Anemones spawned

MurphyJ

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Four of my males and 2 female BTAs spawned Monday night. They had been posturing the last few days and temps are so warm down here in the south that they decided to spawn early this year. This is the fist time I have seen both male and female spawn. Female is just starting to release in the forground and male is releasing behind her.
 

Payson

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Ive always know they split but i never knew they spawned in aquariums
 
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MurphyJ

MurphyJ

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Yes, they spawn in captivity. Not an every year event for most people. Although they spawn late at night just before final lights out so most people never see it.

They start to act out a day or so before they spawn. Raising up, expanding their foot and oral disk. Males tend to posture more than the females.
 

gfox

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Can i ask a stupid question?How can you tell male and female apart?I have seen one of mine in the tank spawn,but don't know its a female or male.
 
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MurphyJ

MurphyJ

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You can't until they spawn. Well, if you dissect them then you can but no outside appearance difference. When they spawn the males release "smoke". Water becomes very milky. Females release eggs.
 

gfox

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You can't until they spawn. Well, if you dissect them then you can but no outside appearance difference. When they spawn the males release "smoke". Water becomes very milky. Females release eggs.
Thanks for the info.I have seen one of my anemones release " smoke" into the water.
 

tmac18

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Wow, i didnt think they did this in aquariums either! One night i was walking by my tank and notices that the water was very cloudy. I panicked and changed the carbon and by the next day tank lights on it was crystal clear again. Wonder if this was happening. I have 4 bta's in my tank. 3 are from a split andcthe other was a tiny baby that i bought cheap and now is a monster. Hmm. Could have been spawning maybe. Interesting. Good thread!
 
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MurphyJ

MurphyJ

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I think most people just never know their Nem has spawned. The evidence goes away over night and they don't see it or attribute the cloudy water to bacterial bloom.

I recorded all of the known spawns people posted as best I could for years. The main reason for this was everyone always told me "if an anemone spawns in your tank it will crash it." Scary stuff! From 2006 to date I have recorded just over 50 spawns. Given the number of anemones kept that is a very low number! 80% were Male only, only 3 reported male and female spawning. But these numbers are meaningless when you factor in how many people have only 1 anemone or clones and actually seeing a male/female spawn and realizing how quickly the eggs disappear in the cloudy water. I have personally recorded 4 spawns and only 1 male/female spawn.

I have to say that in all of the spawns my anemones have done I have not had a crash. My Nem tank is 156 gals and I keep 30-40 BTA Nems. In both this tank and my SPS tank I can track all issues back to me and some boneheaded decision I made. Now that controllers are becoming more common and people have recorded data I will be interested in seeing how the O2 and other levels are impacted by spawns.
 

Suolainen

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My 2 Female Sunburst BTA (original and one clone) both decided to spawn last night while I was watching my 165 gallon mixed reef tank. I had read so many horror stories about tank crashes related to Nem Spawing, so I took the conservative approach and after letting many of the eggs collect in the filter socks I did a large water change, changed the filter socks and both changed the carbon and added extra. The tank is clear as can be and everything looks perfectly healthy this morning. Not sure if all of the work was necessary, but I wanted to be safe.

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ahiggins

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So awesome! I have rock nems that spawn every month it seems lol
Congrats :)
 

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Very cool!!! My female that spawned is a sunburst. Yours spawned right at the full moon and in the 1st qtr of the year.

I've seen a few other reefers even predict their would spawn near a full moon.
Another post on here has made me curious, is your skimmer affected by this?
Very cool post!
 
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MurphyJ

MurphyJ

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The Nems do exhibit posturing a few days before a spawn. The males are more pronounced swelling up and standing tall. When they spawn the males stand taller than the females, their oral disk is very swollen and their mouth protrudes up like an elephants trunk. It's all about getting your sperm out in the current!
In the data I collected the First Quarter Moon had the most spawns.

On this last spawn I saw the posturing and knew what was coming so I dialed my skimmer back to only do a dry skim. I saw a little more activity but nothing that concerned me. In the past I had left the skimmer to wet skim and got the whole overflowing skimmer fun. I have so many mouths in my tank that the filter feeders and CUC take care of most of the spawn.
 

davocean

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Very interesting, I've been keeping anemone's for about 31 years now, those and clowns are what got me into this hobby and have been my main focus.
I've never witnessed any of mine spawning, but I've been paying attention to others trying to learn more on this subject, very cool post, thanks for sharing!
 
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