The Funny, But Cool Things That Happen

[jc8745]

Like most days, i check out my tanks when coming in from being gone for small periods of time, home from work, in from soccer practices, shopping, or doing whatever. So sunday when we got in from indoor soccer games, and visiting my dad, we sat and checked out the tank. Nothing unusual. So then we went and visited the mother in law, when i got home i started a water change on my 150 fresh water tank. In the middle i glanced over to the reef tank and noticed something wasnt nornal.

This is what i saw:

That's my RBTA, i got it a month ago or so, it was the size of a qtr, it has grown to about golf ball sized.

I continued with my water change on the fresh water tank and watched over the next 2 hours.

So now i'm back to qtr sized rbta, but instead of 1 i have 2.

 

[jokeloma]

That is really cool, It's great that you caught it right in the act of splitting

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

That's awesome, and great pictures.

 

[jc8745]

Thanks,
I was pleasantly surpised, after i figured out what was happening, but i'm curious on why it split while being so small still.
Does anyone know that is normal ?

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

It's not usually that normal for something that small to split. It could have done it through stress, but I doubt it. Anemones; they have no rules. The rebel of the sea

 

[jc8745]

Ok, i'm going to ask what might be a really dumb question,
Can a anemone's growth be stunted,

When i got it, the fish store said they had it for a long time and it hadn grown any. It was only about the size of a quarter. It has done well in my tank, growing in diameter, and growing in height, and stalk thickness. It has moved all over the rock it came on, and sort of on the rock its close to.

I've been feeding it, a mixture diet every other day, flake, brine shrimp, krill, Phytoplankton, and it was loving it, and growing. (the mixtures varies, it doesnt get all that every other day, it gets 2 of them, mixed every other day)

I just always expected it to grow more before splitting.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Not really. Growth can be temporarily stunted, and this is usually through stress. Even clownfish hosting in them can cause this. You say that it is constantly moving. This is a sign of unhappiness. Whether it is a flow issue, lighting or water parameter issue, I can't tell you. But once they settle into a spot, they tend to take off and grow like mad.

 

[jc8745]

The movement is a very slow pattern, not really constant.
It hasnt made any drastic movements, very subtile.

 

[papagimp]

You can stunt their growth by regulating the feeding to some extent. Feeding an anemone like a RBTA twice a week or so will generate more growth than feeding once a month. Granted they will need enough light between feeding as well. Also, I hear that a "bad" water change, such as uneven salinity, ph, alk, ect. ect. can induce one to split. don't own one and havn't tried yet, but that's what I hear anyways. This would fall under the whole "stress" factor as travis mentioned.

 

[sarai826]

Stress will induce splits, even in small anemones... you can really see this with a large water chagne, or water changes that imbalance the tank. And yes, the growth will be stunted if they're not getting enough light. Some unhappiness, also, might be due to inappropriate flow. What lighting do you have?

 

[jc8745]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9399372#post9399372 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by papagimp
You can stunt their growth by regulating the feeding to some extent. Feeding an anemone like a RBTA twice a week or so will generate more growth than feeding once a month. Granted they will need enough light between feeding as well. Also, I hear that a "bad" water change, such as uneven salinity, ph, alk, ect. ect. can induce one to split. don't own one and havn't tried yet, but that's what I hear anyways. This would fall under the whole "stress" factor as travis mentioned.

That makes me think about 2 things,

First,
last week with temps up, the house was warmer than usuall, my temp in the reef raised to 79.5 pushing 80 on occasion. Then on friday with the temps dropping like they did, so did my water temp, dropped to 76.2. I discovered my wife turned off the house heaters (forgot to turn them back on), so temp downstairs dropped to around 65.

I discovered that the heater in the refugium had failed, I did have a back up, and got the temp back up around 78 by early evening sat.

Second,
Firday night, in a haste (started a water change before checking to verify i had enough salt), I changed out some water, and didnt get the salinity back to the same level. It was a little low not a great deal, and it was a 5 - 7 gallon change out.

 

[jc8745]

My light is a 48" power compact (270 Watts), its more than what the fish store had, when i first put the rbta in, it hid, then eventually it it came out and basked in the light.

Most of the time when it moves, is when i have hit or bumbed the power head affecting water flow.

I moved the power head over, cause you could hit it with the glass cleaner, thus everytime one of the kids would clean the glass (play) the power head would be bumped, thuse changing the water flow somewhat.

 

[jc8745]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9399589#post9399589 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sarai826
Stress will induce splits, even in small anemones... you can really see this with a large water chagne, or water changes that imbalance the tank. And yes, the growth will be stunted if they're not getting enough light. Some unhappiness, also, might be due to inappropriate flow. What lighting do you have?

The lighting thing might explain why it hadnt grown that much while at the pet store, the tank it was in, didnt seem to have as much light as i have.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

That temperature swing could have been the cause but I doubt it. E. quadricolor is used to temperatures ranging from 76-82 in the wild. Granted, the swings aren't that fast though. But the water change could have definitely caused the split. Just a difference of a point or two of salinity can have devastating effects on some reef inhabitants.

 

[jc8745]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9399970#post9399970 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Travis L. Stevens
That temperature swing could have been the cause but I doubt it. E. quadricolor is used to temperatures ranging from 76-82 in the wild. Granted, the swings aren't that fast though. But the water change could have definitely caused the split. Just a difference of a point or two of salinity can have devastating effects on some reef inhabitants.

My memory doesnt work as well as it used to, so i dont remember what the difference was exactly, and i'm new enough with saltwater that i dont have the marks on the hydro meter memorized (i can see the marks from firday, just dont remember what they were) fortunately i did write it down, so i can look tonight. (refractometer is on the list of priority buys, but havent freed up the funds yet)

I probably wouldnt recommend the process, but now i have 2 rbta, but the first thing that comes to mind is the pic of that tank filled to the brim with rbta, and a yellow tang squeezed into the corner that someone posted in here.

 

[sarai826]

Temp swings, relatively low lighting and changing salinity...any one of those might be enough to cause/encourage a split, especially if it came from even lower lighting... all three together and I'd definitely call it a stress-split. I've kept RBTAs under PCs before, but keeping them under better lights definitely makes a difference.

RBTA under PCs:

RBTA under VHOs:
Two months after PC shot (year on this picture is wrong):

Six months after PCs:

 

[jc8745]

Just a quick update, both halves seem to be doing fine, both are growing, and have stayed right were they were when they split.

I'll get an updated pic posted soon

 

[jc8745]

By the way, i'm assuming when sara says vho lighting, she is talking abouht t-5's

 

[sarai826]

No, when I say VHO, I'm talking about VHOs-- 2 whites, 2 actinics over a 105g Oceanic tall.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

VHO's are actually T12 Very High Output lights. T5's are T5 High Output lights. The T means how many 8th of an inch the diameter of the bulb is. So, a T12VHO is 12/8" (or 1.5") and a T5HO is 5/8" wide. We reefers call our lights really weird names for some reason. Normal Output is assumed to be T6 or T8, but in lighting terms, Normal Output is any size bulb that isn't high powered. They have NO versions of T12, T8, T6, T5, etc.