RBTA growth is out of control!

[Candi]

I received a small rbta just before Christmas from a fellow reefer... my gsm immediately hosted in it these first blurry photos are mins after I put it in the tank. It was so pretty, little, pink, bubbletipped and cute...

Here are photos I took a few days ago... so 1 1/2 months approx.

It's getting out of control... the tank is only a 50g and thankfully not many corals, I keep having to move the few further and futher away. Ginger (my gsm) takes very good care of it, feeding it everytime I feed the tank (and going so far as to catch the live feeder ghost shrimp I put in for my puffer and feeding them to it)

How much bigger can/will it get? If it gets much bigger will it split?

Thanks!

 

[dc]

LOL, looks pretty good. I imagine it will split sooner or later. Mine took 2 years to split.

 

[ATX aquarist]

Yeah they usually get bigger right before they split. But it could be that its not getting enough light or food so is getting bigger to compensate for its short comings.

 

[55semireef]

Are you feeding it anything? Thats remarkable that it grew that fast. What type of lighting is it under?

 

[Giovanni]

You better not get that thing drug tested!! LOL

 

[Anemone]

In my experience, they top out at about 12-14" diameter oral disk... then add on the 4-6" tentacle length.

Yes, it will probably split. Although not all do in captivity, the vast majority do sooner or later. Where you got it is a good indicator of whether it will or not (ie, was it a captive split already... if so, it already has it "in its genes" to split and might be more likely).

If you have a splitter, enjoy your mixed reef while you have it. Eventually you will have a RBTA species tank.

Click on my "little red house" for my (formerly) mixed reef/RBTA tank.

Kevin

 

[Giovanni]

Anemone

All I can say is WOW!!

 

[Candi]

Actually ATX's post was my thought/fear... the reefer I got it from said it didn't seem to like his tank (MH) and kept hiding behind/under rocks... his theory was that it liked less lighting... gave it to me to try out. I only have PC lighting on the tank. That said it could easily move up closer to the light but the only moving it's done is actually over and down a little when I first introduced it. I stopped feeding it myself when I realized how quicklly it was growing and how much food my gsm was giving it (I swear I'm just waiting for her to grab a chromis to try to feed it LOL)

Coloration wise it's bright and pink just like when I got it, eats everything my clown gives it, is "regular"

anemone: I actually saw your tank yesterday as I was googling for more photos of them LOL all I can say is "WOW" too!

 

[catdoc]

You've done very well with it!! Looks great.

 

[dc]

I'm waiting for my tank to look like Anemone's. Taking forever tho. Of course they do look exactly like his! :lol:

 

[Anemone]

Well, anemones are essentially just elastic bags of water, so changing the light intensity can change the size very, very rapidly. In lower light situations, the anemone can swell to maximize the zooxanthella exposure to the light. In higher light, the anemone can shrink to minimize the photosynthetic reaction (as creating too much oxygen can be a problem).

Other things, like water flow, can also influence size. A 3" diameter clone from my tank might expand to 6" fairly quickly in your tanks. Or, a 6" clone might not expand beyond 3", it's tough to be able to guage the different conditions...

Debi - if you're feeding regularly, a 20% water change should make them split. They really do want to take over the earth.

Kevin