor blade and dip the cut side in Iodine to stop infection. The rubber incident takes about 1 week to split and then they will move apart from eachother

 

[chilihedkc]

Shrooms are a lot hardier than a BTA. What is the risk of killing my bta by attempting to cut it?

 

[RoastReef]

Personally, I wouldn't try it. Anemones are sensitive creatures already. Cutting one in half is just asking for trouble, though it has been done before.

 

[chilihedkc]

Thanks Roast. I was pretty cautious about it, but the rubber band thing might be doable.

 

[tufacody]

Fragging healthy BTAs is a great thing. It is not difficult to do. Most people just cut the nem in one cut with scissors, getting 1/2 of the mouth in each piece. Its certainly not without risk, but is an excellent way to propogate these creatures and save them from being pulled out of the ocean. My RBTA was produced this way almost two years ago and has done great. Recovered completely in less than two months.

 

[Reef18Keeper]

I have seen the rubber band method work. My LFS does it to there RBTAs

 

[RoastReef]

This rubber band method has me intrigued. Do you just put the rubberband around the rock and then try to put it right in the middle of the mouth?

 

[dave168]

When I want to make them split , I do large water change (50%) every week and it will make them split very soon.( take about a month)

 

[LTCrunch]

yeah, place the rubberband around the mouth so that you get half the mouth on each side, and the pressure forces it split and it is a lot less harmful than cutting them in half. I do a lot with ricordeas, and Ive done twice with a carpet nem.

 

[zaraemna]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15162938#post15162938 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LTCrunch
yeah, place the rubberband around the mouth so that you get half the mouth on each side, and the pressure forces it split and it is a lot less harmful than cutting them in half. I do a lot with ricordeas, and Ive done twice with a carpet nem.

I've never tried the rubber band idea but it sounds good to me. The cool part about it is you don't have to try and get the anemone off the rock. Trying to get them off the rocks to cut them can be very stressful and difficult when the foot is in a deep hole.