Rock Anemone babies!

[AcroNem]

I'm sorry @Dalton Hunter That's frustrating. With that many I'm sure you'll have some if conditions are right. How long have you had them? Also they look great.

 

[Dalton Hunter]

Of course now they decide to spawn ;Smuggrin;Smuggrin;Smuggrin;Smuggrin

 

[AcroNem]

Congratulations! Now it's the waiting game. It didn't look like they were in crazy flow, so you should have plenty settle out when the females release the young.

 

[Dalton Hunter]

Congratulations! Now it's the waiting game. It didn't look like they were in crazy flow, so you should have plenty settle out when the females release the young.

They arnt in high flow to begin with but as soon as I noticed it i pulled the plug on the pump

 

[Ruckus16]

That's awesome you witnessed it! Congrats!

I'm curious if a feeding event could cause spawning. I was feeding mine Sunday with table shrimp. I dropped a piece on one of my nems and looked down to grab another piece of shrimp with my tweezers. When I looked back in the tank there was a cloudy/foggy/haze around a couple of them....

 

[Dalton Hunter]

That's awesome you witnessed it! Congrats!

I'm curious if a feeding event could cause spawning. I was feeding mine Sunday with table shrimp. I dropped a piece on one of my nems and looked down to grab another piece of shrimp with my tweezers. When I looked back in the tank there was a cloudy/foggy/haze around a couple of them....

I put a big bag of live brine in like I do every week and thats when it started.

 

[Ruckus16]

I put a big bag of live brine in like I do every week and thats when it started.

Was that tonight? Different night?
Mine was Sunday afternoon...4pm

 

[Dalton Hunter]

Was that tonight? Different night?
Mine was Sunday afternoon...4pm

mine was tonight around 9pm. I dont know if he was just finishing or just starting.

 

[AcroNem]

Interesting hypothesis, and you both had essentially the same situation where they spawned after a big meal. I can't speak for any of mine, the timing since last spawn means they've likely spawned again but I didn't catch them in the act. Thanks for sharing your experiences on here.

 

[AcroNem]

You're welcome to keep the other dialogue going, i appreciate the discussion. I'll go ahead and update on mine, and throw some new pictures up I took last night. Had to use a white-ish flashlight again, I don't feel like kicking the Halides on for a 5 minute photo session. You can still kind of see the reds coming in, under the halide you can see green showing on a couple. My count was 22, scattered everywhere, 4 are on a Zoanthid frag plug so I'm debating relocating then. I managed to get pics of the biggest/easiest seen. They're still eating with a crazy feeding response, 100-200 micron golden pearls and brine shrimp nauplii work well on this size nem, Arctic copepods/cyclops are just a little too big, they still try to eat them though. They're target fed every night, I broadcast feed phytoplankton as well, and a fast day once per week, usually random.

Pics below.

This rock is still the "favorite", there's 10 or so on this rock, if you can see around/under the stupid hermit crabs.

A few other bigger ones that are in the open (I know there's a couple Aptasia, forgive me, I don't trust peppermint shrimp with the young Anemones, may be time for Berghia)

A few more

 

[AcroNem]

Just found this little guy, no idea how I missed it. He's tiny but has a nice red color even under a crappy flashlight.
Just got a count of 23 including the new one, so the numbers are consistent. Still getting fed every evening. Some more news, I decided I'm going to get some substrate in this system and make it dedicated to raising rock nems, which should be fun.

 

[bruleyii]

That's awesome. They look to be getting big. I wonder how long it takes them to fully mature?

 

[jhaun0211]

Are you selling any of the nems

 

[AcroNem]

That's awesome. They look to be getting big. I wonder how long it takes them to fully mature?

They are, 5 of them have hit a half inch or so, their growth rate seems to be speeding up. I'm not sure how long it takes, with me making this system a dedicated breeding system I'll be able to figure out more of those specifics.

 

[AcroNem]

Not an actual update, but wanted to put a picture up and update on the adults.

Last time I explained that I'd be moving the adults from the display back into the smaller system that the young are in as I'd be converting it to a dedicated breeding system. A couple days ago I noticed the adults were missing tentacles, the next day they have only little nubs left. I was baffled...until this morning. This morning around 4am I found my molly miller blenny (that I've had without issue for 2 years) taking large bites out of the remaining tissue. I have no idea why a fish that eats a 3x3 sheet of nori by himself every day would take to eating rock anemones, but it happened. So I now have no adults aside from the blobs that are left and likely being finished off as I write this as I'm not home. So I'll be getting more adults in to get established.

Now for a random pic of one of the young to keep things happy, he thinks he's camouflaged, enjoy

 

[AcroNem]

UPDATE: 132 days old

Still at 21 babies spread throughout the system but all on and around the ceramic block. Things are going well, perhaps a little too well. I'm feeding every other day now as I feel they're large enough to need a day to digest. In a month or so I'll go to every two days once they're getting big enough meals.

The only major thing to note is that while I'm focusing on getting more adults for broodstock I've failed to document on their own reproduction. I have no idea on the age of sexual maturity im Epicystis/Phymanthus crucifer, but I've found two very small babies under/next to the largest of the jouveniles. While it's likely that they could just be slow growers I think it's a possibility that this group could have reproduced as the new offspring weren't visible until a couple days ago. There also hasn't been adults in this system with the jouveniles for around two months now so it may be safe to assume these are new ones. Here's a pic.

And a pic of some of the others

Thanks for following along as always, I'll try to keep updating regularly.

 

[kdino1]

WOW! So you're thinking that perhaps the new offspring are already reproducing? If so that's quite the quick ramp to sexual maturity. Could be a very interesting find!

 

[AcroNem]

Perhaps. Here's my thoughts and some more evidence I found this morning.

If we look at that same photo I uploaded 8 days ago,

those two tiny one's weren't there, and there are none missing from the other group.
Now the photo I last posted

Also, I found a new one this morning next to two other bigger ones that are a little over a half inch across. Look to the left of the adults.

It's a lot smaller than the original babies were so I'm having a hard time thinking of other possibilities.

So yes, I'm thinking I could have at least a couple that are sexually mature. The count now sits at 24 with our new random youngsters.

 

[bruleyii]

Those are significantly smaller. I would think because of location, if they were the same brood, they would be closer in size.

 

[AcroNem]

Those are significantly smaller. I would think because of location, if they were the same brood, they would be closer in size.

I could almost (almost, if I try hard enough) imagine that the two under the green one are just runts that relocated from somehwere I haven't been able to check. But the one in the second picture by the two red ones is so small it has to be the offspring of one of them, it's roughly 1/3-1/2 the size of the original offspring.