My BTA anfter being in the same place for a year began to walk around the tank a couple of months ago. It has been in the back of the tank where it was difficult to see but today it came out and it looks like a piece is missing.
Has it split? Should I be looking for another piece somewhere else?
I don't know. I don't think it split, but i don't know why it looks like that. If it did split it split awhile ago. When they split they usually split down the middle and split the oral disk and the pharynx and divide the gonad. This creating a big "scare" that you can usually see for a while. Basically meaning that if you had a 6 inch anemone before it split it would be a 3 inch anemone after, give or take. But its worth looking around though. IMO of course
i agree wwest, it looks like a nicely healed split, but still a split. the other may still be behind the rocks IF it was a split. when i frag anemonies ... they look very similar to that after a couple or three weeks of healing time.
__________________ Bobby
"I FORMERLY glued animals to rocks" NO TANK RIGHT NOW, but you never know when I might throw one together !! I have everything I need but the time!!
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Ive just looked as throughly as possible without removing rocks and don't see a clone. The BTA was been in the back of the tank under the rocks for a couple weeks and then in the corner behind the return for at least a week before tonight. At one time last week I thought it looked like a V was out of the side of it but it was in a difficult location to see, let alone photograph. I have a pix form 5/22 where the BTA is open on a LR near the front of the tank and it looks normal so, this could have happened anytime after that.
I have witnessed my bubbletips, mostly my mother bubbletip split many times. I have actually watched it squeeze itself through live rock not worrying that it was so tight a spot that it tore itself. The result was a a little pico bubble very fray lookign that was less than an inch wide. I gave it to a local reefer and he recently told me it is huge and I can tell from his pictures that it is now at least eight inches wide. If you feed them regularly they will grow larger than you would think. I tend to stop feeding when they get too big for the surroungding corals. However I have never had a coral stung and I have watched my bubbletips flapping into corals regularly. Not recommended to let happen(you never know).
Anyway long story short as usual, it is very possible you have a mini bubbletip hiding in the rock. I have two splits recently that are an inch and literally 1/2 inch. The cutest bubbletips I have ever seen. I have recently seen pictures of bubbletips in the wild that get damaged into many pieces by falling rocks and these pieces are known to generate in the wild and I am talking about some mangled pieces.
I have given the other large ones away to local reefers and have my mother bubble still along with the two pico bubbles.
Keep your eye out. I did not know for two weeks that this little 1/2 bubble was hiding in my 30g cube.
That is what I am hoping. My maroon keeps disappearing behind the rocks. It is pretty unusual for her to leave the anemone alone for long so I hope it is trying to host 2 BTA's.
I have recently seen pictures of bubbletips in the wild that get damaged into many pieces by falling rocks and these pieces are known to generate in the wild and I am talking about some mangled pieces.
Bubbletips, and many anemones, are quite "frag-able".
Anthony Calfo has been chopping them into tiny bits for quite some time now - they actually seem to heal from the cutting quite fast, quicker than most corals.
I haven't gotten the nerve to actually try it myself yet.