RFA breeding help

[Peace River]

The “mother” is about 3”. Two other 3”, a 4” and a 2”. Last years baby is about an inch now and this years still tiny. Maybe 1/4?

Thanks for the reply! Has the little one started coloring up yet? From what I have seen they are not as colorful when they are first born and then they color up over time.

 

[Dsnakes]

Most of the babies from my spawn were fairly colorful from the start. Hopefully you can see the little orange glows.

 

[inletfish]

9

no spawn yet

one came in the bag with 6 babies attached to it, i can only find one baby in the tank as of now

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I wonder if a spawn can be triggered by an alk spike or drop. I know I ca shift my alk by 2 quickly in my bta tank and most will split the next day. Not recommended, but had a doser go nuts twice before I replaced it lol. Both times it dumped too much, they split. This also happened once and caused my haddonis to spawn. I found a baby 4 months later from that and it is now 2.5-3” and in the display.

in short, I wonder if a spawn could be triggered with a shock that is interpreted by the nems as a survival event. Not enough of a trigger to harm them, but scare them.

Just a thought.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

I've yet to have a rf spawning event (only have one thats truly adult sized) but my sand anemones spit out a baby monthly! (following along to see what you all learn)

 

[Ron Reefman]

I like this idea and would be game for trying it also.

I can summarize mine in a few words, stated with 6 two years ago, now have 23. Never seen them spawn, but see babies lol.

I have a drilled 30 breeder and and diy 20 long sump I could use, but have no idea on how to even begin setting it up for a breeding tank. I would think a skimmer would remove a ton of the “product” lol.

@Eagle_Steve, I'm with @Peace River on tank prep. I'm doing a shallow 12" tank just because I have one and it's so easy to work in. I think high flow, serious skimming, strong flow to a filtration system or sump, or having carnivores like a wrasse make for fewer baby RFAs surviving. I had fewer babies the time mine spawned when I had a wrasse in the tank. I suspect the wrasse was willing to eat the babies, but that is purely a guess on my part. I hope you can join us, or at least tag along and maybe we can all learn a few things.

1. About 2 years
2. 5 adults and 2 babies. One baby found yesterday and one about a year ago.
3. I guess twice though I’ve never seen it happen.
4. No but I seem to find the babies annually so far.

The one next to the birdnest (mom)has the babies emerge from underneath it. And the other 4 are about 5 inches away. I’ll add a couple pictures Any info on sexing these guys?

I know a guy who is doing his doctoral dissertation on aiptasia, but he is into all kinds of anemones. He hasn't found a way to sex RFAs and isn't even sure that they aren't capable of changing sexes or may even be both sexes. It's something I'll ask him about again.

9

no spawn yet

one came in the bag with 6 babies attached to it, i can only find one baby in the tank as of now

@inletfish , have we talked before? Was it you that I had a conversation with about the fact that my brother lives in Murrells Inlet?

I wonder if a spawn can be triggered by an alk spike or drop. I know I ca shift my alk by 2 quickly in my bta tank and most will split the next day. Not recommended, but had a doser go nuts twice before I replaced it lol. Both times it dumped too much, they split. This also happened once and caused my haddonis to spawn. I found a baby 4 months later from that and it is now 2.5-3” and in the display.

in short, I wonder if a spawn could be triggered with a shock that is interpreted by the nems as a survival event. Not enough of a trigger to harm them, but scare them.

Just a thought.

I have my doubts about an alk shift being the cause. I manually dose my tank once a week and the alk gets down to about 7.0 dKH and I dose it back up to 9.0 dKH over just 10-20 minutes. And sometimes all at once. But in 4+ years I've only had 3 spawning events. But that doesn't mean you are wrong as it could be I have other factors that have kept mine from breeding more often.

 

[Hemmdog]

9

no spawn yet

one came in the bag with 6 babies attached to it, i can only find one baby in the tank as of now

Those are really pretty! Are they valuable? I don’t know much about rfa’s. What determines the value in them? What colors are rarer than others?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Those are really pretty! Are they valuable? I don’t know much about rfa’s. What determines the value in them? What colors are rarer than others?

RFAs run from very, very ordinary looking at $20 to crazy color combos and with lots of fluorescence at $100+. I guess they are a lot like zoas in that rare colors and/or bright colors or odd morphs make them more valuable.

Here are a couple ordinary ones. These are pretty readily found in shallow water in the Florida Keys. I've had some of these that I collected from about 12 years ago.

And these are a few examples of how colorful they can get. And the fluoresce like crazy under blue leds. These get collected somewhere in the 30 to 50 foot deep range.

And in between shallow and deep, there are some to be found that have some color but are not as bright and/or don't fluoresce as much.

I just bought one at a Frag Swap about a month ago that has a purple or magenta face which I'd never seen before (but it doesn't fluoresce at all) and metallic gold tentacles with tiny flecks of neon green in them. And the tentacle fluoresce like crazy. It was unusual enough to get me to fork out $125 for it and I have 50 RFAs already in my tank!

 

[Hemmdog]

RFAs run from very, very ordinary looking at $20 to crazy color combos and with lots of fluorescence at $100+. I guess they are a lot like zoas in that rare colors and/or bright colors or odd morphs make them more valuable.

Here are a couple ordinary ones. These are pretty readily found in shallow water in the Florida Keys. I've had some of these that I collected from about 12 years ago.

And these are a few examples of how colorful they can get. And the fluoresce like crazy under blue leds. These get collected somewhere in the 30 to 50 foot deep range.

And in between shallow and deep, there are some to be found that have some color but are not as bright and/or don't fluoresce as much.

I just bought one at a Frag Swap about a month ago that has a purple or magenta face which I'd never seen before (but it doesn't fluoresce at all) and metallic gold tentacles with tiny flecks of neon green in them. And the tentacle fluoresce like crazy. It was unusual enough to get me to fork out $125 for it and I have 50 RFAs already in my tank!

Wow awesome! Thank you for the detailed response! Do they need a sand or crushed coral substrate or is bare bottom fine too? I want some now, Haha.

 

[inletfish]

Wow awesome! Thank you for the detailed response! Do they need a sand or crushed coral substrate or is bare bottom fine too? I want some now, Haha.

they will tuck into the rockwork.

RFAs run from very, very ordinary looking at $20 to crazy color combos and with lots of fluorescence at $100+. I guess they are a lot like zoas in that rare colors and/or bright colors or odd morphs make them more valuable.

Here are a couple ordinary ones. These are pretty readily found in shallow water in the Florida Keys. I've had some of these that I collected from about 12 years ago.

And these are a few examples of how colorful they can get. And the fluoresce like crazy under blue leds. These get collected somewhere in the 30 to 50 foot deep range.

And in between shallow and deep, there are some to be found that have some color but are not as bright and/or don't fluoresce as much.

I just bought one at a Frag Swap about a month ago that has a purple or magenta face which I'd never seen before (but it doesn't fluoresce at all) and metallic gold tentacles with tiny flecks of neon green in them. And the tentacle fluoresce like crazy. It was unusual enough to get me to fork out $125 for it and I have 50 RFAs already in my tank!

good answer

 

[Ron Reefman]

Wow awesome! Thank you for the detailed response! Do they need a sand or crushed coral substrate or is bare bottom fine too? I want some now, Haha.

There is quite a bit of info about them at this thread:

Ron Reefman's Rock Flower experience

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...

www.reef2reef.com

I've found they are very easy to keep in one place if you put them in a PVC end cap and push it down into the sand. We see a lot of them in the wild that like to live in holes in the rock, but even more that like holes in rocks that have a thin (less than 3") layer of sand over the hole. When seriously disturbed they can retreat into the hole and under the sand.

In my new RFA tank I'll do some in end caps (especially bigger ones I hope to breed) and others may get the chance to try open sand and I think they'll be OK. Like most anemones, they seem to really like the smooth surface of glass to set their foot. IMHO, I think if they were on a bare bottom, they would move to the edge of the nearest rock and squeeze in between the glass and the rock. I've had them do the same thing on a smooth rock or a rock with holes that just aren't what they want.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I am game for setting up a tank. I think a 30 breeder, sump, and large fuge may be the way to go.
edit: way to go for me, as I have all of that and a 30 breeder is 36Lx18Wx12H

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Mine was about 7 or 8 feet from a west facing window, so it got direct sun on one end for maybe an hour a day if the blinds were open, but only one short side of the tank (nothing significant).

I used an ATI powermodule hybrid with LEDs and T5s.

 

[Ron Reefman]

@Anubis012880 , @laverda , @maevepotter , @MrsBugmaster , @ItouchedThebutt , @reef lover , @cpschult , @Kevin Beadle , @Weedy Sea Dragon , @starypotter , @dsfirstsltwater , @mta_morrow , @Salty.Reefer , @NY_Caveman , @Cristy17

I just want to invite all of you who posted in the RFA thread I had to this new effort to try and learn more about RFA through my breeding tank along with anybody else who wants to do one and be part of the research.

 

[tankstudy]

1. How long have you had RFAs in your tank?

I've been keeping them for about 5-6 years, maybe longer? It's been a bit so I don't recall exactly but I've had them a long time. I've done all sorts of experiments with them, some intentional and some not.

2. How many do you have?

Not many at the current time actually. 1 month ago during an experiment/fix/upgrade on my system I had a heater fail and cooked many. I'm down to about 16-17 individuals. Only about 4-6 adults. I had about 50 adults at one point. I have 20 new RFAs coming in on Friday.

Just incase someones reading and wants to know where I got such a large package, these are going to be from @The Aquatic Arsenal .

I estimate that it'll be 6 months before I can gather enough breeders again to start up again.

3. How many times they have spawned?

My overall spawn count is probably over 20. I have a few videos of oocyte gathering by females. Males are common to see on youtube but females are probably very rare.

4. Can you put dates (specific or in general) to when they spawned?

Mine actually spawn quite regularly. I've seen spawning events in all 12 months.

 

[Schnizzle]

I'm in on this!

1. How long have you had RFAs in your tank?
22 December 2019 was the first one and Sunday was the second.
2. How many do you have?
Two
3. How many times they have spawned?
The "male" did at 1830 last night and Monday night. Will be watching for a third event tonight.
4. Can you put dates (specific or in general) to when they spawned?
See above response

The tank is in a Southwest facing room with the blinds closed so no direct light.

I believe my breeding setup will be a 40b with a 20 long for a sump. This will be setup once we move unless I convince the wife otherwise. Just waiting on the neighbors to find a new place so we can get theirs.

 

[Hemmdog]

Just picked up four rfa’s with some store credit I had! Woo!

I put them on a rock I had.

 

[homer1475]

Id like to be in on this as I have seen mine have a spawning event 3 times now. Unfortuantly I have only seen one baby so far.

As an introduction, here in this thread I'd like to hear about your experiences with RFAs:
1. How long have you had RFAs in your tank?
2. How many do you have?
3. How many times they have spawned?
4. Can you put dates (specific or in general) to when they spawned?

1) I've been keeping RFA's for about 10 years now. Current crop is about 5 years old.
2) Currently have 6
3) I have personally seen them spawn 3 times.
4) I can with 2 of them as I videoed the first one, and watched and marked on my calendar when the second happened.

The last recent spawn I saw was just after broadcast feeding the tank(I don't target feed). Then just about a month later I see a tiny baby crawling up the glass. Of the 3 spawns I have seen, this is the first baby I have.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Well I got an alert my skimmer for the 90/45 combo was full. Funny as I emptied it this morning. Called the wife and she was like, “yeah it’s overflowing back into the sump, I heard the alarm and turned it off”. I was like “you can’t text someone”. She said there was no need to as the little nems we’re getting their freak on like the big ones do every now and again lol.

so I can now log a spawning event. Window across room open for light is only thing outside of how the tank normally is. Sun was beaming on them for about an hour or so before the alarm went off she said.

not sure if that helps, but it was the only thing different.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Well it has begun. I will be setting up the 30 breeder this weekend. Also got my first of many orders of rock nems. The LFS I go to let’s me pick out stuff when they order and got 4 of the rocks I liked in today. Picture is crap as the lights are going down, all blue and the nems are in a basket in the 220 for now, but they are a gorgeous mix of colors.