No explanation I can come up for this. My Anemone had a baby?

[Zukari]

I know the title sounds ridiculous but I am honestly lost. I have looked all over the net and have not seen anything to indicate what has happened.

I have in my aquarium a 6-7" rose bubble anemone who has been incredibly healthy, he split a while back due to a move to a new location.. The split however did not survive, as it was all of his scar/hurt tissue. (He moved to another rock during the move, i failed to see this - lifted the rock, tore the anemone. doh)

Fast forward a month - he is back to his normal size, possibly larger. I woke up this morning and next to his foot I saw the smallest anemone I have ever seen - its about the size of the rear end of a pen.

I am about 99.9% sure it is another rose, she has little red tentacles and you can see where several more are starting to grow! And of course a little mouth.

So my question is, where the hell did it come from!? I only have one RBTA! Right now it is so little I could not take a picture of it, but when I get home I will try to snap one.

Either way really excited! I was sure you needed two anemones to successfully spawn them (Not including splits ofc)... so this is a mystery.

Some pictures of the aquarium in question! http://imgur.com/a/oGf5L

If anyone has any information or has seen this happen before, please let me know what I can do to insure the little dudes survival!

Thanks
Zuk

 

[Rippinfrags]

I would attempt to feed it and see if it truly is another rbta. It is most likely a survivor from when your anemone originally split.

 

[Zukari]

I'll make an attempt to feed it... but it is so little... I could try putting a pellet in my blaster to deliver food. Or possibly cut a shrimp up very fine.

 

[Rippinfrags]

I would try turning off your pumps and then use a turkey baster to squirt some finely chopped meaty food(rods food works well) at your anemone.

 

[Mavrk]

BTA's clone themselves by splitting. Sometimes the split is small. I would guess that it did not spawn, but rather this is a bud from the original.

 

[killerbubbles]

Cover any powerheads you may have.

 

[Tmoriarty]

I agree it is most likely a bud, possibly even a growth from when you tried to move it and it tore. That could of triggered a stress split where only a small portion split as you are seeing now.

It does take a spawning event to cause nems to breed, and they would still have to be fortunate enough to settle out and not get sucked down the overflow. The fact it is right next to the mother makes me believe it is a clone.

 

[Zukari]

Awesome guys! Thanks so much for the advice! I still haven't been able to get my camera at an angle where I can snap a shot of him. I will turn my power heads off tonight and again try to feed the little guy.

I assume you are all right about it being a small bud off the parent, because come to think of it I remember seeing a really small chunk of her fell off, and was attached to the rock and was gone the next day... It was literally a chunk of brown looking anemone ****, but still anemone.

I hope it lives, I just switched to an Al Sol Blue LED setup... I can't imagine that would hurt it - but everything really did like the old HQI (Aside from me and the insane heat output)

Will try to post a picture/updates.