How to "encourage" an anenome to split?

[mike31154]

Mysterious creatures, btas. My GBTA was tiny, bubbly & rather pale when purchased. It coloured up, lost the bubble tips & went through a cycle of splits. I've already passed on a couple of them but another split episode or two & I have 3 in my tank again. Getting quite large this time around & like yours, starting to destroy some coral that is too close after all 3 decided to make a minor move. Doubt that we'll ever figure out for sure what prompts a split & why some stay small, some large, bubble tips, no bubble tips. One of the clones I have suddendly decided a few weeks ago to sport some bubble tips again. Only a few tentacles though, most are still long & stringy. I switched to LED from MH/T5HO in April, they seem to like that change.

I'll add my + to the scalpel scenario if you really wish to downsize the critter. Playing the waiting game until it decides to split on it's own could take a while. I'm not too concerned about the coral, but if you have some high priced SPS that are getting taken out, knife!