I've been in love with anemones even before I was started in this hobby about 15 years ago. I really got crazy about them when I started to collect some while snorkeling in the Florida Keys (with the proper license) about 12 years ago. I totally fell in love with the very colorful Rock Flower anemones when I first saw them at the VIP Reef (LFS in Miami) display at Reef-a-Palooza in Orlando, FL in 2014. But what drove me over the top was when 2 of my Rock Flower anemones got together and had babies about a year ago! These are the two parents.
P9290013 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
P9290014 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
I never saw the spawning event or the actual birth of the babies. In fact it was my wife that discovered a bright orange "dot" on a rock and she asked me what it was? It was the first of about 8 or 10 babies we eventually found in the surrounding area.
P9290007 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
P9290005 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
Over the next 8 months we watched them slowly grow. There are a variety of color variations but most were either mostly orange face & green or white tentacles like one parent or mostly all green which isn't like either parent.
Then about 2 months ago we decided to sell our 120g DT and just keep the 50g cube. This was our original system.
20170223_155902 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flick
And this is the currently the setup of the 50g cube that we parted out of that system. It is a work in progress.
20180622_143629 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
But as I was selling off a lot of coral from the 120g tank, I started finding a few more Rock Flowers growing in with big zoa populations. They can be very difficult to see, especially when the are even smaller than the zoas they are living with! Here is a pic of two that I saved by cutting a cube out of the bigger rock with a big zoa colony.
20180622_143853_resized R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
I even saved a few others that weren't at the edge of the rock by using a small diamond edge glass cutting hole saw! The little cores of rock, nem and a few zoas fit nicely inside a1/2" PVC end cap.
All that was good and I had about 15 to 18 Rock Flowers. They were all moved to the 50g cube and seemed to be doing just fine. The 120g tank, stand, sump and other hardware all sold to one buyer and was moved from our house. The surprise came when we discovered an entire new batch of tiny Rock Flowers now in the new tank! Most of them were in the area of the parents, but some had moved all over that tank. In total I now have about 35 Rock Flowers anemones, but most of them are still quite small. Here is a very small rock that was near the parents with about 8 or 9 Rock Flowers anemones on it. I pulled the rock and put it in a small glass cup to take this photo.
20180622_144303 R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
Other babies are in the sand.
20180622_143722_resized R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
And one even found its way up to the magnet at the back of the powerhead at the back of the tank!
20180622_143728_resized R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
Here are a couple shots of the parents and some of their kids as of today.
20180622_144452 R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
20180622_143642_resized by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
I don't claim to be any kind of an expert when it comes to Rock Flower anemones. In fact I'd love to chat with anybody who know anything about them and share info. If anybody has any questions for me, I'm happy to try and answer them. And when I do, I'll be clear about what I know for a fact, what I've heard from others that I trust, and what I've heard or read from other less reliable sources.
And if anybody has any questions about my collecting while snorkeling in the Florida Keys, I'll be happy to share that info as well. In fact we were just there and I brought back on Rock Flower anemone from the shallow waters (2' deep) which are much less colorful than the spectacular colored ones that I understand come from 30 to 50 feet deep. This is the one I collected in its original home off Vaca Key (the city of Marathon) at a tiny island less than 1/2 a mile out from the motel we say at!
Rons rock flower anemone by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
P9290013 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
P9290014 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
I never saw the spawning event or the actual birth of the babies. In fact it was my wife that discovered a bright orange "dot" on a rock and she asked me what it was? It was the first of about 8 or 10 babies we eventually found in the surrounding area.
P9290007 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
P9290005 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
Over the next 8 months we watched them slowly grow. There are a variety of color variations but most were either mostly orange face & green or white tentacles like one parent or mostly all green which isn't like either parent.
Then about 2 months ago we decided to sell our 120g DT and just keep the 50g cube. This was our original system.
20170223_155902 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flick
And this is the currently the setup of the 50g cube that we parted out of that system. It is a work in progress.
20180622_143629 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
But as I was selling off a lot of coral from the 120g tank, I started finding a few more Rock Flowers growing in with big zoa populations. They can be very difficult to see, especially when the are even smaller than the zoas they are living with! Here is a pic of two that I saved by cutting a cube out of the bigger rock with a big zoa colony.
20180622_143853_resized R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
I even saved a few others that weren't at the edge of the rock by using a small diamond edge glass cutting hole saw! The little cores of rock, nem and a few zoas fit nicely inside a1/2" PVC end cap.
All that was good and I had about 15 to 18 Rock Flowers. They were all moved to the 50g cube and seemed to be doing just fine. The 120g tank, stand, sump and other hardware all sold to one buyer and was moved from our house. The surprise came when we discovered an entire new batch of tiny Rock Flowers now in the new tank! Most of them were in the area of the parents, but some had moved all over that tank. In total I now have about 35 Rock Flowers anemones, but most of them are still quite small. Here is a very small rock that was near the parents with about 8 or 9 Rock Flowers anemones on it. I pulled the rock and put it in a small glass cup to take this photo.
20180622_144303 R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
Other babies are in the sand.
20180622_143722_resized R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
And one even found its way up to the magnet at the back of the powerhead at the back of the tank!
20180622_143728_resized R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
Here are a couple shots of the parents and some of their kids as of today.
20180622_144452 R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
20180622_143642_resized by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
I don't claim to be any kind of an expert when it comes to Rock Flower anemones. In fact I'd love to chat with anybody who know anything about them and share info. If anybody has any questions for me, I'm happy to try and answer them. And when I do, I'll be clear about what I know for a fact, what I've heard from others that I trust, and what I've heard or read from other less reliable sources.
And if anybody has any questions about my collecting while snorkeling in the Florida Keys, I'll be happy to share that info as well. In fact we were just there and I brought back on Rock Flower anemone from the shallow waters (2' deep) which are much less colorful than the spectacular colored ones that I understand come from 30 to 50 feet deep. This is the one I collected in its original home off Vaca Key (the city of Marathon) at a tiny island less than 1/2 a mile out from the motel we say at!
Rons rock flower anemone by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr