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Spawning RBTAs - What a mess!


Todd Council

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Last night as the lights were dimming around 9:30, I noticed that my tank was looking cloudy. That is common if I mess around in the sump or stir up the chaeto in the refugium, but last night I had not had my hands in the tank at all. Then I noticed that the largest/oldest RBTA was oozing a white minlky substance from its mouth. There are still 5 BTAs on "Anemone Island" that are all clones from the original and 4 of the 5 got into the act. Each one swelled up much larger and tighter than normal. They looked like balloons about to pop. One by one they went through the same process. As they released the sperm they shrunk down considerably. The two other BTAs on the tank that came from different clone lines did not join in. I did read that the males will release the sperm and that can trigger a female to release her eggs.

I had pretty fresh carbon in the sump and went ahead and mixed some fresh water. I was going to do a 10% change on Saturday but may do it a couple of days early.

BUT - This morning everything looks great. I can't imagine that a spawning event does anything more than release a lot of protein rich organics into the water. Shouldn't the active filtration system (including the corals and sponges in the tank) take care of the release? 

I turned on the white T5s to shoot some pictures and a little video. Here are a few shots of anemone porn for those that are into that kind of stuff:

20170606_215156.jpg

One of the smaller ones releasing sperm.

20170606_215244.jpg

This is after the first one has finished and the other three are just about to start releasing their sperm. Notice the tightness in the tentacles are and definition of the capitulum. The one on the left looks like it needs a cigarette.

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Awesome catch!  I have tons of bta's but have never witnessed that in my tank, though my urchins do it all the time.  I've never had water quality issues and assume all the filter feeders enjoy the extra meal.

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That is pretty cool, I have not seen this either.  Why is the rainbow looking so sad?  Was that a side effect of this process, or some other unrelated event?  I ask because my Sherman RBTA's a looking about the same in my display, but they never have before.

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Neither of the two BTAs in the tank that were not clones responded. So my guess is either they were not in the mood or they are also males. Since I didn't see any egg releases, there shouldn't be any offspring. It was interesting that the 4 clones all spawned at the same time. 

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Chris - it isn't sad, it's spent. It literally totally deflated as it released its sperm. Your BTA is on the back side of the rock now and it did its normal night time shrink down, but nothing like the one that started the spawning. By the way. they all looked totally normal this morning when I left for work.

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I heard that this happens at night under a full moon. I bet that it happens in tanks more than it is observed. Mine started just a few minutes before the Kessils shut down. They had dimmed to 10% when it started. I turned the lights on to shoot the video and stills. 

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Just got home and thought I would post a current picture. The BTAs are fully inflated and back to normal. The gaint one at the top is the one that was deflated in the pictures above. One question I do have about it though:

Many of its tentacles are deformed. It is almost like thay have been over inflated and have lost their internal structure. Anyone experience this? All the daughter/clones that come off of it are "perfect." When this one split last week, however, it divided down the middle into produced two equal halves that are both a little deformed.

20170607_141535.jpg

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What an awesome accomplishment!  It'd be fantastic if you actually got some larva to settle someplace and start to grow.  I don't know what it is for anemones but I think some coral spp. are just a few days as larva before settling.  Although if it's just the one clone line that expelled gammetes they may not self fertilize as they are all the same genotype, I know that's the one of the difficulties sexually reproducing corals in aquaria.

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