BTA showoff

[CafeReef]

I feel pretty proud of this, it might be nothing for some, but it is my first Anemone, I picked it up from my LFS for free when it was the size of a quarter in August. It has now grown and split two weeks ago into two baseball size BTA's. My tank is 11 months old now, I will take this as a sign that things are going well

[T Haynes]

they split when theyre stressed so id keep an eye on that. but if they get healthy cool. let them heal before feeding

[HefeWeizen]

Originally Posted by T Haynes

they split when theyre stressed so id keep an eye on that. but if they get healthy cool. let them heal before feeding

Or when over fed. I dont count that as stress. An over abundance of food probably triggers the anemone to split. The anemone will think it's in a good spot to feed it and some offspring.

[rffanat1c]

Pretty cool for a young tank

[jbm421]

Just out of curiosity did you start with live rock or dry rock and also are you dosing or running a calcium reactor?

[CafeReef]

I dont dose anything, I started with all live rock.

I definitely don't over feed them in fact I really underfeed them... maybe only get a spot feed once every 2 weeks. The "mother" bta they came from splits like crazy, my LFS gets them from a lady they sold it to initially and it splits on her every month. They have a 90 cube with probably 3 dozen BTA's that came and split from the same BTA. Its really something as I have never seen anything like it before with how quickly it happens.

BTA is very healthy, nice white streaks, mouth is closed and not protruding at all, moderate flow and doesnt attack anything. I think things are going pretty well.

[Dkuhlmann]

They look great!

I agree that them splitting in most cases has nothing to do with stress. If over fed they can split also sometimes they will split after a large water change.

So keep doing what you're doing. If you feed them they will grow faster than if you don't and you don't have to feed them as quality lighting is enough for them along with any food they catch out of the system when you feed the fish

[slief]

Here is my take.. I've been keeping BTA's for 20 years now. Splitting is a function of insuring the survival of the anemone. When they are stressed they split. I am of the opinion that feeding them also stresses them. Not spot feeding but feeding them things like raw shrimp and other large meaty foods that people tend to feed. BTA's are photosynthetic filter feeders. It's not in their nature to consume large chunks of meaty foods. Ingesting and digesting large chunks of feeds will stress them as they are not suited to do that. This is why anemone's that are fed that way tend to split.

I have a VERY large BTA (well over 2' across) that I have had for almost 10 years. He never moves and the only time he ever split was when I fed him chunks of food. It hasn't split in years and it's grown prolifically. It's been in the same spot in my 480 gallon tank for over 8 years now. They like good stable water quality, good strong lighting and higher flow. Things like fast temp swings, fast changes in water chemistry whether it's a sudden drop on po4, change in pH, salinitym large water change with unmatched water etc, will often trigger them to split and or move. A happy anemone generally does not split and will not move. It stays where it's at and grows and grows and grows. Their normal reproductive system is to spawn as they actually have separate sexes (male and female). They can also bud and generate a new anemone by popping off a small bud into the water column that will become a new anemone.

[CafeReef]

Very insightful slief thank you, Where I have been very impressed with the growth of my BTA in the last 6 months that I have had it I never realized that about splitting. That is an interesting point as well seeing as I recently had my ATO get stuck and my salinity dropped from 1.024 to 1.018 and I slowely rose it back up to 1.024 over a two week period. Makes me lean to think that is why it split.

[slief]

Originally Posted by CafeReef

Very insightful slief thank you, Where I have been very impressed with the growth of my BTA in the last 6 months that I have had it I never realized that about splitting. That is an interesting point as well seeing as I recently had my ATO get stuck and my salinity dropped from 1.024 to 1.018 and I slowely rose it back up to 1.024 over a two week period. Makes me lean to think that is why it split.

Glad to help. I'm 99.99% certain that's why your BTA split. The sudden drop of salinity coupled with the changes in water parameters triggered a survival of the fittest mechanism within the anemone and it went into split mode. If you want to make your anemones split, that is a sure way to do it. Shift the salinity fast or do a 50% water change with water that isn't well matched and they will usually split.

[CafeReef]

Originally Posted by slief

Glad to help. I'm 99.99% certain that's why your BTA split. The sudden drop of salinity coupled with the changes in water parameters triggered a survival of the fittest mechanism within the anemone and it went into split mode. If you want to make your anemones split, that is a sure way to do it. Shift the salinity fast or do a 50% water change with water that isn't well matched and they will usually split.

Yea, it was my first major issue with the tank since I set it up last year. I felt that the sudden drop in salinity was stressful enough for the tank that I didnt want to drastically rise it again, so I did one two gallon per day (10%) waterchanges to slowly raise it back to normal. I didnt lose any livestock and all of my corals seem to not be affected at all other than they probably love the influx of calcium.

[slief]

Originally Posted by CafeReef

Yea, it was my first major issue with the tank since I set it up last year. I felt that the sudden drop in salinity was stressful enough for the tank that I didnt want to drastically rise it again, so I did one two gallon per day (10%) waterchanges to slowly raise it back to normal. I didnt lose any livestock and all of my corals seem to not be affected at all other than they probably love the influx of calcium.

Fish can generally handle a rapid drop in salinity but a rapid increase can result in osmotic shock which can kill them. It was smart to raise the levels slowly like you did. Corals however don't like low salinity like that and it's a good thing that you caught it quickly as an extended time at those salinity levels will usually result in some losses in coral.

[ShawnLeary]

It's my first BTA, it has split four times in 7 months. I think it's happy, I don't feed it anything other than an occasionally squirt of Coral Frenzy.

[saf1]

Here are the three that I have. Two are visible with the 3rd behind the rocks in the back. Started with one but now have three.

Has Slief pointed out, and even showed with his large tank, they get very big. The original rose was the size of a hockey puck and was housed in a 29 gallon bio-cube with LED lighting. One became two, 2nd split. Now three.

Has if you couldn't tell it is mostly a softy tank. Kenya trees, Xenia, hammers that keep breaking when I try and move them. Some button polyps and mushrooms tucked in there. Overall, it is a mess of a softy tank but I don't mind. Once I find a source I'll be adding a couple of starcki damsels and some Anthelia.

I used to feed but don't anymore. I'll let the clowns do their thing or let them catch whatever they do via the water column. I've heard not to feed silver sides. I used to but once I heard that and read a bit, I stopped. Every once in a while I'll cut up a prawn and give it to them but not often. Mine have a long slender tenticles which I think is flow related.

40 breeder has a nice foot print but not the greatest area, or I'm horrible, and placing the RW4's to make the best of the controllers reefcrest...

Anyway - that is about it.

[kmcochran0010]

Nice !