Anemone Propagation system for profit?

[ether]

I do it. It works fine for me. I have Colorado Sunburst anemones and frag them manually. Works just the same as me fragging Rbtas back in the day, not one death yet.

FWIW, I have a 14-person waitlist so I don't think the demand will go away anytime soon.

I absolutely love this hobby so I take offense to anyone saying I'm in the hobby for the wrong reason just because I make money on the side to support it. I'm an acro guy, I keep one Colorado Sunburst in my tank and I propagate the rest of them to collect more corals/fish/new equipment and to pay for maintenance items and food.

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but what does your setup look like?

 

[FarmerTy]

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but what does your setup look like?

Here's a recent picture of one nem box in my frag tank.

Its connected to my display so tank is pretty stable.

 

[ether]

Here's a recent picture of one nem box in my frag tank.

Its connected to my display so tank is pretty stable.

That looks pretty simple. Do they stay in the box on their own, or is there some method there I'm not seeing? What's the feeding/cutting schedule? Are you just cutting in two or more? I saw a post where someone said they had luck cutting into 4 or 6 frags.

 

[FarmerTy]

That looks pretty simple. Do they stay in the box on their own, or is there some method there I'm not seeing? What's the feeding/cutting schedule? Are you just cutting in two or more? I saw a post where someone said they had luck cutting into 4 or 6 frags.

BTAs are easy. They aren't like acros or anything.... I just grow them on the side. Any stable tank with good flow and lighting will do it.

I don't feed them at all. I cut when they get 4"+. I only split into halves. Cutting 4 ways leaves me with tiny anemones.

They stay in the box as I raise the top lip above the water column. Otherwise, they will roam. I get a runner every once in awhile and usually I catch it quick with my nightly anemone count off.

 

[shred5]

Can it be done? Yes

Does it always work out? No

Buy 1 $400-$600 nem and it dies shortly after you get it and you're already in the hole. Buy another to replace it and you're $800-$1200 in the hole.

Buy a $600 nem and find out a year later when you've grown a few that multiple people have tanks full of them and your stuck with a few $60 BTAs that people won't pay shipping cost for.

Too many BTAs out there already being passed off as some type of rare anemone that everyone already has. Even the sunbursts are getting more common.

That is the problem with most high end corals, eventually the market gets flooded. I was told by a coral farmer once that just your regular/staples corals will make more money because their are not allot of people willing to shell out the big bucks. What happens here on reef2reef is not what happens in a majority of the hobby. Some people will order one high end but but several 30 or 40 dollar corals.

What is weird is the Colorado sunburst have stayed pretty high priced so far compared to most. I think anemones are harder than corals though.

 

[FarmerTy]

That is the problem with most high end corals, eventually the market gets flooded. I was told by a coral farmer once that just your regular/staples corals will make more money because their are not allot of people willing to shell out the big bucks. What happens here on reef2reef is not what happens in a majority of the hobby. Some people will order one high end but but several 30 or 40 dollar corals.

What is weird is the Colorado sunburst have stayed pretty high priced so far compared to most. I think anemones are harder than corals though.

Like most things in this hobby, interest and demand soar and wane.

You're right, the CSB has stayed high, and slowly creeping higher. They do have decent mortality rates though, so a lot of people kill them. Perhaps that affects the supply side of that equation.

Truly aquacultured anemones are in high demand right now. The wilds have subsided a bit with the Indonesian halt on exports which is not a terrible thing as a lot of wilds tend to morph colors under our tank lights. Basically, it was a good way to sell straight from export and odds are they don't keep their colors but by then, the vendor has made their money already.

I fully support buying aquacultured strains and farming them. Less pressure on wild colonies and they have already been acclimated to tank life. My farming has easily paid for the hobby... heck, it buys me groceries too.

The hardest thing to do is find legitimate, lineaged strains. Everyone is selling Inferno this or Sunburst that, when it's not the original. Make sure your source is legit so you can make sure you are selling legit splits to other reefers. We all owe it to each other to do that.

Locally, I agree with the statement that bread and butter sells all day and makes more money. Nationally though, when you can ship and willing to, high end wins out all day. Why waste my space in my frag tank growing rainbows for $50/anemone when I can expend the same energy and resources to grow $1200 CSBs? Do I sell them locally? Not too much, not enough BTA lovers that would pay that price for it locally... but I can sell them all day long nationally.

 

[shred5]

The hardest thing to do is find legitimate, lineaged strains. Everyone is selling Inferno this or Sunburst that, when it's not the original. Make sure your source is legit so you can make sure you are selling legit splits to other reefers. We all owe it to each other to do that.

This happens so much in SPS and Zoas it amazes me people spend so much and never even ask the question anymore....

It looks similar so I will call it the same.

 

[FarmerTy]

This happens so much in SPS and Zoas it amazes me people spend so much and never even ask the question anymore....

It looks similar so I will call it the same.

I have certain trusted sources for purchase... And I stick to those. A fool and his money are soon parted...

 

[scott4077]

what would you guess is the key to getting nems to split naturally? just spot feeding?

 

[FarmerTy]

what would you guess is the key to getting nems to split naturally? just spot feeding?

I actually don't feed any of my anemones purposefully. Some types just naturally split more than others.

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

i used to heavily propagate many many moons ago. back when you could make a profit off regular roses. but i would split them myself.