Nem splitting behavior

[lmm1967]

I know several members here have had BTAs split a number of times.

I can't seem to find much info on this when searching the internet...

What change in behavior did you notice in the week(s) / days leading up to the splitting?

My nem - has significantly increased color and is deflating / inflating several times a day. No movement, hasn't shown any signs of detaching. The thing deflates to the point that that clown has to retreat to a cave because the nem is so deflated. When it's deflated it seems to almost show a crease on one side - always in the same area.

Clown has never seemed to annoy the nem, no change in flow, light or chemistry.

Just checked water again this afternoon. temp 78.8 - 79.5 , S.G. 1.026, Alk 7.3, Nitrates under .5 and Phosphates pretty much unmeasurable. I'm sure the low nitrates / phosphates are due to a little bit of algae in the tank, but not enough algae that it worries me or is ugly at all.

 

[dball711]

Not sure this will help but having many noms split over the years I have never really seen any behavior indicative of a pending split.  I have caught a coupe in act of splitting and it was pretty cool but no weird behavior leading up to it.

 

[bcavalli]

I personally feel that they split in order to maintain the species.  So if a nem is in a very stable system with no major changes over time they will rarely split.  But, if there is a change in chemistry, salinity or even temp they will split.  It's very common to get a new nem and have it split with the change in chemistry from one tank to another.

 

[camellia]

Ditto on both replies above!

If you haven’t fed lately a little Mysis may make it happy.

If it’s moving, that’s a good sign of poor water quality, unhappy with light or flow. In this case cover or reduce flow on power heads (especially Echotech MPs).  Cover with supplied netting or block direct flow with rock if possible. If caught in a powerhead it’s a HUGE mess and often (but not always) the death of the nem!

GL

 

[camellia]

BTW

If the New does eat, it’s not getting ready to split anytime soon

 

[lmm1967]

The crazy thing hasn't moved since the day I put him in the tank.  I'm almost afraid to make any lighting or flow changes cause with my luck then he will start moving.

 

[dakota9]

Agree 100% that they will split due to stress.



Read many years ago  (actually may 6 years ago) a tactic to get them to split is to feed every day for 30 days then to a 40 percent water change. I imagine there’s lots of caveats and conditions on that method, but it seemed to work.



keeping an exposed powerhead in the tank with a nem  is just asking for trouble. That should be a basic no no

 

[bcavalli]

The crazy thing hasn’t moved since the day I put him in the tank. I’m almost afraid to make any lighting or flow changes cause with my luck then he will start moving.

Mine does exactly the same thing.  The only time it moves is to split every 9 months or so.  Then it goes right back to its same spot.  Lol

 

[danh]

My giant nem, a pain in my arse he's so big, just started moving the other day. It was about two weekw after I change the flow one of 3 powerheads. I just changed that one to a standing wave as opposed to a pulse that didn't create the wave. It hasn't moved from that hole in the rock through two tank moves. It did split during one move, but that piece of it never moved from that hole. The thing is huge and I don't feed it large pieces of food... but the day before I had put a small piece of shrimp close to its mouth and waited for the mouth to open, then put a whole shrimp right in. I guess it didn't like that very much.

 

[lmm1967]

keeping an exposed powerhead in the tank with a nem  is just asking for trouble. That should be a basic no no

Only 1 PH in this tank and it has a sponge guard on it.

I dream of the day of having the energy to properly build a tank with a closed loop that would require zero pumps inside the tank.

 

[camellia]

Danh mine was huge too, it took up 1/2 a 75 gallon! It took 12 hours of hanging it out of water over a bucket (picking at the foot) to get it out.

Thats when I cut it into 4 lol.

This is your chance to slim it down bud!