Rock Flower Anemone Breeding System

[AcroNem]

I did forget to mention, feel free to discuss with each other as well. @kdino that's great! You're doing it right. But you're also right many don't make it in displays, one of my goals is to overcome that. In my previous breeding experiences, adults released up to 60 young at a time, and I'm sure it can be a lot more than that in larger adults. So with having a dedicated system that can maximize me finding young after release and a proper growout tank to put them in, maybe I drop the mortality rates we usually see in display systems.

 

[zippykat]

Following

 

[kdino]

Yea "m curious how a dedicated system would react. My system is built for SPS really. high flow(mp10 on 90%) so something more akin to the areas they are found in the wild may work better.

 

[shred5]

Yea there have been a few articles on this lately. I have been thinking of adding them to my new aquaculture system I am building..

good luck...

 

[AcroNem]

Yea there have been a few articles on this lately. I have been thinking of adding them to my new aquaculture system I am building..

good luck...

That's good to hear. We need more people doing things like this. What size system are you building? I miss my 8x4x1 propagation flat every day.

 

[AcroNem]

Yea "m curious how a dedicated system would react. My system is built for SPS really. high flow(mp10 on 90%) so something more akin to the areas they are found in the wild may work better.

It should work out much better. With a slower flow through/ less in tank flow and no places to get caught I'm assuming will yield a lower mortality rate.

 

[Balz3352]

Following along. Always wanted to do this with flower nems. Just don't have the space.

 

[shred5]

That's good to hear. We need more people doing things like this. What size system are you building? I miss my 8x4x1 propagation flat every day.

It is gong to be something like 20 tanks.
Very little will be dedicated to fish and corals.
I want to do stuff not many are doing and focus on inverts mainly. I kind of want to push the envelope a little on things few are doing like different shrimp, sponges, snails, anemones, starfish, urchins and things that increase the diversity of a reef. Everyone can do frags. I would also like to work on some fish that have not been bred or done very little. I also want to work with different algae and feeds. Snails are not done much because they are easy to catch and therefore cheap but eventually collection will go away and it would be nice to be in-front of vs behind it.


At this point it is not going to really be a business, I just want to see if it can be done and refine the processes.

 

[AcroNem]

It is gong to be something like 20 tanks.
Very little will be dedicated to fish and corals.
I want to do stuff not many are doing and focus on inverts mainly. I kind of want to push the envelope a little on thing few are doing like different shrimp, sponges, snails, anemones, starfish, urchins and things that increase the diversity of a reef. Everyone can do frags. I would also like to work on some fish that have not been bred or done very little. I also want to work with different algae and feeds. Snails are not done much because they are easy to catch and therefore cheap but eventually collection will go away and it would be nice to be in-front of vs behind it.


At this point it is not going to really be a business, I just want to see if it can be done and refine the processes.

That's fantastic, will you be making a thread on it? Or at least keep me updated on your progress. Transitioning into a new place and I'd love to get projects like that up and running again when settled. You're right we do need more cultured inverts. I hope you succeed.

 

[AcroNem]

Following along. Always wanted to do this with flower nems. Just don't have the space.

I'm doing this on a 5 shelf heavy duty storage rack, 36x20x72, you can do it with minimal space

 

[Balz3352]

You should see my already small fish/wife storage room. It's already packed to the gills! (pun intended) plus im pretty sure my wife would kill me if i bought more tanks

I'm doing this on a 5 shelf heavy duty storage rack, 36x20x72, you can do it with minimal space

 

[andy020]

I set up my ADA tank specifically for RFA babies.. I originally had over 100 young from 3 adults.

Both tanks crashed and I lost everything.
Now my focus is bounce mushrooms.

I always felt a low scale wellbuilt system would be productive and lucrative..

For me, all young went into a tank of nothing but crushed coral and margarita snails.. extremely low flow

It was tough to spot feed, and a lot of work, I eventually used snow with good results

Following..

 

[AcroNem]

I set up my ADA tank specifically for RFA babies.. I originally had over 100 young from 3 adults.

Both tanks crashed and I lost everything.
Now my focus is bounce mushrooms.

I always felt a low scale wellbuilt system would be productive and lucrative..

For me, all young went into a tank of nothing but crushed coral and margarita snails.. extremely low flow

It was tough to spot feed, and a lot of work, I eventually used snow with good results

Following..

That's my plan. Smaller, efficient, dedicated system. I'm planning lower flow as well and it's all for increased sperm capture. We'll see if it works.

 

[AcroNem]

Update time.

Still waiting on tanks. I'll be calling glasscages today seeing as we're going on almost two weeks. I've got cheapo plumbing supplies, pumps, and biomedia. Rocks will be here Wednesday, I went with flat cut shelf rocks. The adult system will likely be bare bottom. I plan on having the adults all clumped together with space all around them in the system so I can locate and move any young that are released. As for lighting, I think it's going to be LED. I've got time to decide what kind.

Thanks for following along, I'll update once I hear about tanks

 

[Davy Jones]

Cool project!

Before dino's struck my last DT I had about 8 adults and there were little RFA's all over. I would say I had another 7-8 within a year of them going into the DT. I was running an ATI sunpower modified by Nanobox reef to be a t5 led hybrid.

 

[Eastlake]

Update time.

Still waiting on tanks. I'll be calling glasscages today seeing as we're going on almost two weeks. I've got cheapo plumbing supplies, pumps, and biomedia. Rocks will be here Wednesday, I went with flat cut shelf rocks. The adult system will likely be bare bottom. I plan on having the adults all clumped together with space all around them in the system so I can locate and move any young that are released. As for lighting, I think it's going to be LED. I've got time to decide what kind.

Thanks for following along, I'll update once I hear about tanks

Instead of bare bottom would the anemones feel more comfortable with their foot buried? But instead of putting substrate in the whole system could you "pot" them? Perhaps shallow Tupperware tubs where they could be in close proximity to each other where there would also increased chances for fertilization and give them less ability to wander away from the colony.

 

[AcroNem]

Instead of bare bottom would the anemones feel more comfortable with their foot buried? But instead of putting substrate in the whole system could you "pot" them? Perhaps shallow Tupperware tubs where they could be in close proximity to each other where there would also increased chances for fertilization and give them less ability to wander away from the colony.

They do prefer to be footed down in something. Which is why they'll be on rocks in close proximity to each other. The rest will be bare. Once released The young will be transferred to growout. The growout tank below the adults will have rocks and substrate.

 

[Jet915]

They do prefer to be footed down in something. Which is why they'll be on rocks in close proximity to each other. The rest will be bare. Once released The young will be transferred to growout. The growout tank below the adults will have rocks and substrate.

What substrate will u be using? Im setting up a frag tank but planning on having a basket with some type of substrate (crushed coral?) for baby rock flowers. I just want something that wont affect my water chemistry.

 

[AcroNem]

What substrate will u be using? Im setting up a frag tank but planning on having a basket with some type of substrate (crushed coral?) for baby rock flowers. I just want something that wont affect my water chemistry.

I think I'm going to shy away from crushed coral because I don't want the young to get lost/trapped anywhere. I'm thinking I might use black sand. Or just normal aragonite I have on hand.

 

[Eastlake]

be careful with the black sand, there are a couple of threads on here where people sent theirs out for testing when their coral failed to thrive ror even survive and it had elevated rates of some kind of element that was killing their coral. I think the info was in "turtle's deep blue" thread.