Rics splitting, a mystery

[OARrocks]

I bought two ricordeas on a little piece of rock and they were placed on a flat piece of lr...

Over the last 8 months one has doubled in size and recently split and the other hasn't grown at all. Side by side, same light, same flow, identical conditions.

Very strange animals

 

[Don-Coraleone]

they do grow slow. cut them and they will grow faster.

 

[Tallinu]

From looking at your picture I see two types of Rics. I see in the foreground behind the green Discosoma, a Florida ric that has split. And behind, a little further up the hill there I see a Yuma. Are these the two rics in question? If so the only thing they share is the first name Ricordea. They are nothing alike in terms of difficulty to keep or ease of reproduction. Thats a beautiful spiky healthy looking Yuma you have. The Florida in the foreground will split often. Yumas, on the other hand, will form little babies by either slowly creeping in a direction and leaving a present for you behind. Or they can extend an edge of their foot like dripping candle wax which will eventually seperate and form a baby. Or very rarely I've seen pictures but never had any of my Yuma's form buds up on their topside which eventually seperate. Yuma's also spawn, having eggs etc, super rare event and your doing things right if they do. One thing Yuma's almost never do is split unless it's with a razorblade. Another thing I've personally seen but not heard before was they form another pedal disc on the underside of their disc. Extend and attach to another point their disc can reach, so they would have two attach points and become sort of elongated. After a period of a few weeks they release and presto, another new yuma forming.

What I do is feed my Yuma's frozen mysis shrimp. Your florida will love them too, mine do. Use a turkey baster and target feed a couple times a week. Yumas are more solitary and grow slower and tend to scoot away from each other, so this will help yours out a little bit. He looks great though.

Tal

 

[JMCAquarium]

I second Tallinu the Florida rics are at full size and will split to reproduce but the yuma doesn't even look half grown yet. the Yuma’s normally drop babies versus splitting that's not saying they don't split though just have to be bigger or something has to annoy them as Don stated cutting them will induce reproduction however you risk killing them if you cut improperly
Good luck

 

[OARrocks]

I'm talking about the two floridas in that pic. The yuma has since doubled in size.

It actually a different landscape now, that is an old pic. the disco has since detached and drifted elsewhere and the two floridas moved to where the disco was. As mentioned earlier they were side by side, one grew and split, the other stayed the exact same size.

 

[Tallinu]

Ok I think I follow what your saying now. Your talking about the two Florida twins in the picture without an updated pic and not including the Yuma at all in the discussion which was misleading because you had a split ric and a second ric shown. There is not a whole lot of mystery there. What makes a Florida split is technically at two ends of the spectrum. Stress or injury at one end. And very good health and reproductive ability at the other. I've had dime to nickel sized Florida's come ordered online that had three mouths and were splitting. Thats tiny! I've had a Florida that wouldn't split untill it was over four inches across. Thankfully Floridas do split often. Target feed the one in question a few times a week and see if it doesn't kick in for you.

Tal