Eight
Guest
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.
I removed one of the larger roses and placed him on the cutting board.
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.
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.
Same thing with the purple/green tip.
Cut.
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.
I would have preferred to give each half its own individual pen, but I ran out of magnets. Oh well.
Closeup of RBTA half in pen:
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.
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.
I removed one of the larger roses and placed him on the cutting board.
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.
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.
Same thing with the purple/green tip.
Cut.
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.
I would have preferred to give each half its own individual pen, but I ran out of magnets. Oh well.
Closeup of RBTA half in pen:
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.
