Splitting Anemone Pic(s)

Came home today and saw my anemone was in the process of splitting. This is the second time it has split but the first time I captured it in the act. The BTA had gotten huge. So huge that it was getting close to stinging corals that I never thought it would reach. It had stung the heck out of a porite covered rock and finally moved the porite over the weekend.

In the picture below you can see a split at the mouth.


I know there is debate over the cause of splitting. Some say they split when they are stressed. Others say they split when healthy. I'm going to have to go with the latter on this one. I've had him for over a year and a half now and saw what it looked like when it wasn't healthy.

 

FWIW, there is no "debate" on why they split. It is a last ditch survival effort. This is not theory, it is tactile, proven science and biology. Happy anemones breed by actually physically mating (yes they have that ability). About the only "debate" are by owners who do not accept that fact
Here are some excellent reads on the subject:
ADW: Anemonia viridis: Information

Wiley InterScience :: Session Cookies



But, it by no means it is about to go under. Just keep an eye out after it's complete. The other half will almost always move off somewhere else, try to keep the corals out of the way.

 

well said pack!

 

this was in one of the articles that you mentioneduring the mating season from June through August sperm is released and received by the ova via water flow. Inside of the female ova, the zooxanthellae algae are carried into the next generation. The snakelocks anemone is oviparous, meaning the eggs are laid outside the mother's body. This sexual process for reproduction is less common than the asexual longitudinal fission process. Longitudinal fission is a literal splitting of the sea anemone. After the splitting, they each have a simple and uncompleted ring of tentacles. The two new sea anemones have an uncentered mouth to start food consumption. Many of the internal tissues are duplicated before the actual splitting process. The longitudinal fission splits laterally, starting at the basal disc. The whole fission process happens relatively quickly, it takes from 5 minutes to 2 hours.

and not once in that article did it say that this Longitudinal fission was a result of it being unhappy or poor water conditions. if i misread it correct me please.

 

Yup, the article says that sexual reproduction is less common than fission.

Water parameters are excellent. Undetectable nitrate, calcium 450 ppm, magnesium 1350, temp 80F. Lighting 6x54W T5s. This anemone had grown to about 8 inches in diameter before it split.

Have you had a BTA split Pack? If so were your parameters off when it did?

 

any updates or more stages of the process? neat pic

 

The split was done this morning when I woke up. The left hand side was still on the original rock. The right-hand side had moved to the back of the rock and under it. It split directly through the mouth. I took a few more pictures this morning after the split was done. I'll post them tonight.

It looked like it started splitting on one half first. It basically created a hole near the mouth extending towards the edge. The edge hadn't torn away yet by the time I went to bed. It appears that after it completed the one half it then started splitting on the other side of the mouth.

The anemone didn't really show any signs that it was going to split before it started. It had gotten huge. Then the day before yesterday I noticed that it appeared a bit smaller than normal but didn't think anything of it. Yesterday I noticed some of its tentacles around the edge had deflated. I thought it was going to to go through a "deflate cycle" but then I saw the hole in the anemone.

 

Here are two pictures from this morning after the spit was completed. You can see half the mouth.







After I got home both anemones had moved to the back of the rock.