I think my RFA just spawned

solitude127 · Mar 24, 2020

Do you think it spawned?

Brandon Smith · Mar 24, 2020

That is what looked like when they spawned!

Cell · Mar 25, 2020

@Ron Reefman

reef lover · Mar 25, 2020

Yup. That's a male... do you have any others?

Ron Reefman · Mar 25, 2020

Well, it's kind of a short video, but yeah, I think that was your RFA spawning.

Do you have other RFAs in the tank?

I've now come to believe that there is no particular time of the year, or lunar cycle that controls RFA spawning events.

BTW, I now have 35 RFAs in my 16g breeding tank and today I take delivery of some sexy shrimp and porcelain crabs (both work well with anemones). I don't have any fish or coral in the tank, and I don't plan on putting any in. I do have some small ceriths on order and soon I'll move a small clump of flame algae from my other system's fuge into the RFA breeding tank.

solitude127 · Mar 25, 2020

Thanks all for the reply. I have about 30 RFAs in the tank. All my RFAs looked kind of funny so was watching one of them and saw that. Hopefully I'll be able to report in a few months that I have babies

Ron Reefman · Mar 25, 2020

It should only take 2 to 3 weeks, to the best of my knowledge.

solitude127 · Apr 8, 2020

Ron Reefman said:
BTW, I now have 35 RFAs in my 16g breeding tank and today I take delivery of some sexy shrimp and porcelain crabs (both work well with anemones). I don't have any fish or coral in the tank, and I don't plan on putting any in. I do have some small ceriths on order and soon I'll move a small clump of flame algae from my other system's fuge into the RFA breeding tank.

How are your sexy shrimp doing?

Ron Reefman · Apr 9, 2020

solitude127 said:
How are your sexy shrimp doing?

The sexy shrimp and the porcelain crabs are all doing fine. A couple of the crabs and at least one shrimp have molted. The shrimp are so small! Yet they are perfectly comfortable climbing onto the oral disk of the RFAs and even standing right over the RFA's mouth! I found that very strange. The porcelain carbs do the same thing , but only over the smaller RFAs. Both seem to like being on the sand beside the RFA tentacles or in the case of the crabs, tucked under the tentacles.

I had 2 RFAs spawn on 3/27 at 7pm and then 2 different RFAs spawned on 4/5 at 5:30pm. I had no idea there would be a second spawn. We had just stated watching the tank cosely to try and catch the delivery of babies. We can't find any scientific data about how long the gestation period is. I've read anecdotal accounts of 10, 14 and 30 days. So it's really up in the air and I wanted to get some firm data.

Here is a link to a short Youtube video of the last release from one of the RFAs with all the flow in the tank turned off.
https://youtu.be/QpqlTzsjTwM

solitude127 · Apr 9, 2020

Ron Reefman said:
The sexy shrimp and the porcelain crabs are all doing fine. A couple of the crabs and at least one shrimp have molted. The shrimp are so small! Yet they are perfectly comfortable climbing onto the oral disk of the RFAs and even standing right over the RFA's mouth! I found that very strange. The porcelain carbs do the same thing , but only over the smaller RFAs. Both seem to like being on the sand beside the RFA tentacles or in the case of the crabs, tucked under the tentacles.

I had 2 RFAs spawn on 3/27 at 7pm and then 2 different RFAs spawned on 4/5 at 5:30pm. I had no idea there would be a second spawn. We had just stated watching the tank cosely to try and catch the delivery of babies. We can't find any scientific data about how long the gestation period is. I've read anecdotal accounts of 10, 14 and 30 days. So it's really up in the air and I wanted to get some firm data.

Here is a link to a short Youtube video of the last release from one of the RFAs with all the flow in the tank turned off.

I ordered 6 sexy shrimp from BlueZoo Aquatics but only got 3 since they ran out. Hopefully they'll be able to find some RFAs in my tank to make them happy. Like yours, mine were pretty small as well. If you have time, can you post a pic of the sexy shrimp on the RFA?

Ron Reefman · Apr 9, 2020

solitude127 said:
I ordered 6 sexy shrimp from BlueZoo Aquatics but only got 3 since they ran out. Hopefully they'll be able to find some RFAs in my tank to make them happy. Like yours, mine were pretty small as well. If you have time, can you post a pic of the sexy shrimp on the RFA?

Per your request, photos and video:

The shrimp is just off to the right side of the RFA.