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Anemone Propagation!


adinsxq

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Stichodactyla tapetum ( mini carpet anemone ) Propagation

 

1. Materials: Sharp blade (NEW), cutting surface (a cutting board is best), water bath (keeps the slime out of your tank), and THE VICTIM. Always wear proper protective gear! Gloves...goggles... etc.

 

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2. Today's lucky contestant is a green Stichodactyla tapetum aka "maxi" mini carpet anemone. I wouldn't recommend cutting a "mini" that's smaller than a nickel or a "maxi" smaller than a silver dollar. I don't have a good reason for these "rules," it's more of a "doesn't feel right" sort of thing. Do NOT attempt to cut these while attached to a rock. You will NOT get a clean cut. The halves need to be physically separated for proper healing. Place the anemone on to your cutting surface. Allow it to relax for a minute, round out, and release some of its water.

 

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3. Carefully plan your cut. Ideally you want to create two halves of equal size. Find a line of symmetry. I planned making the initial cut along the blue line, and the secondary cut along the red.

 

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4. Place the tip of your blade into the mouth (45 degre cutting angle). Pierce the tip all the way through until you feel the cutting surface with the tip of the blade. The anemone may tense up at this point, even spit out a stream of water. Holding the anemone in place by pinching it (see above), slice through the anemone from the mouth-out in one clean stroke. Throughout the slice you want to feel the tip of your blade touching the cutting surface to ensure a clean cut. (cleaner cut; quicker heal!)

 

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5. Rotate the anemone around. Reposition your blade into the mouth again. Pinch and slice.

 

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6. Allow the halves to "round out" in the water bath. S. tapetum does not produce a lot of slime... compared to other, larger anemones. Five minutes in the bath should be more than sufficient. If you've made a good cut, your halves will for "C" shapes quickly. You can now place the halves into your propagation tank. Discard the bath water! Keep the halves separated! To avoid infection, give the healing anemones good circulation and away from tankmates that may irritate them (fish, shrimp, crabs, etc.)

 

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Final notes: The more "foot" you give a half, the quicker it will heal. 50/50 works best. Here's an angled shot of another S. tapetum post-cut.

 

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Following the cut, the halves should close up around the damaged end quickly. This photo shows the undersides of the two halves of the anemone shown above.

 

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I know a bunch of you are hunting for these cool little 'nems. I hope this helps!

 

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Cool post, thanks adin!!!!!!!!!!!!

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i like the fact that you actually use pictures instead of saying do this this and this and youre done

kinda hard to know what's supposed to happen if youve never done it before

awesome post

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Hey thanks!

 

The procedure works for many other anemones as well. I'll clean up the post tonight (typos! typos! typos!) and put up another photo. As far as I can tell, all of the clones have closed up and are already walking around the tank, looking for a nice place to recuperate. (10 hours overnight)

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nice...basicly speachless :lol: the pics tell the story

 

this technique works exelent w/ rose anenomes, and bta's and most other nems also.

 

heres a pic of a rbta RBTA

 

~snazzy

 

what do you feed your S. tapetum's?

 

~snazzy

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Are these S. tapetum? Someone locally just put them up for trade on our club board and all he knows is that they are called rock anemones.

 

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^^^ Nope those are rock...flower anemones.

 

Nice Adin...

My Porcelain crab has gone missing in action for 2 days now...thinking something made a midnight snack out of him...lol

If he doesnt show up this week...slice time :)

 

Izzue

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snazzy: my "staple food" is frozen mysis. occasionally i use fish roe (salt cured), krill, slivered raw fish.

 

argent: no plans for selling in the near future. ask me in 2008!

 

izzue: let's do some trading!

 

phix: sure, i'll do it... AFTER YOU CLEAN YOUR GLASS.

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Adin...your on :)

 

I think maybe the Anemone Crab...was not so fortunate in this case...LOL

HIs hosting came to a end.

The baby on the pic from way back is almost split all the way now.

Gonna watch to see any hard shell crap coming out... :huh:

It was cool while it lasted.

 

Once I get the baby released Ill pm ya...but to tell ya the truth it looks a lot

like the purple one you got.

Ill get pics later bro. Ill have to tear the whole tank down to get to the main base rock...so Im gonna have to be a little patient for now.

 

Izzue

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Interesting....very nice illustrations!!!

 

I used to think that anemones like that were just for girlie men--but it moved me. I may have to get some!!!

 

Oh--How long til you have two complete nems?

 

Have you ever cut them into more than 2 pieces????? :happy:

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clifford513

Great work, directions, and pics, Adin!

 

Have you ever cut them into more than 2 pieces????? :happy:

Greedy :P

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"24 hour" photos!

 

The freshly cut anemone halves should attach to a substrate quickly.

 

mvite: Quarter cuts will work on an individual that's on the larger side. Because of my impatience, I've been slicing my maxis at 2". This species is reported to grow a maximum of 30cm. That's not to say it's impossible... but the strategy is to get the mouth to reform as quickly as possible so you can start feeding again. The more you divide the mouth (more cuts), the longer it will take the frag to reform.

 

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