Reef nutrition

Hacked up my anemones!

I've been thinking about actively propagating some of my anemones for awhile now... since I had the day off, I figured today would be a good day to give it a shot. I have a pretty big collection of anemones including three varieties of flames, the lemon drop, a purple with green tips and plenty of roses.

I decided to start with three anemones, two roses and one green tipped. I have another large green tip and a flame anemone candidate in a quarantine box on 'standby' if this experiment goes well. :)

I actually started this process a week or so ago, by carefully removing/teasing the anemones off of various live rocks. I always find that this is difficult to do without some small damage to the BTA's feet, so after removing them from the rockwork, I put them in quarantine containers in the tanks to give them some time to rest.

Removing them from the smooth sides of the quarantine was easy using just my fingers and pushing firmly on the foot.

I got my materials ready. In this case, a plastic cutting board, a straight razor blade, towels and a couple of basket containers to put the cuttings into.
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I removed one of the larger roses and placed him on the cutting board.
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The tentacles were covering the mouth, so I carefully parted the tentacles to the side to give me a clear view of the mouth and to also try to minimize cutting the tentacles.
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I used the razor and pressed straight down on one half of the anemone, starting with a tip on the mouth, then did the same for the other half. I nicked a few tentacles in the process, but nothing terrible.
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Same thing with the purple/green tip.
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Cut.
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I then used algae magnets and the baskets as holding pens for the cut anemones. The bins are positioned so that the lips are above the waterline, so that the anemones can't escape. I also made sure that each basket was positioned with good waterflow from either my return or a powerhead.
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I would have preferred to give each half its own individual pen, but I ran out of magnets. Oh well.
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Closeup of RBTA half in pen:
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So far so good. The halves have already started to attach to their pens and they look like they are in pretty good shape.

I will update this thread tomorrow and over the next several days to monitor progress.
 
Need? maybe not...but I find that when my RBTA split on their own they always like to attach to rock vs a wall, the like to hide in shade for sometime time while they heal, and it easier for me to move them if they are on rubble :)
 
Eight said:
Yeah, that purple with green tips is very pretty. The tips really glow, even under just daylight.

Mind if I ask you where you got it? I might have to find one of those guys since they look so cool. Not to mention the two ocellaris clowns that are hosting my rose bta have bullied the smaller black and white clowns out of the anemone.
 
Most farmers I know that use this method use "sterile" tanks.

Rubble can also allow more then one to attach so if your looking for separates, keeping no rubble is easier on both them and you.

Also self division and sliced division are very different.
 
DurTBear said:
Eight said:
Yeah, that purple with green tips is very pretty. The tips really glow, even under just daylight.

Mind if I ask you where you got it? I might have to find one of those guys since they look so cool. Not to mention the two ocellaris clowns that are hosting my rose bta have bullied the smaller black and white clowns out of the anemone.

I got the original from Tyler at Dolphin Pet Village. They're in his display tank and he has a waiting list for them. I already promised one of these guys for Rich (Thales) in SF, but I will have another one for sale once these heal in a couple of weeks.

The flame anemone is next if this goes well. :D
 
Eight said:
I got the original from Tyler at Dolphin Pet Village. They're in his display tank and he has a waiting list for them. I already promised one of these guys for Rich (Thales) in SF, but I will have another one for sale once these heal in a couple of weeks.

The flame anemone is next if this goes well. :D

Sweet...well let me know if you put the other half up for sale when it heals. I'd be interested in adding one of these guys!
 
I thought your green looked like mine!! I got my original clone from Dolphin Pet Village also.

It is really the nicest flourescent green BTA that I have seen.
 
Update. Cutting + 8 Hours:

All six pieces look great. All of them have attached to the baskets (I decided not to put rubble into them afterall). On a couple pieces, I can see a bit of the cut white mouth, but most of the other pieces have curled around the cuts and I can't see any internal organs at all. All anemones are inflated and expanded.

The green tipped has expanded a lot since he was cut. (You can see the difference between this photo and the one I posted earlier today. The RBTA in this basket is probably the worst looking of the bunch, but still not bad at all:
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These two RBTA halves look really good.
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I'm pretty confident these will all make it without an issue.
 
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