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In the
past 30 days since my tank was featured I have had some great
changes. Both of my rose bubble tip anemones (E. quadricolor) split. What started out seemingly as just a simple
change of location turned out to be the primary anemone cloning
itself.
I
unfortunately didn’t take very good pictures of the first or
second split. The images I did take were more for showing some
friends what was happening. In the future I will setup the tripod
and take sequenced photos of a split. I am confident that the
anemones will experience a split again in the future given the
history of these particular clones.
These
are at least 4th generation clones and one is now a 5th
generation captive raised clone. All are recovering quite well now
and two will be removed to other reef tanks in the very near
future.
The
anemones first started to split mid week on the 25th of
March. The larger of the two started to split first. It had
receded under the rocks and at first I thought it was moving
toward the back of the tank. I noticed that it was not attached to
the rock at all. I placed it in the front of the other still
intact anemone on the glass bottom to watch it. At this point it
looked more like something had attacked its foot rather than the
anemone preparing to divide.
Two
days later the other anemone took on a shrunken up damaged appearance.
This time it was obvious that what ever had triggered the first anemone
to divide had done so in the second anemone. The division took much
longer and was an arduous one. The anemone clearly struggled to divide.
It appeared at one point to be dividing into three distinct animals. I
was left to decide whether to intervene or let it be…I decided to cut
the thinnest point of the two largest pieces and let the other dividing
point remain intact.
This
was clearly the right decision. The two pieces moved away and the lower
and smaller of the two moved back and away and recovered quickly. The
higher and larger of the two pieces remained in a struggle to either
divide again or reform. I decided to assist again, but this time I moved
the lower portion of the foot up closer to the other end. This too was
the correct thing to do, instead of cutting it. The animal is recovering
and is looking much healthier.
All
four anemones are now recovering and all appear to have reconnected
their feet and are moving to their new preferred locations in the
“Anemone Row.”
I have
been repeatedly asked, “What caused or triggered them to split?
Did you make any changes to the tank? Add any chemicals? Food?
Anything?” And in short, no I cannot think of any one thing that
was done out of the usual except that I did increase the flow into
and out of the tank.The
anemones are still able to freely move about the tank as I have
now turned off the power head, which I was using to contain them.
They are not moving at this point so I will try to keep the power
head off and hopefully remove it from the tank.
My
care and feeding of the anemones is very simple -- I do nothing. I
do not directly feed them. Their only source of food comes from
the water column during tank feedings and what ever waste or
dropped food they may consume from the maroon clown fishes (Premnas
biaculeatus ) that are their symbionts.
