Anemone Growth - now SPLIT!

A

Ashlar

Matt's recent split / sale of his clone got me thinking about how much our little sherman rose clone had grown. I looked at some old pictures, and it really surprised me..

11/15 - When we got it, it was about 3" across and very bubble tipped..
new_11_15.jpg
alt="">

12/1 - Tentacles starting to stretch out.. at it's max, about 4" across
later_12_1.jpg
alt="">

12/4 - Got a new Clarkii, which once hosting, caused the anemone to lose it's bubbles entirely.
later_12_4.jpg
alt="">

1/23 - Now, it's about 7" across (the color change is due to different lighting and camera)..
now_1_23.jpg
alt="">
 
Very nice. Even your images grew. hehe

The latest picture shows those lovely tentacles. Funny how a BTA ends up looking like and LTA as it gets mature.
 
@Marc wrote:
Funny how a BTA ends up looking like and LTA as it gets mature. said:
Somehow Bekah doesn't think it's funny :(. Every week I get grilled as to why her 'nem doesn't bubble up anymore and look all 'cute' and 'pretty'? Love our Sherman RTBA though, beautiful creature.
Click to expand...
 
Well if this doesn't beat all.. I got up this morning to find... a little 2" clone sitting on top of that rock with a thin string connecting it to it's parent down in the rock.

It pinched off a clone.. overnight. Woah, I thought these things took time.

Forgive the pics, the parent is down in the rock, and the clone is up top. We'll see when the parent comes back out exactly how big it still is..

Notice the little 'string' connecting them..
splitting.jpg
alt="">

and here's a top down showing them both (sorta)- the clone is on the left
top_down.jpg
alt="">
 
We're tickled about this, but I'm a wee bit confused.

Other folks who've had them split, any clue what causes it?

I've been feeding this one some brine every 5 to 7 days, using a turkey baster, and the Clarkii drops a wee bit of food in during his feedings (and is disappointed when it's not there later! ;)) I'd tried some meatier bigger foods, but it didn't like that as much - puked it out, whatever. It seems to handle brine nicely.

It's under good flow, good light, etc.

Hubby (Ashlar up there *points*) has been more reticent to feed it than I, but my feeling was that it seemed to "like" it, and it has certainly grown since we got it, so don't fix what ain't broke?

I know the whole husbandry of this creature is really still in its infancy, and we're all learning while we go along, but what are your experiences?
 
I feed mine cut up 3/8-1/2" pieces of raw shrimp that I bought from the local World Asian Market (Cheaper than the local grocery store) about 2 times a week (if even that). I have found that if I feed it more often, or bigger pieces, it will expunge what it doesn't need (much to the delight of my shrimps)

As for what caused mine to split, stress. It seems stressing the nem will trigger a survival mode where it has to clone itself to increse the chance of it surviving. The first time it attempted to split was when it was exposed for an extended period of time during a massive water change. It started the process the next day and then decided it was going to stay as one.

The time it actually split was after I had moved it from my 55gal into a holding tank and then into the new 75gal. The following day it split into 2 equal size pieces.

The 2nd time it split, all seemed normal except one morning there was a little 4" clone on the back rock. I never did check tank parameters to see if there was anything out of wack to stress it.

Hope this helps.
 
It was stress that I'd always heard, too - and yet this one really wasn't in a stressful situation recently. I guess it just, I dunno, was time for it?
 
Kinda funny actually... For the 3 or so years that I ignored my tank (No water changes, irrefular feedings, no replacing my light bulbs, etc) my GBTA was splitting like clockwork every 3 months or so...

In the 9 months since I started taking active care of my tank again, I've had one split, and that was about 8 months ago...

Please note, I'm not advocating that you don't practice good husbandry practices with anemone tanks, just relaying my own personal experiences...
 
Lisa,
I feed mine pieces of silverside maybe twice a week. I have to fight off my cleaner shrimp from stealing the food, but the RBTA always eat the silversides up.
 
for me I also believe stress and have even read a study somewhere w/ the same findings. My splits have come after either tank move or major water changes/cleanings. I even had issues w/ my lighting for a few days of no light and than w/i a week after getting back up I got a split. so i am sure that stress is a stimuli to initiate splitting.
 
That's what I'd heard, but the mouth was fine yesterday, and I can't see one on the new clone. Granted, I haven't seen the whole clone, heck it's not even finished splitting.. but no sign of a mouth yet.
 
Poor little clarkii.. he's trying to sleep in the clone, but he looks more like a bald man with a very bad toupee.. LOL
 
The mouth is nearest the split. And the good news is the baby will have bubbles soon. Be sure to feed each one pea-sized food.
 
They both look really nice today - excellent color, full tentacles. I need to take a pic.

I'm a bit concerned about their rock placement. The parent moved down to the "first floor" of the cavern in this rock, and the new one is up top. The lower area has good flow but the light isn't so faboo, and I don't want to inspire either of them to go a-wandering in search of better accomodations. Scott and I think we're gonna rotate the rock today to make sure everybody's getting sufficient light.

Will post in a bit with new pics.
 
I also have a sherman rbta, and really love it. Mine has slpit a couple times in the last 8-9 months. (Cant really say why)

Mine also lost its nice bubble tips, and now looks more like an LTA. Is this normal or should I be worried. I havent seen any irregular actions out of it, but thought it was somewhat strange. Thanks for the help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top