RBTA Breakup!!!

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King Nothing!
Went to bed and all was cool... got up the next morning and there where two!!!! How cool is that..

Anybody in the market for a RBTA? I won't be keeping two, but then again maybe I can get four.. lol

JW
 
Splitting can be a bad sign... if its a new RBTA and a week into your tank, it is usually from the stress of moving tanks. If you had it for months... get the idea to start feeding silverslides too every day, within a week, it will split from over feeding. Splitting them is typically a sign of a stressor, not that its not a bad or good thing though. If it split and it was larger, then you should be fine. PS, I would like the extra one if you still have it.
 
After that comment I did some reading up myself, just to make sure it was not streesed in some way and I don't beleive that to be the case.

I have had it in the tank for 6~7months I would guess alont with a HUGE LTA and both have been doing quite well. They are staitionary, which I believe to be a sign of a happy, health anenome. I feed them silversides about once or twice a week, give or take a day.

I have also read that it can take up to two weeks for the mouth to fully form once they split and you should not feed them during this time frame. So at a minium I will keep them both in the tank long enough to be sure they are both healthy and eating. After that I will put one of them up for sale.

The original was probrably about softball size blown up, so the two are probrably about baseball size now. So far, so good, will keep you posted.

Thanks,
 
From what I've heard, splitting is usually due to stress, but stress is not necessarily bad. It could be from a H2o change or H2O top-off. It can be done by not feeding for a couple days or feeding something different. It can be caused due to no changes in the tank, constant changes, variable temp, clowns taking to it, clowns leaving it. Just about anything can cause a split.

It is not a bad sign under certain conditions. If you get an aquacultured, or aesexually reproduced anemone, the chances are that it will continue to split once adjusted to your tank. It took mine six months to split, but then after the first, another occurred three weeks after. All of them got small for a while, but when I started daily feeding, they all grew back to normal size. I would wait a week after splitting before starting to feed, but not much more. An anem mouth should heal within five days or so, but a week is pretty standard.

Just make sure that the anemone does not continue to decrease in size post-split and it should do fine. If the large one wasn't bubbled up before, you have a good chance that the smaller ones will. Congrats, I have three from my one and I am very happy. By the way, some people induce splitting in an anem through a large water change or a change of some sort to slightly stress the animal into splitting. This is the same idea behind ORA clam reproduction: take the female out of water for an hour. She starts to think that she will die and quickly expells her eggs to attempt to continue the bloodline. Once she produces her eggs, you put her back in the water and let nature take its course. Funny how stress causes a survival mode to kick in instictually in animals.
 
this has been a great read to learn about BTAs. My BTA splits quite regularly, although I can't pinpoint a particular stress-related issue. Here's my main question: I can't seem to get the "splits" to live. Any ideas on how to make sure they begin to mature?
-Daryl
 
well, what is your water quality like? Is it stable? What about lighting? Although some people have had luck with anenomes under high amounts of pc lighting, the general consensus is that they can not be kept happy without metal halides, or at the very least some high wattage vhos. They are also very sensitive to changes in water quality, temperature swings, etc. Every time I have read a post about rbta's splitting it has been related to a stress issue, and most of the time its probably lighting related (IMO). I have never heard that this splitting is a good thing.
 
Well, I'll admit, lighting is an issue in my 55 (I've got PCs). However, I thought that they were one species of anemone that could deal with PCs. When I upgrade to my 120, I'll have a 6-lamp T5 fixture, so maybe that will help it.
The water parameters are stable and good, so the lighting must be the issue. I need to target feed it as well - I think silversides are what is called for.
 
Not only can they live under pc's, but they can easily thrive under them. I will not recommend having them under pc's, but I have 6 tanks and 3 RBTA's in three of those tanks. One under VHO and doing fine. One under MH/VHO and doing fine. One under pc's and doing better than all of them. If you feed, lighting should be of little worry as, although they have photosynthetic properties, they gain most of their energy from feeding. Keep carpets under MH, but BTA's should do absolutely perfect under anything higher output than Normal Output(NO) lighting. Go to www.rareclownfish.com and do a search on the topic. Those are the pros at breeding clowns and many of them have had amazing results under PC's. That is what made me decide to try it under PC's and it is doing better than any other. Whenever I get home from vacation, I'll take a pic of the one under PC and you can judge for yourself.

I feed daily and I feed a mixture of different stuff. If you have any questions on my care for anems, PM me and I can give you details.
 
http://www.carlosreef.com/AnemoneFAQ.pdf

Here is a great resource for anenome information. Although they list the BTA as possible to be kept under "high vho" lighting, they say nothing about power compacts. You say you don't recommend keeping them under pc's, but your entire post was supporting keeping them under lighting that most would consider way too low for a bta. You stated, "BTA's should do absolutely perfect under anything higher output than Normal Output(NO) lighting". You mean to say that I can put 40w of pcs over a 55 and expect that anenome to not only live, but to do "absolutely perfect"?

Like I said in my previous post, some have had luck keeping them under pc's, however I would never recommend that. Taking your own personal experience, and giving advice based upon that is fine and dandy, but hobby standards take precedence in my opinion.

In my research I have found that BTA splitting is most commonly due to stress, and can normally be traced to a specific cause. In his case, that cause is most likely the lighting situation because he has said nothing about water quality problems/temp swings, etc.
 
What kind of bulb is a 40W PC? Is it meant for a 55G tank? Let's be reasonable...when I say this, it obviously means(to anyone who has ever worked in reefs, at least) that you will be using proper requirements on amount of light. I.E. if you hav a 55G, you should obviously use a 48" fixture and use at least 220W of PC. I would think that anyone caring for a reefs would understand this without someone having to explain that...I guess I was wrong. I assumed and I guess I shouldn't do that with the people on here. My bad.

That statement in your second paragraph is exactly why I said what I did. I will not recommend it because most experts will say that you should not do it. I don't want someone coming back to me and whining about me telling them something that killed some of their livestock or holding me accountable for what could be one of thousands of problems by blaming it on lighting and concluding it's my fault.

Again, that being said, I, along with many other people, have had extremely good success under any reef light; let me add, withing normal range for reef caretaking, not 10W on a 1000G tank, for those who may misread my comments. I initially began with the politically correct response and continued on to my personal experiences. I feel that my statement still holds from personal experience of at this moment doing what some experts say is impossible...I don't see how it is so impossible if so many peole do it with such great results. Then again, everything in this hobby is what works for you, not what works for other people. Find out what works for you and stick with it. Don't come here for answers, come here for experiences. Answers are only worth the tank they are working for, not for your tank.

Also, I think the conditions that raised the anemone is a bigger factor in splitting than stress. Commonly tank bred/cloned/raised anemones that come from a split are much more likely to split in your aquarium than a wild caught one. Of course, this is only from what I have read. I do not claim to be an expert, but I do read about this stuff all day. I read experiences, I experience myself, I experiment, I read breeders, aquaculturalists, their tests and findings. This is what interests me, so I don't only use RC or a few experts books. Yes, those experts know a lot about what they are talking, but the hobbiests out there that are not necessarily bio doctors still have experienced(and many times for more years than any of those young doctors) and are as knowledgable and respected as the best of them. Don't discount any knowledge because it doesn't happen in your tank. It can and probably has happened somewhere. We have to remember RC is one of the top sources for info on reef topics, but is far from the ONLY source. It just seems like most of that link is just regurgitated from the books on reference. It is a great quick source for anemones, but I wonder what actual research they did to come up with VHO being the minimum. Was it just a poll of people.

Again, I just give my experience and the stories I have been told. I will say again and for the last time, I keep these anemones, I have them under multiple lighting setups, I have them from the same DNA(splits of each other), I keep the tanks fairly controlled(no I am not perfect and not an absolute scientist on the issue) and I feed exactly the same. I have a pair of clowns in each of the tanks and only one tank in which they host in the anem. I'm not trying to persuade people to go out and minimalize for a BTA, that is exactly why I said I won't recommend. On the other hand, I will not tell people it is impossible because it is not.
 
Im ready to get him out... A couple people PM'ed me about it earlier, if your interested, please PM me again...

Thanks,

Jack
 
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