Propagating anemones by division.

There's a growing belief in the hobby that cutting any species of host anemone in two is a viable means of propagation. This had me very concerned, so I e-mailed Dr. Daphne Fautin. This is what she had to say.

"To prevent taking animals from the wild, some well-intentioned people propose cutting sea anemones in pieces to propagate them artificially. I am astonished how often I receive such proposals! It appears that only (or nearly only) anemones that naturally divide will predictably survive this treatment. Despite a persistent belief otherwise, anemones of most species do not reproduce asexually: only two of the 10 species that are natural hosts to anemonefishes do, and that may be a pretty good estimate of the prevalence of that ability among all anemones - 20% of species.

Perhaps the myth that division is how anemones reproduce is due in part to the feeling that anemones are "primitive" and division is a "primitive" attribute (in fact, anemones have been on earth far longer than humans, so can be argued to be more evolved!), and in part because pests such as *Aiptasia* are many peoples' ideas of a "typical" anemone. In fact, they are so prevalent and common precisely because they have that unusual ability - most of the 1000 or so species of anemones are less conspicuous because they do not occur in such densities at least in part because they lack that ability.

Another possible source of the misconception about anemone division is the practice of fragging corals. Clearly anemones and scleractinian corals are closely related. But that does not mean they can be treated identically. All anemones are solitary (even those that divide separate entirely once they have formed separate bodies, whereas polyps of corals in a colony remain physically attached to one another after they have arisen asexually). So fragging is dividing colonies (groups of polyps) into smaller colonies (fewer polyps per piece). By contrast, cutting an anemone into pieces is analogous to cutting you into two or more pieces; and for anemones of most species, the result would be precisely the same -- we would not have numerous identical yous, we would have no you.

Associated with an ability in some anemones to divide (into two or many pieces, depending on the species) is an ability to heal; obviously healing is necessary for regeneration. And although the reverse is not necessarily the case, it seems that animals that do not normally divide also have poor healing ability. So the prospects are dim for propagating anemones of species that do not naturally divide by cutting them into two or more pieces. One person who wrote to me rather triumphantly with a proposal to reduce collection from nature by cutting anemones in pieces as a means of artificial propagation was so pleased because he had cut in half two anemones of a species that does not reproduce asexually (as I recall, it was a species of *Stichodactyla*), and although both halves of one had died, both of the other had survived. So he started with two and ended with two, each half as large as the originals. I failed to see promise in this approach.

And even for the two species of anemonefish host anemones that seem to divide in nature, differences from place to place make me think there may be more than one species of what we think is a single species of each or there may be differences among individuals. Thus, even an anemone that is thought to be able to propagate asexually (*Entacmaea quadricolor*, the bubble-tip, and *Heteractis magnifica*, the "Ritteri" anemone) may die from being cut up.


Daphne Fautin


Daphne G. Fautin
Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Curator, Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center
Haworth Hall
University of Kansas"

 

good read elegance. I didn't know there were people out there that actually "fragged" 'nems. Shame shame.

 

Thank you for posting this. Very good information. Now I can stop staring at my sebae's mouth wondering if it's beginning to split.

 

Good info! I certainly understand taking caution when forcefully dividing anemones. If anyone does decide to try it I would hope they would do their research first (like anything), and understand how they have the best chance of success.

It may be something that is best left for serious researchers/biologists for now, but I believe there are at least several people who have had good amounts of success "fragging" anemones. I would hate to discourage the practice altogether because if a good method can be found it would be great for saving wild populations and advancing the hobby.

Anyways, good read and definitely some good ideas to consider if anyone out there was considering trying this with their own anemone!

 

Here is a Youtube video of somebody doing it. Looks cruel to me.

 

Fragging anything looks cruel to me, maybe I'm just a big softy.

But really I've come to terms with it and don't have an issue with it anymore, but that's a whole other discussion.

 

I've fragged my colt and Xenia corals several times. I think that is more like pruning since you cut the branches just like you would prune a tree. It seems like cutting something through the mouth and organs is taking it to another level.

 

I don't necessarily have an issue with fragging BTA's or magnifica, because we know that they do posses the powers of regeneration strong enough to heal from such trauma. The percentage of success is arguable, but we know it can be done. The problem comes in when people assume that other species have the same abilities. LTA's, haddoni and gigantea (carpets), crispa and malu (sebae), and the other host species do not split naturally, so they should not have the powers of regeneration strong enough to heal from such trauma. There is no documented proof that any of these other anemones have survived being fragged. It's not a coincidence that the only two species that have been documented to survive, just happen to be the only two species to split naturally. There are people that claim to have had success with the other species, but no one can provide the proof. IMHO, is you cut a host anemone in half that doesn't split naturally, you will simply end up with two pieces of one dead anemone.

 

My Rbta that was only 1 when i transferred it to the 193 from the 90 turned into 2 pretty quickly, last night, I realize 2 RBTA's is now 3. The newest one is a wanderer, and I am trying to corral it.


Funny thing is that my big GBTA has yet to split, while the RBTA has split twice now in a month and a half or so.

I do feed them a lot, but I would never split one manually like htat. IMHO, that is a lot of stress on the animal, and could kill it.

 

On Monday, I fragged my LTA into about 100 pieces with a blender (aka Tunze). I'll let you guys know how many survive.