Bombertech Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 This past week has been interesting. With lows at night hovering around -12F and 2 feet of snow, the garage has been a tad colder than usual. I've been running a single 250W heater on my system with a secondary backup set to come ON at 74F. The only issue with this is that my BTAs start to roam when the temperature drops below 75F. I'd seen it happen once before last winter but chalked it up to lighting changes. So, when my system temp lowered from 78F to 75F overnight, the nems got restless and started cruising. I use 8" net pots with the rim 1/8" below the surface of the water. One of my 6" rainbows, a 3" rainbow inferno made it out of their pots and down the 1/4" drain grates through 8 ft of drain piping to the sump. getting through the overflows wasn't easy as I found BTA chunks everywhere including the skimmer. The 6" rainbow had a single 1" clone that made it (it looked like a chunk of ground beef), the rainbow inferno fared better and I ended the day with 2 clones, one of which looked like it wouldn't have survived. 5 days later, all surviving clones have mouths and are pretty well closed up. A few Clones: Fat Clown in a Little Sunburst Nem: Couple Rainbow Infernos Couple non-phone pics of the Rainbow Inferno before splitting into 3: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pledosophy Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 Sucks on the two that got blended. Very interesting observation though. It's funny the certain triggers that can cause a nem to move. I have some extra heaters if your ever around O.C. that I could give ya if needed. I'm surprised you don't have a line of 400wers with your tanks and those temps. I'm also kinda surprised you ever leave your garage with those babies and all the zoa's. I'd attach a magnifying glass to my face and live out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rworegon Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 Funny you should mention that Bomber, I did a water change ion my 39 AIO cube the other day and found three small clones from my RBTA's in the fuge section clinging to the chaeto. One was very small, about the size of a pencil eraser but still had about four tentacles, another was twice that size and the third was about three inches across. I'd never seen clones that small before. In the display section the others have rearranged themselves in the tank with one ending up on the side glass. This has all happened since the weather turned. The only difference is that this tank is inside and the temps have remained pretty consistent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 Rainbow inferno is so beautiful it makes me blurt out obscenities when I see the picture! Sorry for the loss, glad you still have some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bombertech Posted November 17, 2014 Author Share Posted November 17, 2014 Sucks on the two that got blended. Very interesting observation though. It's funny the certain triggers that can cause a nem to move. I have some extra heaters if your ever around O.C. that I could give ya if needed. I'm surprised you don't have a line of 400wers with your tanks and those temps. I'm also kinda surprised you ever leave your garage with those babies and all the zoa's. I'd attach a magnifying glass to my face and live out there. Thanks for the offer, I have plenty of heaters around. The 250's do fine, I did end up bumping the 2nd stage heater up to come on at 76F. I run covers on everything so the temperature stays pretty constant. Haha, yeah, I usually sit in the garage and vape for an hour when I get home while harassing the clown that guards the nems. She slithers over the top of the netpots always hosting the brightest nem at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bombertech Posted November 17, 2014 Author Share Posted November 17, 2014 Funny you should mention that Bomber' date=' I did a water change ion my 39 AIO cube the other day and found three small clones from my RBTA's in the fuge section clinging to the chaeto. One was very small, about the size of a pencil eraser but still had about four tentacles, another was twice that size and the third was about three inches across. I'd never seen clones that small before. In the display section the others have rearranged themselves in the tank with one ending up on the side glass. This has all happened since the weather turned. The only difference is that this tank is inside and the temps have remained pretty consistent. [/quote'] Interesting... nice find on the micro clones! I have a couple the size of a nickel and they take forever to grow. Interesting thing is that they are more suseptable to pick up coloration from neighboring BTAs if the coloration is bright enough. I had a couple rose clones and a green that picked up the yellow from the Sunburst. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pledosophy Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 I had a couple rose clones and a green that picked up the yellow from the Sunburst. Really? I never knew they could do that. I have never had more then one in a system. Do the splits contain and grow both colors as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bombertech Posted November 17, 2014 Author Share Posted November 17, 2014 Rainbow inferno is so beautiful it makes me blurt out obscenities when I see the picture! Sorry for the loss' date=' glad you still have some.[/quote'] Loss was minimal, I am up to 3 of the rainbow infernos so that's a plus, just need to get them to settle in which takes a month or so. They just lost some of the color from getting stressed over the last couple weeks. Just stock piling them for a nem show tank Yeah, that nem is gorgeous! Sometimes I just sit and stare at it for hours. It's competing neighbor, the sunburst is outshining it finally. Doesn't even look like a BTA, just a cluster of neon yellow bubbles. Will have to get a decent pic. I've been light conditioning the two color morphs for 3 months now. Here is a "before" pic of the Rainbow Inferno. I was proud of this pic 3 months ago... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bombertech Posted November 17, 2014 Author Share Posted November 17, 2014 Really? I never knew they could do that. I have never had more then one in a system. Do the splits contain and grow both colors as well? So long as the lighting stays the same, yes, the clones take and retain the color. New growth is uniform (It would have been really awesome if the new growth was the old color, 2-face BTA (drooler)) The baby rainbow clone that lives with the sunburst bleached out, when it settled in next to it, it picked up yellow over the course of a few months. Chalices do this too. The other crazy one was a plain green BTA that picked up the hot pink from the rainbow inferno. From the bubbles up is hot pink. with a yellow transition between the green and the pink. The color had been green for the 2 years that I had it, until the neighboring nems started coloring up in the BTA coloration experiment I started a few months back. I've been working on a BTA Spotlight Pendant for mixed reefs and the color is almost where I want it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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