ThatGuyConn

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Well this is definitely odd, while also really interesting. I have a young tank, approaching six months old now. I also have an RBTA that we have had for about 3 months of that time (I know, I know, I have a very young tank for a nem). The new has had happy growth, has never appeared injured or stressed, and gets fed frozen mysis approx. 2-3x per week.

In three months, it has grown from approx 1" in diameter to what looked to be 4-4.5" when nicely stretched out. I was finally getting excited about it's size, hoping that my paired snowflake clowns would finally let her host them.

To my surprise, it was in an odd shape this morning, resembling a shrunken elongated oval in it's little spot, while being about halfway inflated. Thinking nothing of it (nems will be nems at times, of course) I set out for my errands this morning. When I came home, I was shocked to find my nem had split into 2! They are now about 1.5-2inches in diameter each, and appear to be opening nicely and honestly look happy.

While I think this was SUPER cool to see, I'm a little concerned that my nem may have been too small/young to already go through a split? Again, there has never seemed to be any undue stress or trauma caused to the nem, and water parameters have been stable with weekly water changes (Ph 8.0-8.1, Salinity 1.026, Ammonia 0, Nitrates 5-10ppm. I have better salifert tests on the way now so I can begin tracking phosphates and more accurate nitrates than my API tests.

Could it be a abundance of nutrients from my feeding of mysis? Or is this a bad sign of stress or something else? Thanks guys! Photos will be posted below.
 
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ThatGuyConn

ThatGuyConn

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Here is a photo of my RBTA a few weeks ago, before splitting. I wish I had a more recent photo to show her recent size, but this is close.
 

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ThatGuyConn

ThatGuyConn

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And here it is today! First photo was as soon as I got home and noticed them, second two are a few hours later. Note the right anemone has reshaped to more of a circle.
 

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Uncle99

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A split is hard on the nem.
Give it time to heal.
They can split when things are good (feeding and stable chemistry ) or bad (fluctuating water chemistry) the later may be self preservation response.
IMG_0311.jpeg
 
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ThatGuyConn

ThatGuyConn

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A split is hard on the nem.
Give it time to heal. IMG_0311.jpeg
Definitely, I don't plan to move or do anything to them for a little while, probably will hold off on feeding too.

Just odd that it wasn't very big before doing this split.
 

ThisIsTheWay

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I have an RBTA that split at about the same size you're describing. A couple weeks later I ran out of kalk for a couple days and my alk dropped and one of them split again so I ended up with 3 :P
They're all still doing fine. One I moved to a second tank to try and establish an anemone tank. The other two are still in my main tank and have grown to about 4 inches in diameter and I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to split again sometime soon.
 

Uncle99

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Definitely, I don't plan to move or do anything to them for a little while, probably will hold off on feeding too.

Just odd that it wasn't very big before doing this split.
That’s not a bad idea or it may split again in the near future, unless you want that.
 

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