What is the fastest way to get an anemone to split? And also what is the best food to feed one, as far as nutritional value for the Anemone.

this i sa tough one to answer...
some will never split, and others will without any intervention.

the current anecdote states that feeding the heck out of them will cause them to split, but after more than 2 years with a RBTA, and 1 year with a GBTA, this has not worked for me..

it does work with my mini carpets.. but personally they are a bit different that full sized anemones

I have just been feeding mine Krill but I am not sure how much actual nutrition they get from the krill. I feed the krill to my trachyphyllia brain, plate coral, Anemone and Hammer coral. Am I wasting my time with krill or is this a good foostuff for them? Also, I just started my home phyto culture using DT's today as my starter culture and I was wondering what the actual benefits to the entire tank would be. I know phyto is good for clams but will my SPS that I just got as well as my LPS,Anemone, Ricordias, Zoanthids, Xenia etc benefit from the addition of Phyto as well. I know you did mention phyto on the podcast but I don't remember listening to a podcast dedicated to Feeding corals...and other marine inhabitants. ie. Anemones, LPS, Zoanthids...if not it may be a good candidate for a podcast topic... Thanks again Rob!

ok, sorry, i forgot to answer that in my last post
for feeding, i primarily feed mine raw table shrimp. and i also try clam and squid, but they seem to like the shrimp the best.

now regarding the phyto..
there are so many benefits to feeding your tank phyto
almost everything in your tank will consume it. all of your filter feeders, small pods even. most corals will eat it, and even anemones can consume it in there own way..

btw, let me know how that DTs works as a starter

I will keep you posted about the phyto. One thing about the culture. I set it up in my garage. What is the best temperature for it to grow? I think it will stay around 78 or so near the 20w light..Thanks for any insight you can provide.

oooh those DTs smell so bad!! yuck!!

not really it kinda smells sweet a little. It doesn't taste as sweet as it smells though...Just kidding...

oooh those DTs smell so bad!! yuck!!
no.. DT's doesnt have a real bad smell unless its dead...
i fresh good bottle, might have a slight odor, but a strong odor is a sure sign its dead or mostly dead

as far as temp, room temp is fine.. so your 78, should be good..
mine grows in my basement, about 72 or so...

What is the fastest way to get an anemone to split?

A knife! LOL sorry couldn't resist.

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/23/23_1_63.gif

lol.. you may laugh, but there are people that will purposely cut there anemones in half to propagate them...
its not common practice, but has been done (with varying success i might add)

thanks Rob!

If anyone knows how to get an anemone to split, let me know. As you guys know, I have an absolutely enourmous one, and could use it to split, about 10 times so i can share the wealth.

well, as mentioned abve.. there really is not "proven" way to get them to split

the only way that i have seen it done is by the knife.......

I have read that by feeding it a lot of food it will eventually split...

oooh those DTs smell so bad!! yuck!!

woe gwen if its smellin bad, it probably is.

yeah that sucks because I just bought it.. oh well
I might be returning it!!

I have read that by feeding it a lot of food it will eventually split...
yes, as mentioned above. this "can" work but no guarantee.. you might end up with an anemone that purges every few days like i did.. :)

it probably worth a try, but again, other than cutting it (which i don't recommend) there is not "for sure" way to get them to split

Search around for some of Antione's information about splitting BTA's. Calfo just cuts em up! Personally, I couldn't do that. I have a hard enough time fragging stonies :) I feel bad for them.

My BTA split just once. I never really target fed it (the false percs did feed it) but it got huge. I was praying for it to split, to no avail. However, one time after I did a HUGE water change (after treating red bugs) the sucker split! I have read or seen SOME discussions about water changes being a catalyst for splitting. Read up and try!

I also had a budd who had a HUGE magnifica that we accidentally tore when moving his tank. It ended up in two sections. One was about 2/3 of the original size and had a full oral opening. The second was about 1/3 of the anemone and had some foot, but no oral cavity. We thought that one was a gonner. However, it healed up within days, and at the fizzure, developed a new mouth! It is now happy and doubled in size.

Dave

yep.. there has also been anecdotal evidence that times of high stress may be a catalyst to it splitting.. but again, i dont recommend stressing them out on purpose...lol

honestly the safest thing that i know if, is just feed the heck out of it.. it may split.. it may not...

I have just witnessed my "mother" bubbletip at the end of splitting for the fifth time in the past year. I call her a mother for obvious reasons. She is the only anenome in the tank that will split. Also why I call her a mother. You would think that a new self propogated anenome would be able to split itself. Not the case here. I have definitely never purposefully stressed any of these animals to promote self propogation(I am sure there is a scientific name for this process). I cannot say for sure that they have not been stressed beyond my control; however I can certainly recall a few splits under ideal conditions for the anenomes' well being. I have heard of many reefers that have stressed the animals into splitting. I have to agree with Rob and say that I do not personally advocate for this type of propogation.

Now onto something that may fair true as I have heard this from a few reefers as successful. I guess it is possible that some may view this as a form of stressing these animals. Again, in all of this mother's split incidents, I never intentionally tried this method. It kind of happened by chance by my own schedule at the time.

Here we go. What I have heard from other reefers and what I noticed when a couple splits occurred was that I had been feeding regularly(daily) for a couple weeks and then fed 1-2 x per week for a couple weeks. One of my fellow reefers said that he did the same but fed 1x in a couple weeks.

Does anyone feel that this is a form of stressing the animal or just a harmless observation in self propogating anenomes?

I guess I got lucky, my RBTA just split 3 ways, I usually just feed it once a week with big chunks of frozen shirmp(thawed) and my fire clowns feed it occasionally as well.

Also use Phytoplankton and Polyp Labs Reef Roids in the tank which a target feed corals and the BTA

I could never cut one, I probably just go out and buy another one if it did not split :)

Cool! Mine is HUGE, like the size of a dinner plate, but all in one piece. I have thought I should be due for a 2-for-1 split for some time now!