Ron Reefman's Rock Flower experience

[Ron Reefman]

If you guys are still hunting RFAs, WWC has one that is zebra pink with pink laced frills. The combination of pink disc w/ pink frills isn't very common. This is actually a first for me. I was actually trying to breed one like this out.

This piece would be a phenomenal piece for breeding. Mixing it with a rainbow could produce some insane offspring.

I'm very very very tempted to buy it myself, especially at it's current listed price...

Thanks a ton for the lead!!! I'll take a look, if it's still there. I've been busy with other projects the last 10 days.

Ron will the rock flower survive an invasion of zoas. I have one that's about to happen.....

Yes! In fact as the RFA grows it will stretch out over the zoas and allow them to grow up to but not under it. My baby RFA's that started in a full field of zoas are still doing just fine and starting to get a little bigger. I assume they won't kill the zoas by stinging them, but choke them out by creating shade as the stretch out over the zoas.

Let us know how yours do. This thread will still be here!

It's hard to tell from the picture, but how large are WWC's RFA's usually? With a black background and no egg crate, I have no point of reference outside the size of the mouth lol.

Babies are so small it's hard to believe they can survive at all. At full size they reach about 3" to 4" depending on how well it does photosynthesis and how well it gets fed if it's a colorful version that (I think) doesn't do photosynthesis as well.

I just had a baby that is only 1/4" in diameter get buried in the sand. It disappeared for 2 or 3 days and I just found it on the edge of a rock about 3" from where it was in the sand! These little guys are very hearty IMHO.

Great info @Ron Reefman @tankstudy

Thanks. And thanks to everybody who has posted info as well as everybody who is asking questions. I want to try and pull together as much help as I can.

Witnessed my first spawning today around 9 pm with my actinics on. Only saw one rfa releasing sperm so I shut off my pumps and sucked the sperm into the turkey baster and released them into my other rfas (no idea which are females). Hopefully ill get some more babies in a couple months....

Good job by you to catch it! I hope someday I'm that lucky. I've had 2 rounds of babies being born and I haven't seen the spawn or the birth, just new babies scattered about!

Did you have any indication that it was about to happen or was it just luck that you happened to catch it?

 

[Jet915]

Thanks a ton for the lead!!! I'll take a look, if it's still there. I've been busy with other projects the last 10 days.



Yes! In fact as the RFA grows it will stretch out over the zoas and allow them to grow up to but not under it. My baby RFA's that started in a full field of zoas are still doing just fine and starting to get a little bigger. I assume they won't kill the zoas by stinging them, but choke them out by creating shade as the stretch out over the zoas.

Let us know how yours do. This thread will still be here!



Babies are so small it's hard to believe they can survive at all. At full size they reach about 3" to 4" depending on how well it does photosynthesis and how well it gets fed if it's a colorful version that (I think) doesn't do photosynthesis as well.

I just had a baby that is only 1/4" in diameter get buried in the sand. It disappeared for 2 or 3 days and I just found it on the edge of a rock about 3" from where it was in the sand! These little guys are very hearty IMHO.



Thanks. And thanks to everybody who has posted info as well as everybody who is asking questions. I want to try and pull together as much help as I can.



Good job by you to catch it! I hope someday I'm that lucky. I've had 2 rounds of babies being born and I haven't seen the spawn or the birth, just new babies scattered about!

Did you have any indication that it was about to happen or was it just luck that you happened to catch it?

Just pure luck, turned on my actinics when I got home from work and saw it.

 

[Baldguy]

I'm a bit surprised. He got back to me already and said that if I picked out a couple RFA's that I'm interested in, he would email me photos taken with white light.

Good for him! Maybe I'll try him for one if I find one I like.

Ron, did he ever get back to you? Or maybe you're waiting for nicer rfa's?

Regarding the pvc endcaps, what size? 1/2" or maybe 1"? Do you put rubble in the bottom of the caps?

 

[Katrina71]

I didn't realize there would be an issue with these guys and Coral. My son's RFA is doing great, but is there a Coral that is ok near them?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Ron, did he ever get back to you? Or maybe you're waiting for nicer rfa's?

Regarding the pvc endcaps, what size? 1/2" or maybe 1"? Do you put rubble in the bottom of the caps?

He did get back to me and he also offered to take pics using white light, so I give him credit. I haven't bought any new RFA's as I'm still getting things settled with my new 40g cube. I just had a buyer pick up 30+ frags and 10 small rocks with corals on them that were 'left over' and unwanted from my 120g DT that I sold a couple of months ago. Now I can move the frags out of the rack in my cube and place them in the sump. Then I'll pull all the corals, anemones and LR out of the cube. I want to do a different rockscape that will have more square footage for frags and exposed sand at the front of the tank for the RFA's. I also want to get some (50-75%) of the rockscape up on an egg crate platform above the sand. So not much point in buying a new RFA until I get things more settled and established.

As to the PVC end cap question, I've used everything from 1/2" to 1 1/2" end caps depending on how big the RFA is. I think 1" is good for most full size RFA's. I used a couple of 1 1/4" and 1 1/2" end caps just because I had them at home already and they seemed to work just fine as well. I don't put anything in the end cap but the anemone. And I put the end cap with the anemone in it, into a container (like a small bowl or tupperware or a big beer mug) with tank water in it and set it beside my DT. Then every morning and every evening for 2 or 3 days I'll do a complete water change in that container. I find the anemone settles down inside the end cap and when I know the foot is attached (the anemone doesn't fall out when I move the end cap) I move it into my DT. At first I just press it 1/2 to 3/4ths of the way down in the sand. After a week or two (whenever I get around to it) I'll press the end cap down deeper in the sand until the top of the end cap is even with or just barely below the surface of the sand. That way some sand gets in the end cap. Over time, at least in my tank, enough sand moves around that the end cap will fill up with sand around the anemone. It's my belief that this is a very comfortable situation for the anemone. It's foot is well attached to a hard surface, the bottom of the end cap, which it really wants. It feels like it's in a hole in a rock with the sides of the end cap, and most RFA's prefer to attach in a hole. And it can retract and pull itself into and maybe even under the sand to hide when disturbed, which is what I've seen hundreds of them do when I go snorkeling in the Keys. It makes them easy to move if you want to move them or even sell one off. I learned this trick from a fellow reefer in our local club and over the last couple of years I've never had a RFA leave the end cap!

 

[Ron Reefman]

I didn't realize there would be an issue with these guys and Coral. My son's RFA is doing great, but is there a Coral that is ok near them?

Katrina, first I have to ask, what the heck are you doing up at 4am! LOL!

I don't think most corals are bothered much by RFA's. But that's just my opinion. I don't think they kill zoas by attacking them as much as they just grow a bit taller and end up shading the zoas from the light. I have very young RFA's living on rocks that are covered with zoas and the zoas are snuggled right up next to the RFA as if it were just another zoa! I haven't had any RFA's get up close and personal with any of my lps or sps corals. All my adult RFA's are in PVC end caps or on small rocks in the sand and away from the main rock collection where most of my corals are.

I hope that helps? Maybe somebody else can add more...

 

[Katrina71]

Might be getting another today. Lol! Do Not let him see YOUR tank!

 

[Ron Reefman]

OK, so don't let it get too close to your computer or it might see this. And just to share info, it's going to change quite a bit over the next month. There is a frag rack at the top right in the photo and it has about 40 or 50 frags I want in the tank. The current rockscape has a few green paly colonies I don't want. And I want to do a new rockscape built on top of an egg crate platform and slope rocks from side to side up the back glass to near the water surface. I'll leave the front 25% to 33% as sand for the better looking RFA's.

 

[Katrina71]

Thank you for sharing. I had to show him yours. It's amazing.

 

[dbraun15]

Hey Ron, question about your mangrove prop...Do you think it will survive being completely submerged? I was always under the impression that the top of the prop needed to be able in open air. Just curious if you've ever grown them like that. I have some that are in pots, going on 1.5 years, but haven't had any aerial roots yet. Also, lost a few in the cold last winter. Started with 5, down to 3.

 

[tankstudy]

I didn't realize there would be an issue with these guys and Coral. My son's RFA is doing great, but is there a Coral that is ok near them?

I think they agitate most corals. They do best with their own personal space. It may not be very visible to the eye but there is some degree of warfare going on. I've kept them next to a lot of things and its just much better to make sure they touch no one else but other individuals from their species.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Hey Ron, question about your mangrove prop...Do you think it will survive being completely submerged? I was always under the impression that the top of the prop needed to be able in open air. Just curious if you've ever grown them like that. I have some that are in pots, going on 1.5 years, but haven't had any aerial roots yet. Also, lost a few in the cold last winter. Started with 5, down to 3.

I think it will, but I'm not 100% sure. I've done so many I can't remember for sure if I ever had one completely submerged. So I'll consider this an experiment. I know I had one that had started a couple of leaves and set it totally underwater and it did grow up and out. I had a 3 year old mangrove in my old 65g shallow reef tank before I tore it down to sell.

As for proproots, I think they need to be wet (as in standing water) at least part of every day for good ones. If it's in a tank, get it stared and then find a way to hold it just above the sand. As the roots start to touch the sand, move it up an inch or two. That gets prop roots the easy and artificial way.

 

[Katrina71]

Guess what followed us home? Lol. RFA #2

 

[Katrina71]

 

[Ron Reefman]

Congratulations Katrina, lets hope you have a male and a female and maybe you'll get some freebies! I don't know of any way to tell the sexs apart short of DNA (I assume that works).

Don't you just hate how bad our tanks look in almost all the blue light photographs? And I don't mean to disparage your photo, but I know it doesn't do the anemone justice. ;Snaphappy

I've played around a little bit trying to get a good photo of the fluorescence, but my best efforts are pretty lame. I get some pretty good photos in white light with a simple Olympus Tough 1 camera that I can put inside the tank (underwater). Elaine and I each have one to use when we go snorkeling. I bought hers new when they came out and it worked so well that I bought a used one of ebay really pretty cheap!

I used to work for Ocean Revive and at the MACNA in Denver a few years ago we had a booth. There was a professional photographer there who also had a booth and he was selling photos. Before the show opened one morning I got him to take a couple of photos of some RFA's at a coral vendor's booth. They were under all blue light and they came out spectacular! He told me he was using a yellow filter but that was all he would share. The shots were of individual anemones and the 'neon' looking glow of the fluorescence really popped. But the background (light tan sand) looked completely black. And I don't know if his technique would work in a full tank shot?

Maybe somebody who is into photography could offer some help? ;Happy I should probably search the Photography Forum here.

 

[VTBig053]

Scored three beauties in the Aqua SD ebay auctions last night. All under $50. I’ll post some photos in the show off thread once they arrive.

 

[Dsnakes]

I’ve got a rock on the sandbed of my new build picked out for a rock flower island. I can’t wait. I have 3 in my small tank to move. Great thread here!

 

[Katrina71]

I’ve got a rock on the sandbed of my new build picked out for a rock flower island. I can’t wait. I have 3 in my small tank to move. Great thread here!

No pics? C'mon, let's see

 

[Katrina71]

Hmmm. Male and female? This is cool! How do they reproduce? Aside from when a Mommy and Daddy really love each other. What do you look for? Breed at night?

 

[Dsnakes]

No pics? C'mon, let's see

Not a huge rock, but it will fit 5-6

These are the rock flowers currently in my 20g that will be moved to the 125.