Ron Reefman's Rock Flower experience

[eggplantparrot]

y'all are dashing my hopes of breeding and selling these things lol

 

[Lisavet2000]

Super excited, my RFA had babies! Not sure which one had them and only saw these 2 so far. They look so colorful

 

[eggplantparrot]

Super excited, my RFA had babies! Not sure which one had them and only saw these 2 so far. They look so colorful

that second one looks to be a future ultra!

 

[Lisavet2000]

These are the ones I currently have. Super excited to see how the babies turn out.

 

[chizerbunoi]

Those are nice.

 

[eggplantparrot]

anyone know why my nems are doing this constantly?

I've found this tank isn't very consistent when it comes to salinity. the nero sits under the overflow weir and when it cranks up it kind of sucks the water away from the weir, and the overflow water level drops, making the ATO dump more water in. this also happens whenever a snail crawls over the weir.

I have moved the nero further out but the snail issue I can't do anything about.

I am in the process of setting up a new 75G, to which I will transfer my 14G NotACube contents, and will probably transfer the RFA garden into the NotACube's system but with a new shallower tank for maximum RFA viewing pleasure. the larger system with a sumo will keep the salinity rock steady as it has been for the 14G so I'm hoping it will help

 

[Ron Reefman]

I have never seen RFA's do that, and yours seem to be doing it in mass. Even the ones up on the rocks in the background seem to be drooping.

Do you know what your PAR is? How about other water parameters? Even water temp? Does this 14g system have a sump and/or a refugium? What is the turn over of water from the tank though the sump? What is in your sump and in the fuge (assuming there is one)?

 

[chizerbunoi]

With the other species of nems that I have, they typically go for a walk when they raise their pedal like that. Hopefully that is not the case though.

 

[eggplantparrot]

I have never seen RFA's do that, and yours seem to be doing it in mass. Even the ones up on the rocks in the background seem to be drooping.

Do you know what your PAR is? How about other water parameters? Even water temp? Does this 14g system have a sump and/or a refugium? What is the turn over of water from the tank though the sump? What is in your sump and in the fuge (assuming there is one)?

they're not continuously like that, just very often I'll find them drooping.

this morning:

this RFA garden is a 5G AIO. temp is controlled by an Eheim Jager, flow is a jebao dc-650 outputting to one of those rotating nozzles. Nero 3 on random up to 40% high variance (whatever that means).

I've noticed this happening more when i added the sun coral colony to the left of the pic, as i have been trying to feed it like crazy to plump it up. nutrients are probably sky high and i have quite a bit of flatworms and large amphipods with no fish to take care of them. i do change almost 100% of the water weekly though.

As for Par, i have no idea. it has been working for a long time so i never even thought of checking it.

i'm hoping i can set up the 75G soon so i can free up the 14G system for the RFAs. plan is to replace the DT of the 14G to something shallower but use the sump system which can house a proper skimmer and float valve for ATO. it would also have better flow with 2 mp10s on gentler random flow.

 

[eggplantparrot]

With the other species of nems that I have, they typically go for a walk when they raise their pedal like that. Hopefully that is not the case though.

my big green one did take a walk but ended up basically where he was before.

my smaller boring red one also started moving around as it was being irritated by the Indian Ocean RFA. apparently they don't get along and the Indian ones will irritate the others.

 

[Kellie in CA]

Anyone else have a cannibal RFA? I
Just saw one of mine spitting out the remains of another. Yuck.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Anyone else have a cannibal RFA? I
Just saw one of mine spitting out the remains of another. Yuck.

Do you know there that cannibal RFA came from? I had over 35 RFA's from the Florida Keys in a small 16g tank. I even have a couple of RFA's sharing a single PVC end cap. None of them seem to have any desire to even harass any of their neighbors.

I wonder if yours may be from the Indian Ocean?

However, that said, I always tell people that ocean critters are just like people. Most of us are fairly 'normal' and similar. But every once and awhile you get one that is way far off the reservation and acts completely out of character.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Do you know there that cannibal RFA came from? I had over 35 RFA's from the Florida Keys in a small 16g tank. I even have a couple of RFA's sharing a single PVC end cap. None of them seem to have any desire to even harass any of their neighbors.

I wonder if yours may be from the Indian Ocean?

However, that said, I always tell people that ocean critters are just like people. Most of us are fairly 'normal' and similar. But every once and awhile you get one that is way far off the reservation and acts completely out of character.

I have a Florida shallow water that ate a very small Florida deeper water. So it is possible with Florida one. Great analogy with nems like people lol. It is sooo true.

Sorry for the super blue. But the single is the cannibal. He was in the tub waiting in the frag tank for his new home to be ready.

 

[netadman]

I have mostly ultra rfas from a few different souces, heres a pic.

Did you QT them... if so, how?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Did you QT them... if so, how?

I have bought lots of RFAs and brought a few home from snorkel/collecting trips to the Keys and I've never done more than a week or so in a holding tank. Never needed any treatment or long term quarantine.

 

[Tired]

I don't think there's anything you would need to quarantine them for. Since they don't have any substrate or skeleton, there's nowhere for fish pests to attach.

 

[Hot2na]

sorry, but I have NO love for RFA's...if they can't host a clownfish, naturally..then I'm not interested ...

 

[Tired]

They're pretty, though, and they don't exclude keeping anemones that do host a clownfish. Think of them like a sticky mushroom coral. Unless literally the only things you like are things that clownfish host.

 

[Hot2na]

" Unless literally the only things you like are things that clownfish host." ...U got it , Jackson !

 

[ajtomase]

I had that issue as well back when I first started buying RFA's. They weren't really big to start with and they didn't like just sitting on my rocks. I didn't feed them much as I had a couple of the not so colorful RFA's and they seemed to do just fine without being feed any more than all the corals that get leftover food from feeding the fish.

I found RFA's love holes in the rocks and at one of my favorite snorkel spots in the Florida Keys, the RFA's seems to love being in 1" to 3" of sand with a hard substrate under it that has holes. They attach their foot in that hole and when bothered (by me or anything else) they would pull under the sand. I'd blow away the sand and they'd be all the way down into the hole in the rock. So a friend and I started putting them in PVC end caps and they seem to love it. It also mean they can take up space in the sand rather than in my rocks where I would rather have corals. And that they are easy to move if I need room or end up selling one.

I also found the colorful ones that come from deeper water where they get less light (30' to 50' deep). Now I'm no marine biologist, but my bet is that they do not have the zooxanthellae that do photosynthesis as well as the less colorful RFA's that live in shallow water. So I started feeding mine more mysis shrimp by spot feeding with a turkey baster and they all seemed to start doing much better. Now, once every week on average, I turn off all my pumps, feed the fish and spot feed the RFA's until they all fold up with captured food. In 10 to 15 minutes they are opened up again and I turn the pumps back on.

I don't know if that helps, but it's what worked for me. Good luck.

So I'm a little confused on this. My goal is to have my tank dedicated just to RFAs, similar to what VIP Reef in Miami has (see attached photo), and theirs are all over the rocks. What would RFAs prefer being in the sand over being on the rocks?