Rock Flower Anemone Spawned and Babies

[mia relis]

Hi all this is my first post on reef2reef although I have actively read on many forums. I have been keeping a reef tank for about 3 years now and my setup is a very simple, pretty low-tech 12 gallon AIO nano tank.

Recently I noticed small polyps on and along side one of my 5 rock flower anemones. I am thinking that they may have spawned in my tank. 3 of them are in close proximity/touching. However everything I've been able to find and read shows that the small polyps will be all over the tank when they get released. Is it possible that all of the polyps that didn't stick to "Mom" could have dissipated/died off? Or does that even look like what is happening in the picture. It's easier to see with the lights off so please mind the colors. But you can clearly see small circular shapes just below the tentacle line of the other nem.

Any feedback would be super great/helpful

 

[reef lover]

Welcome to r2r ! Congratulations those are babies and they often do settle right under the mothers skirt.

 

[MrsBugmaster]

Welcome and congrats on the babies!

 

[mia relis]

Welcome to r2r ! Congratulations those are babies and they often do settle right under the mothers skirt.

Thank you! Is there anything I can do to protect the remaining babies/help grow them out?

 

[reef lover]

Feed them often and they do pretty well.most likely will settle out on the substrate.

 

[JoshH]

Congratulations on the babies!!!! And on a side note, Welcome to R2R!!! I hope you find R2R to be a wonderful online community and you share more pics of these awesome little guys! Or you send a few to me, either way, I'm happy (Though I'd seriously prefer them sent to me)

Feel free to start up a build thread in the members tank forum and share your 12G with all of us

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

Congratulations on the baby nems!

 

[Gonebad395]

Really cool congratulations and welcome to R2R

 

[Baldguy]

Actually that looks like the rarer form on propagation some have called budding. That is an asexual form of propagation where the mother rfa produces clones of herself. They actually grow from her body as perfect copies instead of the more common sexual breeding where many colors are produced. The idea is eventually they will detach. This has come up a few times on other forums.

 

[mia relis]

Actually that looks like the rarer form on propagation some have called budding. That is an asexual form of propagation where the mother rfa produces clones of herself. They actually grow from her body as perfect copies instead of the more common sexual breeding where many colors are produced. The idea is eventually they will detach. This has come up a few times on other forums.

I will look and see if I can find anything more. I didn't know rock flowers could reproduce asexually by budding (I had only heard about them spawning and having sexual reproduction) but that definitely what it looked like to me. The baby nems are all the same coloration/pattern as the larger anemone they are attached to. It also explains why I didn't see them all over the tank... Thanks @Baldguy !

 

[Sod Buster]

Welcome to the group. Exciting little find those babies.
@Ron Reefman

 

[Baldguy]

Here's another example. Again, perfect copies of the mother.

 

[mia relis]

Here's another example. Again, perfect copies of the mother.

That's a great example, thanks! I'll try and get some better shots but the anemone is up against the front glass

 

[MSB123]

That's a great example, thanks! I'll try and get some better shots but the anemone is up against the front glass

Welcome to R2R!
Glad to finally see you on here!

 

[Smarkow]

Do you mind sharing some parameters? Flow, lighting, temp, salinity, and any moon phase?

Gorgeous nem. Congrats

Thanks!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Welcome to the group. Exciting little find those babies.
@Ron Reefman

Sod Buster, once again, thanks for tagging me into this thread, I really do appreciate it!

Actually that looks like the rarer form on propagation some have called budding. That is an asexual form of propagation where the mother rfa produces clones of herself. They actually grow from her body as perfect copies instead of the more common sexual breeding where many colors are produced. The idea is eventually they will detach. This has come up a few times on other forums.

I didn't even know this was possible. I'd heard a couple people (a collector of wild RFA's and a wholesaler who had some RFA's 'breed' in his holding tank) talk about what they called "pedal laceration" but that was before I had spawning in my own tank. Then I kicked that theory to the side as just misinformation. But now I think this is what they were seeing. I'd never seen a photo of it before. This is very cool info (at least to me!). And thanks to ??? for starting this thread and showing us, and to Bald Guy for following up and providing even more insight and an additional photo!

Do you mind sharing some parameters? Flow, lighting, temp, salinity, and any moon phase?
Gorgeous nem. Congrats
Thanks!

I'm 100% in agreement with Smarkow and I'd REALLY like to hear anything you can share about the parameters of your tank and how you care for the RFA that did the 'budding'.
How many RFA's do you have in the tank?
Do you spot feed them?
What kind of lighting do you have over your tank?

Anything you can shaare will be appreciated!

 

[Ferrell]

Welcome and congratulations!

 

[mia relis]

First off I recently moved the tank (About a month ago) and redid all the rock and most of the setup. My tank setup is pretty simple/basic as I am always budget concerned and will usually spend my money on corals over equipment. There is always new equipment I want including some planned modifications to the tank but as of right now the conditions are as follows:
The tank itself is an AquaJapan all in one tank. It's between 10 and 12 gallons but I believe it is closer to 12 gallons. Half is setup with live rock and the other half is for frags.

As for equipment:
Noopsynche LED light (8 hour light cycle)
Ecotech MP10
Aqueon 50W Heater
Generic return pump (maybe about 85GPH)

In the back chambers of the tank I am running an over sized carbon, small GFO media bag, and a large media bag filled with ceramic media for biological filtration. I also keep the heater in the third back chamber along with the return pump.

Salinity is 1.024 – 1.025 sometimes swinging to 1.026 or above when the evaporation in the tank is high and I need to top off (I top off by hand still. An ATO is at the top of my list of equipment I need if you see any posted for sale used)

Temperature ranges between 77-79 although I have seen it considerably under and over this mark.

Nitrate- ?
Ammonia- ?
Nitrite- ?
Alkalinity- ?
Calcium- ?
pH- ?
Phosphate- ?
Flow- Moderate
Moonlight- none, but I do leave a light on in the same room at night so its not in total blackout. I never thought of it as any type of moonlight cycle but perhaps it does help with breaking up the light cycle a bit

I can definitely test the water sometime in the next few days and I can post the results if anyone is interested.

I am not sure of the parameters of the tank right now as I don't test regularly anymore. The only readings I check regularly are the temperature and salinity. I usually only test the water if I can see something is wrong or if something seems "off". In the early days I used to every single day as I had heard that nano tanks can be harder to keep and the parameter swings can be drastic, but I find for my setup its not entirely necessary. I think that a big component of the success of the system is due to my weekly water changes (Sometimes even more frequently). With my water changes I change about 5 gallons every time, which is about 45-50% of the water volume.

I have 5 rock flowers in the tank currently, along with lots of LPS and some zoa's. I also keep a bubble tip anemone. I feed everything in the tank once a day, and I will feed anything that will accept food which is basically everything. The corals usually get reefroids/pellet food/or frozen food, while the anemones usually get something meatier (Usually frozen, but sometimes fresh/raw). I have fed the anemones krill, shrimp, silver side pieces, squid, and even small pieces of clam/mussel. The clowns in the tank usually just eat pellets with frozen food supplemental.
I am sure because of all the food in such a small tank that I have moderate to high nutrient levels. Also due to the fact that I am not running a skimmer currently (also on my list of equipment that I need)

Let me know if there's anything I left out or if there are any more questions

As for stock I have:
Peppermint shrimp
A pair of mocha/black misbar oscellaris clowns
Fighting conch snail
Hermit crabs
Snails (various)
Maxima clam

Euphyllia- Hammer, frogspawn, and octospawn
Clove polyp
Zoa's (various)
Paly's (various)
Lobophyllia
Cyphastrea (various)
Favia (various)
Mushrooms (various)
Green star polyp
Montipora
Acropora


My next project for the tank is either getting an ATO or getting a small refugium going so I can grow some chaeto. I have been thinking of doing a modified AquaClear filter.

 

[Smarkow]

[QUOTE="mia relis, post: 5983827, member: 121541]

Salinity is 1.024 – 1.025 sometimes swinging to 1.026 or above when the evaporation in the tank is high and I need to top off (I top off by hand still. An ATO is at the top of my list of equipment I need if you see any posted for sale used)
.[/QUOTE]

Thanks very interesting. The salinity spikes could be a part of it? I wonder if temperature also varies with the evaporation rate.

Sexual reproduction in rockflowers may be triggered by lunar phases or seasonal temperature swings to allow syncronization (I’m asking more than telling)? I wonder if a disrupted lunar cycle has prevented it from triggering spawn.

Lastly with five rockflowers the chance that you randomly purchased either all male or all female would be 1/(2^4) -> 6.25%, well within the realm of possibility when we consider how many people buy rockflowers and how rare (we think?) this event is. Anyone think budding is a backup reproduction strategy for female rockflowers that can’t get fertilized?

These might be interesting experiments to carry out for someone with a whole bunch of rockflowers and whose wonderful articles indicate they have some retirement time on their hands (cough, @Ron Reefman, cough).

Again thank you for sharing!
Stephen

 

[Baldguy]

To be clear, I'm not saying "budding" is absolutely what is going on. It does seem likely though. I've read articles on anemone's in general and most if not all nem's can reproduce sexually as well as asexually. Bubble tips are a good example. Bta's can expel eggs and sperm into the sea to produce offspring. They can also reproduce by asexual fision. That's the splitting we see in our tanks. I agree with Smarkow, it makes sense that budding could be a backup if sexual reproduction is not happening. I've caught my rfa's spawning three times now. On each occasion several were doing it. I did not see a correlation with the lunar cycle. I think if one does it the others sense it and do it too if ready. I lurk on many forums and facebook groups and have seen people post pics of this "budding" at least six times.

Btw, I've got about 65 rfa's now. Got 14 in just today. **** you Ron Reefman for getting me started on this addiction.