when to get anemone

[rysher]

i have a 40B,
aquaticlife 4x39watt T5VHO using ATI bulbs purp +, 2 blu+ and 1 aquablu special.


on my 4th week of cycling, water parameters are
salinity - 1.026
ammonia- 0
nitraite - 0
nitrate - 0
ph - 8.2

how many more weeks/mos before i can get an RBTA?
BTW, how big does the RBTA get?

 

[bradam]

rule of thumb is 6 months after all your levels go normal isn't it?

My green bubble tips seem get about 8-10 inches across, stay that way for a random # of months, then split in half. Normally a day or 2 after I did a water change.

 

[Tang tank]

When you say it split...do you mean it reproduced so now you have 2 in the tank? And is that common with most anemones?

 

[jimmy frag]

anemones

anemones

whos rule of thumb is 6 months. if you can add fish after your tank cycles i would think your good to go as bubble tips are a lot hardier than most fish

 

[bradam]

When you say it split...do you mean it reproduced so now you have 2 in the tank? And is that common with most anemones?

Yep they completely split in half, creating 2 seperate individuals. Mine has done that a dozen or so time over the 5-6 years I've owned it. One tends to stay right where the orignal was and the other goes off roaming for greener pastures. Being that I dont want 2 of them I just get the roamer to move onto a smaller rock, scoop up and bag him, and give 'em to friends/lfs. It has budded (right word?) twice. Which is where it just kind of pushed out a mini-verison of itself. One of those moved into my rock pile and was never seen again, the other never grew a mouth and died about a week or so later.

I believe only bubble tips and ritteri split in captivity. Atleast semi commonly.

 

[bradam]

whos rule of thumb is 6 months. if you can add fish after your tank cycles i would think your good to go as bubble tips are a lot hardier than most fish

Mine =) Actually was what the LFS told me years ago so I kinda stuck by it.

Anemones are magnitudes more fragile animals then fish are. You could probably get away with adding one sooner but being that no one has figured out a way to breed these delicate creatures in captivity I think its better to error on the side of caution with them. There are only so many to be snatched from the ocean.

 

[jimmy frag]

bubbles seperating

bubbles seperating

well i breed them on a regular basis. these creatures are a lot hardier than you may think. if you want to get a tank full in a short amount of time try this. take a rock out of your d tank with the bubble on it, place it in a pail with your tank water and a small power head. keep it in room temperature, no heater and no light. this will obviously stress the bubble and naturaly force him to split for sevival. in as little as 2 days i have gotten 13 bubbles from 1. i have never lost a bubble tip and sold at least 100. still have the original strain after 3 year and still has its beautifull color

 

[Toddrtrex]

well i breed them on a regular basis. these creatures are a lot hardier than you may think. if you want to get a tank full in a short amount of time try this. take a rock out of your d tank with the bubble on it, place it in a pail with your tank water and a small power head. keep it in room temperature, no heater and no light. this will obviously stress the bubble and naturaly force him to split for sevival. in as little as 2 days i have gotten 13 bubbles from 1. i have never lost a bubble tip and sold at least 100. still have the original strain after 3 year and still has its beautifull color

IMO, that is a poor practice -- would be better off just cutting them.

And to recommend one to a newbie, with a tank that has only been set up for 4 weeks is another thing I disagree with, alone with them being hardier then fish.

BTW -- been keeping anemones for 15+ years, the longest one was in my care for 12+ years (( an S. Haddoni )).

 

[jimmy frag]

anemones

anemones

i didnt rec. to a newbie. i asked whos rule of thumb. i also only said they are hardier than some fish. and my god slicing one in half wih a knife is in my opinion quite crule as having them split through a little stress.

 

[Toddrtrex]

i didnt rec. to a newbie. i asked whos rule of thumb. i also only said they are hardier than some fish. and my god slicing one in half wih a knife is in my opinion quite crule as having them split through a little stress.

You do know that E Quadricolors can be propagated that way, and comes with a lot less risk then subjecting the anemones to stress to cause a split. Getting 13 from one in 2 days shows just how stressed it was, and are very lucky that you didn't lose them all.