RBTA "split" horizontally???

[mikelaubach]

I got a RBTA clone from a local reefer on Nov 23rd. Put it into QT and by Dec 21st there was evidence that it was going to split. On Dec 29th, it deflated itself completely during the day, and blew up to the size of a baseball at night. By the next morning, there were two. Both healed up fine.

Until today.

The one was still in great shape, so I moved that one into the display tank, but the other one split the "head" from the foot. ??? There is nothing in the tank that could do that to it. There are some small (1/2" or so) bristleworms as part of the natural sandbed, but no fish or shrimp, or crabs, or anything else. Also, no unprotected powerheads or pumps.

What happened? I've heard of losing your head over something, but really?

The foot was still sticky and looks pink and healthy other than the apparent open stomach-type cavity, but the "head" is looking deflated and quite sickly.

--MIKE--

 

[ilvfsh]

I've never heard of this before. I've seen then split inyo 3 and 4.

 

[MarineFlake]

Same, this would be the first I have ever read of a nem 'naturally' losing its 'head' or oral disk (heh). Perhaps it drew a game of chicken with a pump or per chance a fellow tank mate finds it overly appealing? Don't know, be cool to see a photo though.

 

[mikelaubach]

So it's been a week, and I've been watching it to see what it will do instead of just tossing it. Again, no predators, no pumps to interact with, this was, and had to be, a completely natural event. If it is determined that the event was stress induced, I'm OK with that. Though I doubt we can really make that call scientifically.

The head appeared from the beginning as though it would be fine. The tentacles remained inflated, and for all intents and purposes, it looked like a RBTA just without the foot. The tentacles remained sticky through the entire ordeal. I would just touch the tip of my finger to the tip of one tentacle (E.T. style) and slowly withdraw until it naturally released. I only did this 2-3 times over the past week just to check the health without wanting to interact too much.

The foot kept the pink color and remained inflated this whole time. Checking tonight, there are definitive tentacles growing out of the foot!!!! This is a truly amazing show of regeneration. I thought for sure I'd lose the foot, as it was looking REALLY bad after the decapitation as you can see below (oh, who am I kidding, you looked at the pix first, and then read the text ).

These photos were taken the next morning after my finding that the "head popped off" (taken 1/16/10):

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This was taken after the white lights came on:

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These last two were taken just a bit ago, and show that the foot has healed up and is growing obvious new tentacles:

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So NO ONE has seen this occur naturally? There is no way that *I* have the first case of this. I only get first cases when it's something horrific and no one knows how to cure or fix it! :lol:

 

[flyhigh123]

congrats! there is always a first...

 

[fishview]

WOW, I have RBTA for 4 years, and they never do that.
I heard that people cut the them into pieces and each has a section of the mouth. They will regrow without problem.

 

[HoppyBunny]

What a crazy situation...although it looks like everyone might make it through. Beautiful color on that RBTA by the way!