fish clown
New member
I have 3 rose bubble anenomes and would like them to split. What is the best way to make an anemone split?
how do you split anemone???
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Ron Reefman
Active member
The best way is to keep them healthy and happy, feed them and wait for them to split on their own.
fish clown
New member
How often sould i feed them? Right now I am hand feeding them every other day.
Ron Reefman
Active member
Actually, that's probably too often (depending on how big it is and what you are feeding it). I have about 15 anemones (7 different species) and I feed them once or twice a month. But I feed a small piece of shrimp or silversides which is a hearty meal for an average anemone. Feeding more than I do isn't bad, but I don't think (not sure, but it's my understanding) that anemones don't process bigger whole food all that quickly. My RBTA gets to be about the size of a baseball and then splits. I started with 2 (from a friend) and have moved 3 off to new homes and still have 2 over an 18 month period.
RBTA can be cut in half (if you have the nerve and a real desire). But I'm not a big fan of the idea. BTW RBTA can get much bigger than mine, but the friend I got them from said they had split 3 or 4 times while he had them and they never got real big. Another friend has one that is the size of kids football and it only split once in 4-5 years. If you do cut it, be sure to get some of the mouth in each half. But I'm not telling you this to encourage you, I'd advise against it.
RBTA can be cut in half (if you have the nerve and a real desire). But I'm not a big fan of the idea. BTW RBTA can get much bigger than mine, but the friend I got them from said they had split 3 or 4 times while he had them and they never got real big. Another friend has one that is the size of kids football and it only split once in 4-5 years. If you do cut it, be sure to get some of the mouth in each half. But I'm not telling you this to encourage you, I'd advise against it.
+? ... not sure I can agree with that...many people say the anemone splits when stressed/unhappy, some people say overfeeding may cause it to split.
I had a RBTA that I fed (maybe) 1X a month and it didn't move for 3+ years and got to be almost 2' across...within 24 hrs of moving it to a bigger tank, it split and kept moving around stinging corals...I sold both pieces.
I picked up a new RBTA about 6 months ago...previous owner told me it splits all the time...it split within 48 hrs of going into my tank...I kept 1 in my DT, it found a spot it likes, gets fed 1x a month, has doubled in size and NOT split since. (thank God)
fish clown
New member
Ive been looking around on RC and other sites and some people blasted a powerhead straight at it and another guy acidently left his lights on for 24hrs. What do think would be the better way to do that between the powerhead, long lighting, and overfeeding?
There's some thought to there being two types of BTA. One of them grows to a certain size (maybe just a bit bigger than a baseball) and then splits. The other type tends to grow larger (like football or a kids soccer ball) and then spawns. Both of the kinds will do both methods of reproduction though. Try to get one that you know splits at a small size if you want them to stay small.
fish clown
New member
I am trying to get them to split so I can make a few bucks. My anemones are easy to keep and worth $100 a pop. What would you recomend for food?
Ron Reefman
Active member
I think you are right about a stressed anemone splitting. But since, I don't advocate cutting an anemone in half to make two, I guess I'd be against stressing the anemone out on purpose to get it to split. :headwally:
Raceimage
Premium Member
The Pgh Marine Aquarium Society cuts them every year at our fragging workshop. Take it out of the water, place it on a cutting board for a minute or so (to expell most of the water it has retained), slice it through the mouth with a sharp knife, rinse it off, and place both halves in a small container of saltwater. We have air bubbling in the containers. The cuts are normally healed over in 30 minutes. We have a forum section on our web site if you want to inquire on there:
http://www.pmasi.org/frm/
Some of our meetings have been recorded so there may be a video of it being done.
http://www.pmasi.org/frm/
Some of our meetings have been recorded so there may be a video of it being done.
fish clown
New member
Does any one have experiece with spliting anemones by having the lights on a long time or blasting powerhead on them?
davocean
Active member
Cutting them to split comes w/ pretty big risk of losing one or even both halves, most of us don't advise doing that.
Overfeeding is a pretty harmless way to get them to split, I've never heard a negative issue from this.
Quite often a tank swap or change in params similar will bring on a split.
I feed raw shrimp or scallops, small pieces, maybe once a month.
Step that up to once a week or slightly more and you should see them split.
Overfeeding is a pretty harmless way to get them to split, I've never heard a negative issue from this.
Quite often a tank swap or change in params similar will bring on a split.
I feed raw shrimp or scallops, small pieces, maybe once a month.
Step that up to once a week or slightly more and you should see them split.
davocean
Active member
I don't advocate rushing anything, but if someone is set on inducing a split, I'll at least give a safe option, and this is by far better than cutting it.
bues0022
New member
My first piece of advise - This is an expensive hobby.
Last week you were looking for advise on how to breed clowns to make money to offset your purchases. Next, you purchased two yellow tangs for a 75 gallon tank. Now, you are asking how to cut up your anemones to make money.
Your tank isn't a get rich quick scheme. Is it possible to make some minor amounts of money from your tank? Yes - BUT - first you have to know what you're doing (and don't think it'll be anything more than a few bucks here and there - mow a lawn once a month and you'll make more money). You're brand new to the hobby. Take some time to enjoy learning about it. READ READ READ!! People have split BTA's before, but you must understand the appropriate care requirements for one first before even thinking of attempting (and since you have a new tank with 3 RBTA's, I'm guessing you really do not fully understand their care, or you wouldn't have them in your tank to begin with).
Read before you purchase. Read before you ask questions. Read before you attempt to even think you can make money from a hobby tank. Do the hobby because you enjoy it. If you can't afford to run a SW tank without being able to make some money from it to offset costs, stop now before you kill any animals. Save your money and do it right when you are more financially able to do so.
SushiGirl
Premium Member
:thumbsup:
