Rock Flower Anemone Breeding System

[AcroNem]

It's about time I did this, and it's been on my mind for some time as I've discussed my past breeding success with some of you. With my recent move it's left me with only remnants of my display and no projects. That won't do.

So here we go, my official Epicystis crucifer breeding system.

I'm going to be using two smaller, shallow tanks that I'll likely plumb together. One for adults and one for growing out young. I wanted a smaller size so I could have a large population of adults close together to ensure highest probability of sperm capture by females. I'm thinking 20 or 30 adults in the breeding group to start.

Filtration will be simple. The system will be on shelves so I'm thinking on having water flow from top tank, to second tank, to sump, then back up to the top. It will have a slow flow through to keep everything suspended for longer. What will be in the sump is still being decided.

Lighting has been, and always is my most difficult decision. If I could put halides over them I would, as my best breeding success with them was in a system lit by a 20,000k Radium. But sadly that won't work with these. I'm leaning heavily towards LED, but T5's are still a possibility. We'll see.


I'm very excited to finally have this starting, I'll keep you all updated on progress in the coming days.

 

[AcroNem]

Right after posting I got a call about tanks. They have been ordered and should be arriving in about a week. Fingers crossed none break in shipping. They'll come air freight which should be safest.

 

[Eastlake]

Following along and can't wait to see how everything unfolds, good luck

 

[AcroNem]

Following along and can't wait to see how everything unfolds, good luck

Thank you, I'm pretty excited to be finally doing it.

 

[AcroNem]

Quick update.

Waiting for tanks to be finished. Should be a few more days. I've been debating lighting still, taking way too much thought about what's best for growth and spawning. Probably T5's. I might even do a mix of T5/LED. The tanks are only 6" deep so I don't want to roast them too much.

I'll update more soon.

 

[Eastlake]

I've only had mine a short while and no experience breeding with them under leds. I think Ron Reefman uses reefbreeder lights and his spawn for him and he has baby ones growing out. So, dim-able leds could work out for you.

 

[kdino]

mine breed constantly under my hydra 26hd. leds work just fine for breeding.

 

[Jet915]

Ive got about 25 rfas and have had 4 babies so far so this is a thread im definitely following!

 

[AcroNem]

Ive got about 25 rfas and have had 4 babies so far so this is a thread im definitely following!

Thanks! With 25 of them you should be seeing at least some young. Hopefully we can get yours spawning more. Are they spaced pretty far apart?

 

[Jet915]

Thanks! With 25 of them you should be seeing at least some young. Hopefully we can get yours spawning more. Are they spaced pretty far apart?

they are all in a 100 gallon dt, i have alot of rockwork, all are in the lower part of my tank.

 

[AcroNem]

they are all in a 100 gallon dt, i have alot of rockwork, all are in the lower part of my tank.

Yeah you should have more coming from all of them. Water flow can be a problem for sperm capture so maybe that's what's going on. Or if they are being released they're ending up in a part of your system you can't see, newly released young are only a couple mm.

 

[CherBear811]

Definitely following. ;Wideyed

 

[Fernando11177]

Me too!

 

[Fernando11177]

Me too! I would love to do the same

 

[Daryl.Norton]

Following along, this should be interesting.

 

[CathysReefs]

mine breed constantly under my hydra 26hd. leds work just fine for breeding.

What schedule are your hydras on?

 

[D805]

Following

 

[kdino]

What schedule are your hydras on?

Below is a screenshot of the full schedle as well as my levels at noon. You can see i run red high, no ill issues with algae. ill put up a pic of the tank in a sec

 

[kdino]

Here are some pics of my tank. There are baby nems all over the place. some make it, many don't. U have 3 or 4 that are going on about 6 months old. they are about the size of a dime, maybe a nickel. There are probably a couple dozen other babies from different broods in different sizes throughout as well. BTW started with 10 adults.

 

[kdino]