Found a Baby RBTA Today

[reefkeeping]

I was doing some tank maintenance today and almost sucked this lil fella down into my filter sock. My first thought was I'd caught a Majano hitchhiker on a recent frag. But the colors and tentacle shape are clearly RBTA. You can see the "mother" in the bottom shot, with my Valentini and Longfin Mocha Storms photobombing it. There is an RBTA in my main tank that has asexually reproduced via splitting 9-10 times now, but always nearly 50/50. Two of those splits live in this tank. With this nem being so tiny, is it possible the two nems sexually reproduced with one another and this is (one of) the offspring? That doesn't make sense to me genetically (what with the splits being clones of one another), but I also barely passed high school biology two decades ago.

Edit: the more I think about this, it *must* be another split, I've just never seen such a small one. Huh.

 

[Username:Required]

That’s cool

 

[kevgib67]

Aw, congratulations, you’re a grandparent!

 

[D-Nak]

Maybe something nipped off a piece and it was able to survive? Cool nonetheless. :cool:

 

[reefkeeping]

Maybe something nipped off a piece and it was able to survive? Cool nonetheless. :cool:

All I've got in there are a tiny coral banded shrimp, two longfin mocha storms, and a juvenile Valentini. Nobody seems big enough to take a nip and be unharmed by doing so, but who knows!

 

[D-Nak]

It might've been to coral banded shrimp swiping the nem with a claw, but since you described it as tiny, I bet the likelihood is low.