Getting nem to split

[dweebiii]

Any advice on how to get my RBTA to split? He's getting huge.

I've tried feeding him more, putting lots of flow on him, etc.

[rucnnefish]

razor or scalpel blade followed by an iodine dip worked for me. I "fragged " a rainbow BTA in half then one of the halves in half again, got 3 now. Takes a while longer for the 1/4's to completely form a mouth and start eating again but they are fine.

[richieii]

Feeding should help

[ThRoewer]

Unless you want to propagate it, I would leave it alone. I would always prefer one larger anemone over a bunch of small ones, especially with anemonefish.

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[dweebiii]

I would give the smaller nems away, and just keep one.

If he doesn't split soon I may try to scalpel. Never done that, though.

[NYCBOB]

a large water change can sometime trigger bta to split.

[phender]

It is hypothesized that there are two species of BTA, one that grows large, lives as an individual and tends to reproduce sexually instead of splitting and one that lives in large colonies of clones that don't grow large as individuals, but instead split at a smaller size and grow large as a colony.

If your anemone is large and has never split and is not the result of a split, I would be hesitant to cut it as it may be the form that doesn't normally reproduce asexually.

[NYCBOB]

what a coincidence, my rose bta just split this morning after a water change. it has never split before.

[ThRoewer]

It is hypothesized that there are two species of BTA, one that grows large, lives as an individual and tends to reproduce sexually instead of splitting and one that lives in large colonies of clones that don't grow large as individuals, but instead split at a smaller size and grow large as a colony.

If your anemone is large and has never split and is not the result of a split, I would be hesitant to cut it as it may be the form that doesn't normally reproduce asexually.
This.

If there are truly two distinct species or if they are just subspecies or even only genetic strains is as far as I know not proven yet.

But the fact remains that there are two different reproduction strategies among BTAs and an individual that follows one does not necessarily do the other.
While sexual reproduction is likely with both to some degree, splitting doesn't have to be.

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[Joey_bananas420]

I have seen way too many large bta split to believe that only the small ones split.

[phender]

I have seen way too many large bta split to believe that only the small ones split.

Not sure what you consider large. The researchers who have proposed this were talking about solitary anemones in the wild that generally exceed 12" and again this was only a hypothesis.

In my 40 years or so of keeping BTAs, I have found that I have had some that tend to split and their oral disk never gets more than about 8" across (some much less) before they split. Others have grown much larger and never split. I have never had one that split and then went on to be massive. My experiences are not scientific, but do match the hypothesis of the researchers.

Its enough to keep me from manually splitting my prize BTA even though I have been offered as much as $600 for a clone.

I was simply passing on info that has been proposed by people who study anemones in a scientific arena.

Also realize that conditions in the wild are not the same as in our tanks and studies done in the wild do not always reflect what we see happening in our tanks.

[reeferdeefer]

I think they split when they are stressed.

[drtrash]

Show it your credit card bill