Fragging Rose Bubble Tip Anemones RBTA - How Big?

[Aguaman]

Sup. I want to frag my RBTA, but am not certain how big he should be. He’s about 3.25 inches tip to tip. Anyone have any advice.


May the Force be with you.

 

[ReeferReefer]

I would highly advise against manually fragging a BTA. They tend to split on their own once they get big enough or in response to environmental changes.

I recently transferred my BTAs into a new tank and they split like crazy.

You can also try to feed the BTA 3+ times a week. Seems to stress them enough to get them to split.

Swings in temp and salinity can cause them to split as well.

I find it best to just let them split on their own.

 

[LesPoissons]

Woah. I would really advise against that. 3.5 inches is small for a BTA, it's still a juvenile, they get like a foot. Your chances of success are really slim. Btas are not corals, they split on thier own- sometimes- after a long process of creating 2nd mouths, tissues etc. There are people who do this but you are better off encouraging it to split by feeding a ton and offering great parameters, and letting it grow up so it can handle it.

 

[Aguaman]

All good points.

I should have mentioned that I am trying to propagate them in a special propagation tank that will only hold these specific nems. I got the idea from a BRSTV video. I really like the idea of propagating or breeding animals, otherwise, I would not attempt to frag.

Video: https://binged.it/2LckmpX

 

[Wolf89]

I agree that this is too small to manually propogate

 

[User1]

Just because it was done, or you can, doesn't mean you should. I doubt the advise given in this thread will help sway you but in case it doesn't let me add to what has already been provided.

RBTA's, or any BTA for that matter, will naturally propagate as Mother Nature intended. It may not be at your speed or pace but it will happen naturally. I started with one in a 29 gallon bio cube and within a year had 2. Few months later 3. Moved one to another 29 gallon biocube and it split. Now I'm at 4 and tired of managing 2 tanks so combine them both into a 40 breeder. About a year goes by and I'm at 6. Then 7, then 9, give a few away, then said enough and planned an upgrade. 210 gallons later I'm at 12. I thought I had it bad then started to look at others and I saw a few that split so many times naturally (no feeding, healthy tank, etc) that they became plague proportions much like Xenia.

My point in this is is two fold. You can't speed up Mother Nature. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. More importantly is if you are considering this for residual income BTA's are pretty common regardless of what people call them. Personally I wouldn't attempt a forceful split. There really is no reason unless you are being impatient and that is a bad trait to have in this hobby (not directed at you just a general observation in our hobby).

 

[LesPoissons]

Whatever tank you are putting them in isnt really the main point. Slicing a small young nem in half is just a poor idea with low chances of success. You can try stressing them into splitting or just maintaining a helathy tank and waiting. If your goal is to sell them, you should research correct propagation methods to encourage them to split, bc slicing up babies will probably just cost you more as you'll end up with dead nems. If you just want a nem tank for yourself- why not just go buy some more and spend your time seeing if you can get the correct parameters in the tank so they propagate naturally.

 

[Dom]

Bad idea.

If you keep them well fed, they will split quickly. I have a BTA that split in 7 months. Fed them freeze-dried krill 3 or 4 times every 10 days.

Would love to get them on separate rocks to spread them out and enjoy them more.

I've seen videos on manually splitting a Nem. It feels like splitting a Nem is someone who is VERY ADVANCED.

 

[JustAnt]

Honestly, my personal view is that slicing a nem is just cruel. Like someone mentioned just bc it can b done doesn’t mean it should b done.

 

[billy lawrence]

Depends on the nem, I have Hawaiian Punch nems that split at around the 4-5 inch size and my regular rainbows split at around a 9 inch size naturally. However it being cruel I don’t believe. When propagating them it’s a nice clean slice that the nem heals very fast from in comparison to it ripping and tearing themselves apart as they do in nature and most of the nems you are buying from big companies are cutting them and not waiting on them to split naturally. If you only have one nem I would wait for it to split naturally so you can determine if it’s juvenile or adult because each nem is different again my Hawaiians don’t get anywhere near as big as my regular rainbows before they naturally split I have a black widow about a foot across that still has never split and I have friends with different strains of black widows splitting at the 6 inch across mark

 

[xitsmike]

I honestly think it's a bit risky to propagate the nem, especially since it's fairly small.

Like others said, they do split. Many things could go wrong if you manually do it, if it's not a clean cut, the nem is pretty much toast.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Depends on the nem, I have Hawaiian Punch nems that split at around the 4-5 inch size and my regular rainbows split at around a 9 inch size naturally. However it being cruel I don’t believe. When propagating them it’s a nice clean slice that the nem heals very fast from in comparison to it ripping and tearing themselves apart as they do in nature and most of the nems you are buying from big companies are cutting them and not waiting on them to split naturally. If you only have one nem I would wait for it to split naturally so you can determine if it’s juvenile or adult because each nem is different again my Hawaiians don’t get anywhere near as big as my regular rainbows before they naturally split I have a black widow about a foot across that still has never split and I have friends with different strains of black widows splitting at the 6 inch across mark

Just fyi, this us a 4 year old thread...

 

[xitsmike]

Just fyi, this us a 4 year old thread...

Oh god, so it is! I've just been scrolling through the forum, I really should've looked at the dates!

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

Go to PetCo and buy some Silversides, divide them up into smaller bags, and keep in the freezer. Feed Small whole pieces to it, and it will grow and divide on its own. BTW, feed every thing, bones and all.