GBTA Splits - how long until healthy?

Perched Urchin

New member
My 2 GBTAs that I picked up with a mated pair of ocellaris seemed to be doing well for the first 2 months after I picked them up (my rock, the nems and the clowns all came from the same tank.) Water params are good, with just a bit of nitrates that I am working on:
Salinity - 1.025
pH - 8.02
Calcium - 470
Mag - 1470
Nitrate - .1
Nitrite - 0
Amonia - 0
Phosphate - 0
temp = ~79

Lighting is a 175 Iwasaki MH with the bulb about 8" off the top of the water of a 40 breeder. Flow is a single MP40w ES. The set up has been running about 3 months.

About 3 weeks ago, one of the 2 nems split, but the clone is smaller than the original. The orginal looks great and has been since the split. The clone is looking better, but he did go hide in a hole in the rocks more and still doesn't come out to wave around in the flow like the original does.

This weekend, the other original split, this one almost perfectly in half. Both halves seem pretty healthy, although they do seem to not care for as much light right now.

Some people would be happy to have 4 instead of 2, and I do intend to sell 2 of these, which is nice, but I am concerned that something is stressing them, causing them to split. The clowns traded off hosting in both of the originals, although the last one to split was their favorite. Could the stress of the move finally have caught up?

aAso, how long should it take them to be completely recovered from viciously tearing themselves apart? The first one crawled onto the glass as he was splitting, so I could see it happening step by step - YOW! (I am glad we don't reproduce that way!)

Thanks in advance for your responses!
 
4 to 6 weeks is a LONG time...I'd say anywhere from a week to two depending on how good your water and lighting is...give them at least a week to 10 days and then start some light feeding with mysis or brine...

and also, in my opinion, your PH is low...should be around 8.3; just get some buffer and SLOWLY raise it up a little per day..that'll help as well.
 
Yeah, my alkalinity is a little low too along with the pH. Could that be what is causing them to split?
Again, if I should be happy about it, that is great, but I just want to make sure I am not stressing them!
Thanks for the responses!
 
It could be anything that's causing them to split. Just provide the best parameters you can without trying to make the numbers fit. Stability is actually more important than "perfect" numbers.
 
One of my rbta had a ripped foot from me trying to remove it from the glass. Within a day or two it was healed back up once it was situated in a spot it liked. The rip was the size of a quarter or so at first then it disappeared very fast. I would say at least two weeks if its a healthy anemone and in a healthy tank.
Ian
 
6 weeks seems a bit excessive. I would say anywhere between 2-4 weeks depending on the size of the anemone and the conditions of the tank.
 
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