Ron Reefman's Rock Flower experience

[Mr_Knightley]

Tried posting in another thread but it didn’t get any traction so I’ll try here.

Does anyone know what this strange growth is on my RFA? Have had the nem for a few years and noticed this maybe 6 months ago or so.

It looks like it may be a bounce, the nem looks happy and doesn't seem to mind it. I've seen several different types of nems grow similar growths, it's the same as a bounce vesicle in a bounce mushroom. (there were so many bounces in that sentence) I wouldn't worry about it for now, it actually looks kinda cool!
Good day and God bless!

 

[ApoIsland]

It looks like it may be a bounce, the nem looks happy and doesn't seem to mind it. I've seen several different types of nems grow similar growths, it's the same as a bounce vesicle in a bounce mushroom. (there were so many bounces in that sentence) I wouldn't worry about it for now, it actually looks kinda cool!
Good day and God bless!

I just had to look up bounce vesicle and it does look very simiar. you may be on to something.
Unfortunately my nem bounce vesicle does not come in cool colors...

 

[saltyhog]

I have one that has a growth like that but it's further out near the tentacles. I call it my Bounce RFA. :D Doesn't seem to bother it at all. Yours looks healthy too.

 

[saltyhog]

Here's a picture of my RFA with the similar tumor/what ever that is.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I had a RFA spawn last night. We didn't catch it until it was nearly over. Now we start a new count down to the release of babies and hope that there are no more spawning events between now and the release of babies (which just confuses the issue). I really want to get a better idea how long it take between a RFA spawn and the delivery of babies. The last time I had babies there were 3 different spawns over almost 3 weeks and then the babies arrived about 10 days after the last spawn making it very confusing!

So this one isn't anywhere close to a solstice or equinox... but it was just a few days before a new moon (not a full moon). I'm coming to the belief that in aquariums (maybe not in nature) RFAs can spawn at almost any time.

 

[Fishtalk24]

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

Hey Ron,

I recently bought some rock flower anemones and have had a problem with one of them not wanting to attach to the live rock. All the others I own have never had this issue and just this morning i found him on the sand bed fully extended (foot) on its side. I never mishandled it to the point to tear his foot and wouldnt know what to look for if that was the case. Can you share some thoughts on what i can do to get it to stick to the LR since it appears to be healthly otherwise ?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Hey Ron,
I recently bought some rock flower anemones and have had a problem with one of them not wanting to attach to the live rock. All the others I own have never had this issue and just this morning i found him on the sand bed fully extended (foot) on its side. I never mishandled it to the point to tear his foot and wouldnt know what to look for if that was the case. Can you share some thoughts on what i can do to get it to stick to the LR since it appears to be healthly otherwise ?

I'd set up a small holding tank or tub of some kind, even if it's just a couple of gallons. Put a pvc pipe end cap in the tub and place the RFA in the end cap.

The RFA will be fine. As long as the RFA looks OK, every 8 to 12 hours you can pull the pvc end cap out of the water, dump the container of water back into the tank, refill it with tank water and then place the pvc end cap & RFA back in the container. This is just to keep the water oxygenated enough for the RFA. I've kept RFAs like this for many days without a problem.

At some point the RFA should attach to the inside of the end cap. Once you can pick up the end cap and hold it upside down and the RFA stays attached, you can move it to the DT.

Keep it in the end cap and press the end cap into the sand so just a tiny bit of pvc end cap rim is exposed. The RFA may stay in the end cap forever. I have some that have been in an end cap for 4 or 5 years now. Maybe <10% of the time they will leave the end cap and find a new place to attach. Most RFAs prefer to be attached to the side of a rock just below the sand and then reach up out of the sand along the edge of the rock. That is their natural defense position so they can retract into the sand if bothered.

I hope that helps? Feel free to ask more questions if you have any and I'll follow this thread.

 

[ApoIsland]

Added a porcelain crab a few weeks ago as I had seen pics of them hosting with RFA. The first day he would touch a couple but then move away. Last night he was half under one of them. Tonight I come home to find he obviously picked the wrong nem...

anyone else have this issue?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Added a porcelain crab a few weeks ago as I had seen pics of them hosting with RFA. The first day he would touch a couple but then move away. Last night he was half under one of them. Tonight I come home to find he obviously picked the wrong nem...

anyone else have this issue?

I added 4 porcelain crabs and 5 sexy shrimp to my RFA tank about 3 months ago. I'm down to 1 crab, but I recovered bodies of 2 that died (probably due to lack of food, my bad), 1 went missing. And the last one crawls all over even the biggest of the RFAs with complete impunity! And even though they are so tiny, all of the sexy shrimp have survived. I now add a small amount of food for the crab, shrimp and all the snails. BTW, I have 1 grass shrimp (almost clear) I collected at a local beach in the tank as well. In the DT they get eaten or jump out of the tank as I don't have a screen top yet. But this one is alive and appears to be doing just fine in the shallow RFA tank???

 

[PicassoClown04]

I added 4 porcelain crabs and 5 sexy shrimp to my RFA tank about 3 months ago. I'm down to 1 crab, but I recovered bodies of 2 that died (probably due to lack of food, my bad), 1 went missing. And the last one crawls all over even the biggest of the RFAs with complete impunity! And even though they are so tiny, all of the sexy shrimp have survived. I now add a small amount of food for the crab, shrimp and all the snails. BTW, I have 1 grass shrimp (almost clear) I collected at a local beach in the tank as well. In the DT they get eaten or jump out of the tank as I don't have a screen top yet. But this one is alive and appears to be doing just fine in the shallow RFA tank???

I’ve got the sexies and grass shrimp too! Very cute lil critters, my sexy hosts my gigantic bubble tip nem, and stands on the oral disk all the time! Very neat to see

 

[cpschult]

How long till I could start seeing babies? I’ve found a few in tank before. Never seen this before tho!

 

[Ron Reefman]

How long till I could start seeing babies? I’ve found a few in tank before.

That's a great question.

As to when it can happen, as far as I can see, in captivity, almost anytime of year. It does not seem related to solstice or equinox, or even to phases of the moon. In fact, it seems more likely related to changes in the tank itself. Bigger changes in salinity or alkalinity may set off a spawning event.

As far as when is a RFA mature enough to spawn? I've had RFAs as small as 2" in diameter spawn. But that's only half the battle. How big do the females need to be in order to be fertilized and make babies? I don't know because I've yet to see babies being released.

And then there is the question of how long is the gestation period? As far as my research into what real scientists and marine biologists know, that is an unanswered question. Anecdotal evidence here at R2R suggests 10 to 30 days. My personal experience is very limited so far, but I'm more inclined to the roughly 30 day time frame. I had a single spawn on Aug 1st and several more spawn on Aug 9th and here on Aug 24th I still have no new babies.

Good luck and let us know how things go in your tank!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Birth Announcement:

This morning I found a few Rock Flower Anemone babies in my RFA breeding tank. The main spawn was back on August 1st with one smaller spawn on the 9th. So I'm still a bit iffy about RFA gestation, but as a rough estimate I'm saying 30 to 40 days. And I think that's better information than we've had up until now.

 

[ApoIsland]

As far as when is a RFA mature enough to spawn? I've had RFAs as small as 2" in diameter spawn. But that's only half the battle. How big do the females need to be in order to be fertilized and make babies? I don't know because I've yet to see babies being released.

For the first couple years I never had a rfa larger than 1-2" in diameter and did have a reproduction event that produced 20-30 babies. Of course the 2 babies from that spawn which survived to this day are still no bigger than a dime. Same goes for the babies which survived from the latest spawn back on Oct of last year.

 

[Ron Reefman]

For the first couple years I never had a rfa larger than 1-2" in diameter and did have a reproduction event that produced 20-30 babies. Of course the 2 babies from that spawn which survived to this day are still no bigger than a dime. Same goes for the babies which survived from the latest spawn back on Oct of last year.

I know from experience that RFAs as small as 1" to 1 1/2" can spawn.

Unfortunately I've never witnessed a birthing event, so I have no idea how small a RFA might be and still be able to produce offspring.

RFAs do take time to grow. I've found they grow very slowly if you rely on just photosynthesis. They do better if you are feeding the tank for fish. And even better if you are over feeding. And they do grow faster if you feed them directly every 2 to 4 weeks.

Since all but a couple of mine are now in the RFA breeding tank, they rely more on my feeding them individually. But over the last few months I have been adding some livestock in with them. First were some sexy shrimp and porcelain crabs. Then, later I started adding astraea snails, then nerites and recently stomatella snails and a very tiny, unknown fish I collected when collecting the stomatella snails. So now I do feed the RFA tank some, but I still feed either small shrimp or cut up silversides individually every 2 to 4 weeks.

 

[lotekfish]

Hoping the RFA experts in this thread could help me confirm some possible offspring. I've noticed about a dozen of these guys in my tank recently, almost all of them on the sandbed. I thought they were pests at first, either majano or aiptasia, but I haven't added anything to my display tank in months and everything goes in QT for 6 weeks first. I have none of these in my QT which makes me hopeful for baby RFAs. Sorry for blurry photo, these are only the size of a pencil eraser so I had to zoom in close. FTS shows RFA group that I've had for 1-2 years.

 

[LRT]

Hi @Ron Reefman
I got this guy as hitchiker on piece of gulf live rock. Was told the rock was pulled from an area with at least 18yrs growth on it. This guy opens up to close to 7"
Any idea how old it may be?

 

[Tired]

Ooh, cool! No idea on age, but that's neat.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Hoping the RFA experts in this thread could help me confirm some possible offspring. I've noticed about a dozen of these guys in my tank recently, almost all of them on the sandbed. I thought they were pests at first, either majano or aiptasia, but I haven't added anything to my display tank in months and everything goes in QT for 6 weeks first. I have none of these in my QT which makes me hopeful for baby RFAs. Sorry for blurry photo, these are only the size of a pencil eraser so I had to zoom in close. FTS shows RFA group that I've had for 1-2 years.

It's a bit hard to tell from that photo. I'd say it could go either way. Some baby RFAs can look a lot like majano anemones. Do the other RFAs you have fluoresce color under blue or UV light? Then the babies should too. Majano anemones don't.

Hi @Ron Reefman
I got this guy as hitchiker on piece of gulf live rock. Was told the rock was pulled from an area with at least 18yrs growth on it. This guy opens up to close to 7"
Any idea how old it may be?

Good question. It looks very much like a shallow water RFA. They tend to be less colorful, but often have very cool patterns on their disk. These are the ones we see all the time when we snorkel. We go to one island in the Florida Keys that has lots of RFAs that look similar to yours. And some of them do get to be about 6" to 7" in diameter.

This is just an educated guess on my part, but based on the growth rate of the more colorful, deeper water RFAs, I'd say it has to be at least 6 to 10 years old. But that's just a guess. I also thing that yours is about as big as it will get. I've never seen any in the wild or in captivity that are any bigger.

Very cool!

 

[LRT]

It's a bit hard to tell from that photo. I'd say it could go either way. Some baby RFAs can look a lot like majano anemones. Do the other RFAs you have fluoresce color under blue or UV light? Then the babies should too. Majano anemones don't.



Good question. It looks very much like a shallow water RFA. They tend to be less colorful, but often have very cool patterns on their disk. These are the ones we see all the time when we snorkel. We go to one island in the Florida Keys that has lots of RFAs that look similar to yours. And some of them do get to be about 6" to 7" in diameter.

This is just an educated guess on my part, but based on the growth rate of the more colorful, deeper water RFAs, I'd say it has to be at least 6 to 10 years old. But that's just a guess. I also thing that yours is about as big as it will get. I've never seen any in the wild or in captivity that are any bigger.

Very cool!

Awesome man thank you for the knowledge. Id love to see them in natural setting someday. Hopefully soon!
Its cool to think I've got a creature living in my system that is that old. Its doing well too. Made it through a full system cycle.
Ended up bleached out almost totally in one of my sumps until I broke the rock and got her under a lamp. Itll be with us for awhile:)