Ron Reefman's Rock Flower experience

[Ron Reefman]

Hi Ron whats a maxi mini?
I definetely need to catch back up here for sure.
How are you getting them to breed?
Do they spawn and spit out babies,eggs? Do you need 2 to be present?
Very cool

Well, I guess you got the low down on what a mini-maxi or maxi-mini is. Maybe we should just call them M&M anemones? They can be quite colorful. I find the RFA are more bold colors with big swaths of color and M&M are still very colorful, but a bit more subtle and the color patterns are more intricate... kind of pixelated.

The RFA breed on their own. If you read through this entire thread there is a lot of good info about breeding and keeping them. There is very little scientific data about RFA breeding habits. I think they are more likely to breed under 2 scenarios, they are very happy and well fed, or they are unhappy and struggling to survive.

The males spawn. Even just 1 RFA spawning in my 90g DT will make the water quite 'foggy'. Whan I had several spawn at the same time in my 16g breeding tank, the water was almost milky white! The RFAs that I have witnessed spawning have been roughly 20 to 30 minute events where the nem will spawn for 1 to 3 minutes, stop for a few minutes, then spawn again, over and over. In captivity, this can happen almost any time of year. I have not seen any pattern of lunar cycle, seasonal change, solstice or equinox relationship. I think we have established that between 25 and 35 days after the male spawns, the female will release babies. They are very, very small. And releases can be just a few, or up to as many as 30 or 50 babies. Spawns always seem to happen in the early evening. I've never seen an actual release of babies, but I think it may happen during the evening or during the night.

Here are 3 of my bigger RFA and a green M&M along with a handful of RFA babies if you look closely.

My 16g breeding tank during a spawning event

Video of one of my RFA spawning.

 

[Cell]

Lol those RFA's are giving the mini maxi a wide berth.

 

[Cell]

Figured I should get the babies transplanted before it's too late. Found a few more and now have 10 in a little baby RFA garden.

 

[Erin O]

Figured I should get the babies transplanted before it's too late. Found a few more and now have 10 in a little baby RFA garden.

They're so CUTE!!! I want some! Lol

@sfin52, look at these ;Joyful

 

[Ron Reefman]

Figured I should get the babies transplanted before it's too late. Found a few more and now have 10 in a little baby RFA garden.

Were they all in the sand so they were easy to collect?

I love the idea of having them together like that.

Do you know roughly how long it was between the spawn and when you found the first baby?

 

[Cell]

About half were in the sand surrounding the pvc end cap the mother resides in and the rest were attached to the outside of the end cap.

I'd love to contribute to the science, unfortunately, I never saw the spawn. I'm not even sure when the babies first showed up.

 

[Cell]

I found a couple more babies and am up to 12 now. The biggest one made it pretty far away, on the other side of the rock with the aggressive hammer in the previous pic. I guess the birthing process must take multiple days?

 

[rcmike]

I found a couple more babies and am up to 12 now. The biggest one made it pretty far away, on the other side of the rock with the aggressive hammer in the previous pic. I guess the birthing process must take multiple days?

That’s awesome! It looks like you have some pretty nice ones there.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I found a couple more babies and am up to 12 now. The biggest one made it pretty far away, on the other side of the rock with the aggressive hammer in the previous pic. I guess the birthing process must take multiple days?

Actually, I've never seen the birth even either. But I believe, based on purely anecdotal evidence, that it's just a few hours, if even that long. There is no scientific information available (that I've ever found). I believe that they just get released, or climb out of the mother's oral opening. But it's easy for them to get blown away in the water current and end up almost anywhere in the tank... including filter socks and overflows.

Babies can grow at different speeds depending on light for photosynthesis and the possibility of catching very fine food. Any chance you feed fine powder or liquid food to the tank, maybe to feed the corals? It's also possible this is from a previous birth. I've had 6 separate spawns in my tank just this year! But then I have 30+ RFAs.

 

[Cell]

Yes, I do feed target feed benereef and broadcast the leftovers when I rinse the container and I broadcast AB+ but I'm not sure if nems get much from AB+.

I will note that about 5-7 days prior to finding the babies, one of my RFA's was stretching up for much of the day, like depicted in your spawning video, Ron, but I never saw any active spawning or even a hint of cloudy water in a 55g.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Yes, I do feed target feed benereef and broadcast the leftovers when I rinse the container and I broadcast AB+ but I'm not sure if nems get much from AB+.

I will note that about 5-7 days prior to finding the babies, one of my RFA's was stretching up for much of the day, like depicted in your spawning video, Ron, but I never saw any active spawning or even a hint of cloudy water in a 55g.

That stretching up could have been when it was delivering babies. The water only gets cloudy during the spawn (when the male is pumping out sperm).

 

[Cell]

The stretcher wasnt the mother, it was a different rfa.

 

[tankstudy]

Females will begin to buckle at the mouth when they are ready. Buckling can last a few days before the actual release. Mom just opens up and pushes them out slowly. If you have a good amount of water flow, they get swept away instantly. If you have very little flow, they just kind of tumble out and settle around mom. They arent canoned out of mom.

 

[Cell]

Ah, I remember seeing it like that for a day or two before i discovered the babies, I figured it was just being weird or a hermit ticked it off or something. Now I wish i had monitored it closely at this time.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Females will begin to buckle at the mouth when they are ready. Buckling can last a few days before the actual release. Mom just opens up and pushes them out slowly. If you have a good amount of water flow, they get swept away instantly. If you have very little flow, they just kind of tumble out and settle around mom. They arent canoned out of mom.

tankstudy, that is both great info and a great photo! Thanks so much for sharing!

 

[ApoIsland]

just got 3 new RFA. One looks very good. One looks ok. And one has its mouth open expelling this large bubble thing. These are in the sump with low light. All 9 RFA in the display look fine.

anyone know what’s going on here?

 

[Cell]

So i kept finding more babies here and there for a few days. I'm now up to 22! They are growing nicely in their little endcap.

 

[SMSREEF]

So i kept finding more babies here and there for a few days. I'm now up to 22! They are growing nicely in their little endcap.

They look beautiful!
Great Job @Cell

 

[Ron Reefman]

So i kept finding more babies here and there for a few days. I'm now up to 22! They are growing nicely in their little endcap.

It's very cool that you keep finding them. And at the very least, I really appreciate you sharing your info and photos here!

Two questions:
Where are you finding the more recent babies?
What camera and technique are you using to take the photos? What lighting is in effect when you take these photos? Any filters being used?

 

[Cell]

Mostly finding them around the mother still. Within an inch or 2 radius. One I found high up on my rock work far away, so it must have blown there. I vacuumed the sandbed over the weekend and the next day found a couple more by the mother. Not sure if they'd been buried or what.

All the pics I post on R2R are from an S7. I've been using an orange polyplab filter for most of these ones except maybe the very first, sometimes I'm too lazy to grab it. I always fine tune a bit using Snapseed though.