how do you split anemone???

The guy who sold me the tangs said he took care of tanks for a living so I trusted his advice. I can afford the tank but it is expensive so Ive been looking for ways to lower my costs. When you split anemones it hardly costs anything exept for food and they are worth quite a bit. I am in contact with a friend who has a 150gal. reef who has compleatly overkilled his whole setup. I will read before my puchaces in the future.
 
As a rule of thumb - distrust anyone attempting to sell you anything. They'll tell you half-truths all day long if it means more money in their pocket.
 
I've been feeding my BTA store-bought fresh shrimp. I give it about 1/5 of a shrimp, and about 3 days later it discharges the waste (which I suck up with a turkey baster). It looks like crap for about a 1/2 then perks up and looks better than before (more tentacles, puffier tips and growing bigger). Basically, I don't think I could feed it more than every 3-4 days if I wanted to (I feed about once a week trying to nurse it back from the partial bleaching it took at the LFS).
 
bues0022 said:
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.
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Very good advice!!
 
Wow.... people are so dam judgemental. Two yellows in a 75g is a bit excessive and will most likely result in fighting. Breeding clowns can take an extremly long time if it ever happens (I have had the same pair for a year, they dont go in nems and dont breed).

I am a strong believer that their are more than one type of E. quad, this is shown by the fact that some of my E. quads get along and dont stress eachother out, even different colors, and some of my E. quads have to be moved to another tank because they cause chemical warfare with eachother. The ones that split often usually dont grow much larger than a softball. I feed all my nems every other day to every day (mysis/my own seafood mix). They get fed with the rest of the tank and do very well. With that said they dont get fed a lot, the equivalent of a few mysis every day or two.

You can cause them to split just by keeping them happy and feeding, or by stressing them out, or by cutting them in half. BTA's are known for their ability to heal them selfs, and if you do cut yours their is a good chance with proper care both halfs will survive. Do not cut them If you do not understand the process or the care requirements, they will take a 1-3 months to really heal, expect that as a turn around before you could sell one.

Do not count on getting $100 dollars for any of your RBTA's on your local forums, its possible but unlikely. Expect to get more like 50-75$ for good looking ones.

To the guy who thinks mowing a lawn once a month gets you more money than a salt tank... pssh, seriously you know better. I have a large tank, its not cheap to keep it and I am not trying to make any money off of it, but that does not stop me from making $50 dollars everytime someone comes over and wants a few frags (I sell stuff cheap). The cost of keeping a reef tank can be almost completly offset by selling quality frags from the tank.

I do however agree with most of the people here, you should just let the nem split naturally, when it does sell the split if you want, or more intellegently, wait until they both split again and you have 4 to start selling them.

Just my .02
 
Thanks Tmoriarty, Finnaly someone that understands. I bought my tank of craigslist and I personaly did not fall in love with some of the corals so I may sell a few frags or corals and eventualy anemones but I will try to not rush anything. I understand that It wont be making any Real money any time soon buy it may make a nice dent in costs.
 
Not sure what kind of RBTA I have, but mine has been splitting naturally. I feed once maybe twice a month. I only feed raw shrimp or mysis. I do soak the raw shrimp in Selcone over night before I feed them. I have T-5 for lighting and my water checks good. I bought one RBTA from someone locally and now have over 20. I've sold alot of them locally now cause there's just to many of them... :bounce3:

Here's a pic, all started from one RBTA. I made an island for them but they started to move to the other island, which I didn't want.

picture.php
 
gixxerman said:
Not sure what kind of RBTA I have, but mine has been splitting naturally. I feed once maybe twice a month. I only feed raw shrimp or mysis. I do soak the raw shrimp in Selcone over night before I feed them. I have T-5 for lighting and my water checks good. I bought one RBTA from someone locally and now have over 20. I've sold alot of them locally now cause there's just to many of them... :bounce3:

Here's a pic, all started from one RBTA. I made an island for them but they started to move to the other island, which I didn't want.
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That's awesome, congrats! What's your average sell price?
 
Sweet tank!!! I fed my anemones half a uncooked store bought shrimp and that has made a HUGE difference!!! before I was feeding them a little bit of Rods food every other day. The store bought shrimp seemed to make it look bigger, heather and makes you like your anemones that much more. Thanks for the suggestions
 
fish clown said:
Thanks Tmoriarty, Finnaly someone that understands.
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Actually I think most of us understand quite well.
We just don't advocate rushing into things and most of us definitely don't like doing anything that could be harmful.
Many of us have been doing this a long time, and already know what is involved in breeding clowns and what the payoff is and time involved, and that itself keeps many of us from going that route.
I understand wanting to have your hobby pay for itself, and that is possible, I just would not expect that to always come easy or be such a turnkey operation.
 
One of my anemones has shrunk to around half the size as before and spit out the two quater peices of shrimp. Does it just not like that type of shimp or what?
 
fish clown said:
One of my anemones has shrunk to around half the size as before and spit out the two quater peices of shrimp. Does it just not like that type of shimp or what?
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Mine always shrinks and looks like crap for about a 1/2 hour after digesting a few days. I haven't seen solid shrimp come back out, just stringy waste, but the sexy shrimp might be grabbing and eating any chunks.

How long did it have it before it spit it back out? Are the others happy with the shrimp?
 
davocean said:
Actually I think most of us understand quite well.
We just don't advocate rushing into things and most of us definitely don't like doing anything that could be harmful.
Many of us have been doing this a long time, and already know what is involved in breeding clowns and what the payoff is and time involved, and that itself keeps many of us from going that route.
I understand wanting to have your hobby pay for itself, and that is possible, I just would not expect that to always come easy or be such a turnkey operation.
Click to expand...
Sorry if you feel like im ignoring your advice but ive realy learned more on RC than I could have imagend. There is just an infinate aboult of information on this hobby. He realy was the first one that actuly made a suggestion that takes hardly any effert becides fraging the coral. It dosnt make a HUGE amount of money but it would be worth the time. It seems to me that that it would realy be about the same case with anemones. Just feed it a little extra and wait for it to split. Then post it on craigslist for a reasonable price. Im not trying to make a bussinus out of this im just trying to lessen my costs. I have some coral that i dont Love so Ill sell those and frag some ones I do like. Please tell me if there are any faults in this plan but it seems to me that It would help because your not adding any more electric costs or anything but some more food.
 
RBTA's are really hardy, I accidentally split one with a hammer and both halves were just fine. i diddn't smash it with a hammer, but the rock split in the wrong place while I was chipping other clones off a large piece of flat rock and ripped one in to 2 equal pieces.

~Will.
 
fish clown said:
Sorry if you feel like im ignoring your advice but ive realy learned more on RC than I could have imagend. There is just an infinate aboult of information on this hobby. He realy was the first one that actuly made a suggestion that takes hardly any effert becides fraging the coral. It dosnt make a HUGE amount of money but it would be worth the time. It seems to me that that it would realy be about the same case with anemones. Just feed it a little extra and wait for it to split. Then post it on craigslist for a reasonable price. Im not trying to make a bussinus out of this im just trying to lessen my costs. I have some coral that i dont Love so Ill sell those and frag some ones I do like. Please tell me if there are any faults in this plan but it seems to me that It would help because your not adding any more electric costs or anything but some more food.
Click to expand...

No big, I offer advice or share my experience as a means to help those in this hobby, what you do w/ that advice is solely up to you.
 
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