anenome split into three

[Tami]

I tried to post this earlier and I guess it did not work
so here goes

I have a 55 gal reef tank about 18 months old
I bought a BTA about three weeks ago
Yesterday when I came home from work it had split into three seperate smaller BTAs

any advice or comments about this would be greatly appreciated

Tami

 

[Marc118]

Congrats!

 

[mwrmma]

i believe that is a good thing. most people would want theirs to split. at least i do. what did you do to make it split? i want mine to split into two.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Far as I know they split on their own and it's a sign of a healthy anemone. So to echo Marc, congrats.

You can try calling your LFS to see if they will buy one or two from you, if you don't want to keep all three. Make it work to your advantage.

 

[Tami]

Selling them would seem like a plan but getting one or two off the nice big pice of LR they are on may be a different story

Tami

 

[Hara]

While I agree that under most circumstances, an anemone splitting is cause for celebration..they also do it as a means of self preservation when water quality deteriorates. To be on the safe side, you might want to run a panel of water testing. My huge rose bta just split and although I assumed it was happy, I did notice the nitrates in my tank were a bit higher than they should be.

 

[melosu58]

I agree with Lisa that they will split when under stress also. Not saying why yours did but I would do some water test to be on the safe side.

 

[Ziggy953]

Being as the BTA has been in the tank for only 3 weeks I'm going to go with the stress theory.

 

[Marc118]

Being as the BTA has been in the tank for only 3 weeks I'm going to go with the stress theory.

Good call, I stopped reading at "55 gallon 18 months" due to excitement.

 

[MT79]

Even if your water params are good, the stress from the accliamtion, from the LFS to your tank, could have been enough to trigger the split. Keep an eye on them, best of luck.

 

[Tami]

Update

All three are still alive--One has moved to another rock and the other two are close together
all are still good feeders
I must admit that I too am worried about stress and have become a fanatic about the quality of my tank environment checking all parameters and doing water changes

maybe it is stress and maybe i am just lucky who knows but whatever happens it is not the end of the world and this is still a hobby I enjoy

Tami