Ron Reefman's Rock Flower experience

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks for the leads. I visited a friend in Venice, FL yesterday and we hit 2 LFS but only saw 3 RFA's and I didn't buy any. I did get a couple sps frags even though I promised myslf I wouldn't do much coral anymore. But these were very cool corals and at pretty good prices. Once they settle in I'll take photos.

I was doing a head count and inspecting the tank this morning and I noticed a few more very tiny babies in the sand pressed right up next to slightly bigger babies. Even though I gave a few away to friends recently, I still have more than 30 in the tank!

 

[Wildblue4]

Nobody else has any links to a seller for really good looking RFA's? Come on now, help a guy out here. Please!

Reefman I’m thinking of adding two to three RFA to my tank but like you I would like to find some colorful ones. Any luck finding any on line? I have never had a RFA But have read everything I can find. You information is much appreciated. If you find a good site with colorful RFA please let me know.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Steven, I'll be happy to share any info I find. As for finding the really super colorful RFA, it's a tricky process. If you can see them live, it's just down to it being colorful enough and your willingness to pay the price. However, buying online is way more difficult because of the lighting, camera settings, filters and photoshop. I saw a gorgeous RFA that was bright blue central disk and bright yellow tentacles. The seller was asking $75. I was suspicious because I had never seen a RFA in those colors, therefore the price was too low and the background behind the anemone was all black. The black background is a result of all blue lighting and a yellow filter on the camera. I emailed and asked for a photo in white light. The sell obliged and I got a photo of a RFA that was basically a white disk and light green tentacles that I wouldn't have paid $20 for. So be very careful if you are looking for something extra special.

On the other hand, if you are just looking for 'normal' good looking, colorful and fluorescent RFA's, most online vendors are pretty good. I bought a couple from Cultivated Reef online. They are located in Maine and Holly, the owner, is very willing to send photos if you ask.

I'm going to call Frank at VIP Reef in Miami and see what his inventory is, or when he will be going out collecting again. He's still nearly a 3 hour drive from my house, but if he has a good inventory, I may just make the drive. I have 6 LFS within 10 miles of my house and none of them have anything special.

 

[Wildblue4]

Steven, I'll be happy to share any info I find. As for finding the really super colorful RFA, it's a tricky process. If you can see them live, it's just down to it being colorful enough and your willingness to pay the price. However, buying online is way more difficult because of the lighting, camera settings, filters and photoshop. I saw a gorgeous RFA that was bright blue central disk and bright yellow tentacles. The seller was asking $75. I was suspicious because I had never seen a RFA in those colors, therefore the price was too low and the background behind the anemone was all black. The black background is a result of all blue lighting and a yellow filter on the camera. I emailed and asked for a photo in white light. The sell obliged and I got a photo of a RFA that was basically a white disk and light green tentacles that I wouldn't have paid $20 for. So be very careful if you are looking for something extra special.

On the other hand, if you are just looking for 'normal' good looking, colorful and fluorescent RFA's, most online vendors are pretty good. I bought a couple from Cultivated Reef online. They are located in Maine and Holly, the owner, is very willing to send photos if you ask.

I'm going to call Frank at VIP Reef in Miami and see what his inventory is, or when he will be going out collecting again. He's still nearly a 3 hour drive from my house, but if he has a good inventory, I may just make the drive. I have 6 LFS within 10 miles of my house and none of them have anything special.

Thanks for the info Ron. I am going to look for a few that show nice color on the web. I’m going to Orlando in October and may just look when I get there. I live in Kentucky so not much to look at here. Lol. Keep up the good posting!!!!!!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks for the info Ron. I am going to look for a few that show nice color on the web. I’m going to Orlando in October and may just look when I get there. I live in Kentucky so not much to look at here. Lol. Keep up the good posting!!!!!!

Thanks. Watch my RFA thread here and when I find something special in a RFA, price wise or quality wise, I'll post it. Right now I'm pretty busy getting my new sump/refugium set up. Selling off my 120g tank has created a lot more work than I wanted!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Well, after seeing only one vendor at the Sarasota Frag Fest with RFA's, and they were quite ordinary, I'm thinking I really do need to call my Miami contact and see what his current inventory looks like and/or when is he going to do his next collection trip.

 

[dbl]

Well, after seeing only one vendor at the Sarasota Frag Fest with RFA's, and they were quite ordinary, I'm thinking I really do need to call my Miami contact and see what his current inventory looks like and/or when is he going to do his next collection trip.

Ron...I noticed Barrier Reef down by me had some yesterday while I was there picking up some LRS food.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Ron...I noticed Barrier Reef down by me had some yesterday while I was there picking up some LRS food.

Thanks David. Did they have any that were what you would call exceptional colors?

I have 4 full adults, 4 to 6 that are close to being full size adults, a dozen that are juveniles (the size of a quarter to fifty cent piece) and a dozen or more that are new babies that are smaller than an eraser on a pencil. All but a couple are colorful and a hand full are rainbows and bright oranges. So I'm looking for either extreme bright colors in red or yellow, or extreme mixes of colors and patterns. And I'm willing to pay for extreme! I'd like a spawning event in the future to have some exotic kids!

 

[dbl]

Thanks David. Did they have any that were what you would call exceptional colors?

I have 4 full adults, 4 to 6 that are close to being full size adults, a dozen that are juveniles (the size of a quarter to fifty cent piece) and a dozen or more that are new babies that are smaller than an eraser on a pencil. All but a couple are colorful and a hand full are rainbows and bright oranges. So I'm looking for either extreme bright colors in red or yellow, or extreme mixes of colors and patterns. And I'm willing to pay for extreme! I'd like a spawning event in the future to have some exotic kids!

Ron, I didn't look at them that closely. I can swing by and take another look for you though...it's a lot closer for me than you...lol. To be honest, they caught my attention because another customer was looking at them not knowing what they were. I'll send you a PM.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks David.

It's great to have friends in the hobby!

 

[Wildblue4]

Keep us posted.

 

[Ron Reefman]

The RFA's that David found locally here in a SW Florida LFS were nice, but far from being anything special or uncommon.

If you are interested, stay tuned. As soon as I find something, I'll post it here.

 

[dbl]

The RFA's that David found locally here in a SW Florida LFS were nice, but far from being anything special or uncommon.

This is a slight understatement. The specimens Ron has currently are far nicer than what I accidentally discovered at one of our LFS's, but it was worth a shot.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I plan to call a collector in Miami today.

 

[Baldguy]

Thanks for the info Ron. Seems there are so many color combinations out there. Gotcorals has some nice ones for $30 but I know there are better ones out there. For me this one is one of my favorites after googling images.

This from a ReefBuilders article. I'm like you, willing to pay more for the best. Please do post when you find a source of truely ultra rfa's.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Hi Baldguy. I will absolutely post any site or store that I find truly high quality or very unusual RFA's at.

I'm going to the Florida Keys next week and on my way home I hope to convince my wife to let me stop at VIP Reefs (10 miles out of our way in a 250 mile trip) to see what they have in stock. I'll probably call them first. I would really like to visit after they do their next collection trip.

I did just find this one at Cultivated Reef and I like the white streaks in what would otherwise be a fairly typical rainbow RFA.

RFA by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

 

[tankstudy]

Thanks for the info Ron. Seems there are so many color combinations out there. Gotcorals has some nice ones for $30 but I know there are better ones out there. For me this one is one of my favorites after googling images.

This from a ReefBuilders article. I'm like you, willing to pay more for the best. Please do post when you find a source of truely ultra rfa's.

These are generally very expensive. I paid $250 ea. for mine. I haven't seen one like this for awhile though.

 

[Baldguy]

Tankstudy, I may have missed it but where did you get your rfa's? Do you have a primary source or just keep your eyes open everywhere? You do have some amazing nems.

 

[tankstudy]

Tankstudy, I may have missed it but where did you get your rfa's? Do you have a primary source or just keep your eyes open everywhere? You do have some amazing nems.

You will have to keep your eyes open everywhere. Staying in contact with those who also deal with alot of rfas will help.

 

[Ron Reefman]

We just got back from another snorkel trip to the Florida Keys. I ended up bringing home a few RFA's. One on purpose and a couple by accident! The one I collected on purpose looks like a smaller version of this one in the photo. This one is about 2' to 3' in diameter and is the exact opposite of the extra colorful RFA's I'm always looking for. But I guess it falls into the very unusual RFA category. I've seen hundreds of the more ordinary RFA's when snorkeling in the Keys. I even know of a patch reef at a tiny island that is littered with them. But I've never seen one this white before.

This one is pure white, and not an ivory or off white but really bright white. Now we found it in about 18" to 24" of water so the sun is very bright so it just jumped out at me as I was looking around. We (my wife takes 99% of the underwater photos) took several photos and then moved on. Later Elaine found another one that was much smaller, a bit bigger than a pencil eraser, and attached to a very small piece of dead stony coral. So we collected it. We also saw several other nearly all white RFA's as well as many other tans, browns and greens.

P8020124R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

Here are what I think is the far more common 'not quite white' RFA's. Don't get me wrong, I love the patterns and designs many of these shallow water RFA's exhibit. But most, or at least many of these RFA's don't fluoresce like the colorful ones do. If you find ones with green tentacles, the green seems to fluoresce very well.

P8020156 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr


I'll post up a couple shots of my white RFA as well as the 2 'accidentally' collected RFA's that were found in some sponges and zoas we collected. Last night I put the small darker colored RFA in my 5g holding tank and under the blue leds it fluoresced mostly yellow light. I was kind of shocked based on it being a darker color under white lights. I'll add photos once they get settled in and open up properly.

If you are at all interested in the snorkeling and collecting end of our trip, you can see more at the link in my signature below. I'll be posting photos there for the next couple of weeks!

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