RBTAs

[pbnj]

I read this on another forum. I don't know if it's actually true or not, but definitely interesting:

"Splitting is not necessarily a good thing. In nature, they very rarely split, though they split often, in captivity. Splitting is actually thought to be from stress, as a survival mechanism."

[VooDoo]

it's a good thing for people that don't have them but want them

[Aaarrrggg]

It can be from stress or happiness. You'll often hear of peoples brand new BTA splitting from all the stress of being moved.

I figure if they stay put afterwards then they're "happy splitting" but if they wander away, then they're probably stressed.

[DerrickH]

From what Ive read and from experience, they split if they feel endangered as this is a way to aid in survival of the species. Also, they split when they eat often. Mine grow large if I dont feed them, they just use the nutrients from the water and from fish rubbing around in them shedding exterior parasites and the like. If I feed mine, they split... Lets just say I dont feed them anymore, only wanted one, now I have 5.....(GBTA not R)

[jestep]

I've got one that is small and keeps splitting. The clone always stays within a few inches. They're well colored and always puffed up, eat well when I feed them. Doesn't coincide with a water change or any major change either. Have a few others that don't split at all although I wish they would. I think this one's just confused.

[mFrame]

I've got two very large rbta's that occasionally throw clones. Over two years I've gotten 3 clones. I target feed about once a month, and have noticed that when i target feed more that I'm more likely to get a clone. I have gotten to where I don't encourage splitting because a 20" rbta is darn cool to have in the tank (next to a 12" clone it threw originally). Mine are definitely not splitting due to stress when they do split.

And my clowns LOVE having a choice of BTA's to bed down in at night.

[jestep]

I target feed about once a month, and have noticed that when i target feed more that I'm more likely to get a clone.

I have been feeding mine a few mysis once or twice per week when I feed my fish. I wonder if that's causing them to split prematurely.

[Timfish]

I'm certainly willing to accept stess or feeding or water changes as possible factors, in reality I'm convinced it's far more complicated than any one of those arguments. I too have seen the scenario Jestep outlined above. I have had a BTA split then have one clone grow back to the original size and the other to keep splitting, getting smaller each time. None of those arguments provide satisfactory explanations for why one will and one won't.

As far as why the wild ones don't split, we don't know what is needed to stimulate them to split in the wild so it's easy to conjecture why. Maybe it's just the "smell" of food in the water. What would happen if tiny amounts food was continually dumped upstream from one where it could smell but not taste? Maybe it's size? Did the studies of BTAs in the wild look at size? Maybe past a certain size an animal is far less likely to split. The wild BTA Gallery of Pets had for like 20 years was huge and never split (so much for the "smell" hypothesis ).

Another reason for not comparing cultured BTAs to wild is with as many generations that have occurred we have almost certainly developed an animal with different survival characteristics than the wild. It's seems quite reasonable to me our BTAs split because is because we've repeatedly selected ones that have a predisposition to split. And sometimes the result is a clone line that gets confused and keeps on splitting and splitting and splitting getting smaller each reiteration. But I'm just rambling, I really got no clue why some of mine split and some don't.

[DerrickH]

Mine split a couple weeks after I got it and it found a happy spot. A month later they both split again and now one off the offspring split last week. All the splits occurred no later than 5 days after I fed them silver sides. Maybe its what we feed them. Most people frown on feeding silver sides. I cut in half and throw the head part away leaving only the flesh part, no rib cage or skull to deal with. So far they look healthy.

[Robb in Austin]

Another reason for not comparing cultured BTAs to wild is with as many generations that have occurred we have almost certainly developed an animal with different survival characteristics than the wild. It's seems quite reasonable to me our BTAs split because is because we've repeatedly selected ones that have a predisposition to split. And sometimes the result is a clone line that gets confused and keeps on splitting and splitting and splitting getting smaller each reiteration.

I think you hit the nail on the head with this thought.Look at all the for sale threads on various forums for Sherman RBTAs with info on "always splits" or "throws clones frequently" etc. Evolution in action.

[pbnj]

I'm starting to buy into this splitting by stress theory. My largest RBTA (which hasn't split in the 7 months that I've had it) had a frag fall into it, causing it to violently retract. It stayed that way inside the rocks for 2-3 days. When it finally emerged, it wasn't alone.

[Timfish]

I'm starting to buy into this splitting by stress theory. My largest RBTA (which hasn't split in the 7 months that I've had it) had a frag fall into it, causing it to violently retract. It stayed that way inside the rocks for 2-3 days. When it finally emerged, it wasn't alone.

What struck me as funny thinking about your incedent was maybe we've developed animals that are just tempermental. This has to happen in the wild as large fish root around in the rock (flash to video of whitetip reef shark thrashing rock around going after a lobster) or huricanes or typhoons disrupt the sea floor. So if it is much more common in our tanks maybe we're selecting for anemoies that are just whinny complainers