Propogating RBTAS

Caliburst

Caliburst

New member
I was reading an article in reefkeeper magazine that said when you had a big established RBTA you could remove it, cut it in half with a knife, rinse it off in fresh water and then put it in a floating container for 3-5 days and it would heal as two. The only thing the article said to be as careful of was to slice it directly in half and slice the mouth as close to in half as possible....

Has anyone done this with success? Just curious.

It stands to reason that it should work pretty easily. You can cut up ricordia and large mushrooms like a pizza and they will spread like crazy... they are all in the same family.
 
It can be done. I'm against it. Let nature take its course. I find that a majority of the people that do it are in it for money. I'm not trying to be rude or give a personal attack to anyone, but I just don't believe it is the right thing to do. If you really care about the hobby and don't just want to make money, then don't do it. Again, not trying to be rude and I hope this doesn't come across as rude in any way. It's just my opinion.
 
I personally have never tried cutting an anemone. Ive thought about it. To propigate mine I grow them out in a flat surface in the tank, then do a nice big water change and then move the anemone. That is enough to get them to split naturally.
 
WaffleWalffle22 said:
It can be done. I'm against it. Let nature take its course. I find that a majority of the people that do it are in it for money. I'm not trying to be rude or give a personal attack to anyone, but I just don't believe it is the right thing to do. If you really care about the hobby and don't just want to make money, then don't do it. Again, not trying to be rude and I hope this doesn't come across as rude in any way. It's just my opinion.
Click to expand...

I do follow what your saying,but if we didnt propagate these anemones the price would be rather high and out of many peoples price range.

I look at it like this:

If we dont cut a few fragments off our coral,we would end up with huge colonies of coral that are growing out of the tank and dying.If we dont propagate corals we wouldnt have captive coral.Corals dont propagate them selves.Yes anemones do,but its hard to say if they will ever split.So inorder to get the price of these anemones down and to get captive anemones we must propagate them.

And with our reefs dying every day,why not save a few animals that have a demand?

I propagate them,and I dont do it for them money!I do it to enjoy the hobby.Just like why I breed clownfish.TO ENJOY THE HOBBY!Why not take it to the extreme and propagate them!

Hope that makes scence!

Thats my opinion!
 
clowns101 I completely agree with what you said, if we truly love this hobby we SHOULD propagate them as captive bred animals are much more accustomed to captive life, and it is one less animal taken out of the ocean. they can be produced in quite massive numbers propagated this way.
 
I propagate BTA's using this method. It works great. I've done 3 way splits with less success. Splitting in half so far I'm 100% successful.
 
Re: Propogating RBTAS

Hopefully this thread will get you answers. My experience is either target feed or cut it
 
Clowns101 has persuaded me. Now I understand. :spin3:
I personally think it is stupid how people sell RBTA for up to 10 times as much as a BTA just because it is a "rose anemone". I think hobbyist just stuck the name on it to make money.
 
I can get RBTA's for about $80.GBTA's can run the same price depending on the coloration.A GBTA with purple tips would run about $60 IME's with them.And RBTA's have always been higher in price because of their color and the way they reproduce faster than GBTA's.The rose coloration is common but there is still a demand so there is still a price!

BUT IM NOT SAYING TO EVERYONE WITH A GBTA OR A RBTA TO RIP IT OUT OF THE TANK,TAKE IT TO A CHOPPING BOARD AND CHOP IT IN HALF!
 
I've cut RBTA's a few times. 100% success with both parts if I cut in half also. I don't do it for money, I've done it for other reefers that want one (when I have time and space), and the one's I've cut, have gone out the door for free. Takes a few weeks to feed again, and I think a big part of success is getting it cut right down the middle with the mouth cut in half. I've also done a 50/25/25 cut, and the 25% cut makes it too, just slower to come back. However, the 25% part has died, and the ones that make it, have really struggled. If your tank is healthy, and the nem is healthy, I'd try a 50/50 cut only for a first time, make sure it's a salt water rinse (tank water), not a fresh water (no salt) rinse.
 
Really, as long as the "farmers" are taking good care of their livestock and teaching their customers to do likewise, I don't see anything wrong with just propagating anemones for money. If other hobbyists are willing to pay $$$ for fancy-named morphs, they will. If they won't, the propagators will drop their prices in order to move their nems (and actually, most of the home-propagated BTAs I've seen on offer go for a lot less than commercially produced ones).

No matter what people's motives might be for producing anemones, the bottom line is that more clownfish owners will have access to anemones that didn't have to be taken out of the ocean, and we can all agree that that's a good thing. :D
 
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I'd just done a research on youtube about it. wow! this guy cuts it in 4. It's pretty crazy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5tDIoLROyA

From what i'd seen. i think cutting is better for the anemone. It may look gruesome, but if you had seen them when they split naturally, it's not pretty either. However, when it splits naturally, there are stress factors involve and that's not good for the anemone or your corals. However, if you cut a healthy anemone, they are still healthy and the tank remain healthy.

Here's a naturally splitting anemone footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPwi2QcLKao&NR=1
 
clowns101 said:
I do follow what your saying,but if we didnt propagate these anemones the price would be rather high and out of many peoples price range.

I look at it like this:

If we dont cut a few fragments off our coral,we would end up with huge colonies of coral that are growing out of the tank and dying.If we dont propagate corals we wouldnt have captive coral. Corals dont propagate them selves. Yes anemones do,but its hard to say if they will ever split.So inorder to get the price of these anemones down and to get captive anemones we must propagate them.

And with our reefs dying every day,why not save a few animals that have a demand?

I propagate them,and I dont do it for them money!I do it to enjoy the hobby.Just like why I breed clownfish.TO ENJOY THE HOBBY!Why not take it to the extreme and propagate them!

Hope that makes scence!

Thats my opinion!
Click to expand...
I agree with most of what you said here.

Corals dont propagate them selves.
Click to expand...
Actually they do. They do a lot of asexual reproduction in nature. Corals are well adapted to being damaged. They both regenerate what is broken off as well as growing a new colony from the portion that is "fragged."

I have found that corals grow faster when they are fragged. They also survive moves better when they are broken up before hand. I think it has to do with flow and subsequent oxygenation. I believe this to be one of the causes for RTN and STN.
 
taylor t said:
I've cut RBTA's a few times. 100% success with both parts if I cut in half also. I don't do it for money, I've done it for other reefers that want one (when I have time and space), and the one's I've cut, have gone out the door for free. Takes a few weeks to feed again, and I think a big part of success is getting it cut right down the middle with the mouth cut in half. I've also done a 50/25/25 cut, and the 25% cut makes it too, just slower to come back. However, the 25% part has died, and the ones that make it, have really struggled. If your tank is healthy, and the nem is healthy, I'd try a 50/50 cut only for a first time, make sure it's a salt water rinse (tank water), not a fresh water (no salt) rinse.
Click to expand...

How long does it take to heal? I cut up ricordea like a pizza and they come back quickly.
 
WDLV said:
I agree with most of what you said here.


Actually they do. They do a lot of asexual reproduction in nature. Corals are well adapted to being damaged. They both regenerate what is broken off as well as growing a new colony from the portion that is "fragged."

I have found that corals grow faster when they are fragged. They also survive moves better when they are broken up before hand. I think it has to do with flow and subsequent oxygenation. I believe this to be one of the causes for RTN and STN.
Click to expand...

Walt,
I agree with that too.I was just being sarcastic and stating they dont split.Thanks for correcting me! :)
 
IMO A nice big anemone looks beautiful in a tank, but if you feed your anemones every week or so and feed them a decent amount for their size, you should get them to spit regularly, my rose pictured in my avatar used to split once a month, which is all you can get by cutting if im not mistaken.
 
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