BTA cloning

[Coral Hind]

Has any one in the club ever forced a BTA to clone?  I have been reading and talking to people from Reef Central but was wondering if any one local has tried it.  I have a BTA that is out growing its home.  It has been 14 months since it split last and it may get cut this weekend if I get the nerve to do it.

[Larry Grenier]

I've often wondered if a rubberband would do it  ???

 

Maybe a little less radical.

 

Any thoughts.

[ridetheducati]

David,

 

We talked about this before.  I heard if you feed 7 straight days and do a 25% water change it would trigger the splitting.  I actually read it somewhere on the net.  I did not copy the URL sorry.

[Coral Hind]

I have been doing the heavy feeding for about ten days now.  I will try the water change this weekend and wait a week to see what happens.  If it doesn't split then I will cut it.  I just wanted to see if any one in the club had any luck trying the slice and dice.

[Larry Grenier]

Well, it works with shrooms  

[michaelg]

I don't think rubber band would work.  When discussing my bizzaro anenome with anthony calfo, shortly after it split, we came to the conclusion that is likely split by basal fission.  He mentioned that with some anenomes you can knick them at the base and they will clone- not on the oral disk.  He thought mine were good candidates, though not sure I have heard it done with bta's.  The wound forces them to clone I believe.  Several differences with anenomes and mushrooms- in particular is the foot.  You might want to send anthony an e-mail for some suggestions if you plan to go this route.

[Coral Hind]

Well, I have tried the heavy feeding and then big water change that I have heard about and nothing yet.  I was told from a guy at RC that a 1cm deep cut 6cm long from the base up would do the trick.  He learned this from Anthony Calfo and has done it a dozen times with no failures.  I am planning on doing this Sunday.  I will let you guys know how it turns out.

[dgasmd]

Great, if you get it to split that way I am interested in the clone if you are planing on selling it. Let me know. Also, thanks for the info on the controller. I actually found a place online that has then already wored and all for $100. Can't beat that, so I am getting one.

 

Alberto

PS: how is the reactor working out? Mine is still on the shelf :(

[michaelg]

Needless to say, use a brand new razor blade.  Good luck.

Michael

[ridetheducati]

I was going to suggest he use a steak knife.  :D

 

Good luck David.

 

 

Did the BTA accept the food during the heavy feedings?

[Coral Hind]

Ridetheducati,

It took the food with no problem.  It actually got bigger which is not what I wanted.  How is yours doing?    

 

Alberto,

Send me the site you found please.

[ridetheducati]

Mine will only accept food every 3 days.  I suppose its taking 2 days for it to digest the goods.  Otherwise, its doing OK.

[dgasmd]

David:

 

The web site is:

 

www.diyreef.com

 

Alberto

[Guest cbo]

How goes it, has the cut taken place?

 

cbo

[Coral Hind]

Well I cut it last night.  It deflated and some of the insides came out where I cut it.  The clowns which have eggs laid right now were not happy at all.  They were pushing the inards back into the anemone.  Today it is back to its normal diameter.  It is not standing as tall so I can't see the base or stem where I made the cut.  I will keep you posted.

[Coral Hind]

Here is an update.  It has slowly moved its foot farther under its over hang and the base has doubled in width.  The cut is closing up.  It looks like it will either split or just heal up.

[Guest cbo]

Prevyet,

 

Just wondering what finally happend with the cut, did it just heal up?

 

cbo

[Coral Hind]

You got it!  It healed up and didn't split.  The cut was 3" long and 1/4" deep.  I am thinking of doing it again in a few weeks.

[Coral Hind]

I sent Anthony Calfo an email asking how to split this guy and this is what he sent me.    

    Indeed... stress/truama often induces division here.

Your cut was not aggressive enough.  Sharp scalpel and at least a complete radial cut from the mouth outwards. I

prefer to cut the animal entirely in half.

 

No worries... I created a page for you to look at.

Please understand that these pics are copyright

protected and cannot yet be shared/copied/pasted. They

belong to my friend Daniel Knop and I am trying to get

his publisher to give us permission in America to

reprint them. You are the first and only person to see

them on the web... so if they show up on a message

board or anywhere else... I'm sending Guido after you.

 

The clowns are arguably a nuisance and a hinderance to

propagation efforts.  Do have faith in simple division my friend.

 

Best regards and holiday wishes,

 

Anthony

 

I deleted his link!  I will post pictures if everything goes good when I cut it next week.  Happy Holidays!!

 

Thanks to Michael for Calfo's address.

 

David

[Guest Scott324]

David,

 

Hey, sounds risky.  I have that 20H and 30 you can borrow if you want to set up a seperate tank to cut them.  I don't know if I would want to preform surgery inside the main tank.  If you want one of the tanks you are welcome to stop by and get it.  You can also see the frags I got from George.

[Coral Hind]

Thanks for the offer Scott.

 

I cut the thing in half last night like Mr. Calfo said.  I removed it from the tank and cut it in half.  I then put it back into the main tank.  Everything looks good and both are semi-inflated.  The male clown stayed in the half that was closer to the eggs they had laid the night before while the female bounced between the two halves all evening.  I will post some pics tonight.

[Coral Hind]

For those that have been on the board for awhile you may remember the cutting of my extremely large BTA years ago. I emailed Anthony Calfo looking for the pics I sent him for his research as I have lost my disk and they are no longer on the WAMAS board. Here is an email from him with some really great links for anyone wishing to propagate anemones. I pasted two of the better ones below but they are all worth looking at.

 

"cheers, David... good to hear from you my friend. I do in fact remember our chats. I may have your pics stored in a site backup, I will check when I get back home (In NY til Friday).

 

If you are thinking of getting back into the game again please check out my extensive list of archived info (the threads/data on anemones is considerable) at:

 

marinedepot.com/forums

 

go to my forum and tag the sticky near the top called "Fav links" then slide down to the post entry called "discussions"

 

Therein you will see an alphabetical list of most anything you can think of. The anemone info is quite good if I may say so.

 

Thank you for your service to our country too, my friend.

 

Anth-"

 

 

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic30156-13-1.aspx

 

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic24714-13-1.aspx

 

 

For the board admin - Why are these post dates out of order?

[jamesbuf]

Definitly interested in some pics.

[flowerseller]

I'm not sure if you ended up getting this to split or not but I can atest to cutting.

I've cut my RBTA's several times and it goes very well and the one that has become two has always been successful.

The two pieces generally open the next day and after 2 weeks are basically healed over. The mouth is usually the tell tale sign since it's right at the edge for a month or two.

[Coral Hind]

I'm not sure if you ended up getting this to split or not but I can atest to cutting.

 

Yes, I have cut the BTA and the LTA completely in half with success. And like you said, in a day or even less they are inflated again. They are tough little guys.