Rock flowers and zoas?

[PicassoClown04]

Hey y’all! I’m going to be getting some rock flower anemones soon and have a couple questions. Do rock flowers move around on their own like BTAS? Can I put the rock flowers in/near my zoa garden or will they annihilate my zoas? How do they reproduce (splitting, growing new babies that drop off, spawning, etc)? How big do they get? And are they okay on glass bottoms? Thank y’all!

 

[Riphter]

Chances are the zoas have a stronger sting then the flower nem. Mine has moved maybe 3 inches from where I put it a long time ago. But they are mobile and will find the spot that gives them their best conditions. I’m not sure how they breed. Most nems split I think but I have read posts where people wake up and check their tank and have a new Little Rock nem next to there original one. So they might bud their babies.

 

[hllb]

I had trouble with half of mine moving around and they ended up dying because they couldn’t find a place they liked (they’d get caught in the flow and end up on the sand under my gyre where there was almost no flow). I have 3 that seem happy and don’t travel.

they reproduce sexually so you have to have male and female to breed them

 

[PicassoClown04]

How do I keep them happy on my bare glass bottom? The flow down there is probably about moderate, i don’t want them blowing around.

 

[Wanna-be-reefer]

I have never had a problem with them. I have 7 in a 40 gallon tank and with zoas - they found there happy place and they haven’t moved in a year.

 

[PicassoClown04]

Here’s a FTS of where the rock flowers would be going. I’d like them on the ground near the zoas so that as they grow, they will become part of the zoa garden. Is this feasible?

 

[hllb]

They like crevices to put their foot in so I think they’d need to be on the rock with a bare bottom tank.

 

[PicassoClown04]

I have a bucket of dead coral/ pebbles. If I do a heavy sprinkling of those on the bottom to provide some substrate, will that be okay? I use them for frag plugs as a size reference.

 

[hllb]

I have a bucket of dead coral/ pebbles. If I do a heavy sprinkling of those on the bottom to provide some substrate, will that be okay? I use them for frag plugs as a size reference.

Actually you can try a PVC cap. Let them attach to the cap and then slowly add some substrate once it’s settle in. I have two living in a rock crevice and one in a pvc cap. My others didn’t like the caps though.

 

[Uncle99]

Depends on where they want home.
If they pic a spot where you have zooans, the zoos lose over time, or at least, in my case.

 

[sfin52]

A couple of mine have snuggled up with the zoas.

 

[Riphter]

There called rock flower nems for a reason. They like little holes in the rock to tuck into if they sense danger. Glass bottom tanks have confused me. They have there merits I’m sure. But a sand bed can add many benefits. You can put your nem where ever you want, but it has a mind of its own and will move where it wants. If you keep trying to move it because you don’t like it’s location it will just wither. Here is a picture of mine. It was really small when I got it and has doubled in size or more. I put it near a hole in the rock and it moved to another hole. The snail in the image is near where it started. There sting is really weak. They capture food because there really sticky. Zoas are pretty non aggressive and might not mind a nem near them. But corals are an unknown. They might take offense or they might not.

 

[Uncle99]

A couple of mine have snuggled up with the zoas.

Mine snuggles with clam.

 

[Riphter]

They are probably the most peaceful nem out there. I would worry about corals hurting them before I would worry about them hurting a coral. I want more.. just haven’t gotten around to it. I got mine and it was probably the size of a penny. It stretches out to about 3 inches across now. I feed it every now and then. I do have a plague of pods and I’m sure my coral and nem gets ahold of them often.

 

[Riphter]

Mine snuggles with clam.

I like the pink! Mine was yellow and red which I liked. It has slowly changed to green and red. It’s now developing a blue mouth and stripes.

 

[hart24601]

I have around 120-150 rock flowers in my water box 100.3 bare bottom tank. They will move until they get their foot secure, it might be at the glass seam or frag plug base. I don’t have any in direct contact with zoas, but they sure kills acros, like to move in the branch and nuke them. They can get pretty big 3” but don’t tend to move much once settled. A big healthy rock nem is sticky so they have a decent punch to them. I have quite a few clams and if the mantle touches the nems it will retract so if not touching (the mantle) it’s fine but if they do you might have to move one.

 

[PicassoClown04]

The only clam I have is pretty high up on the rocks, so no danger there. Just worried about zoas and rock nems killing each other.

 

[hart24601]

A few pics.

 

[hart24601]

The only clam I have is pretty high up on the rocks, so no danger there. Just worried about zoas and rock nems killing each other.

I would say it’s possible. If the rock nems don’t outright sting them to death they very well might cover them. It’s always a risk with nems. Ricordia mushroom might be better.

 

[PicassoClown04]

They’d be sitting near the zoas, not on them. The idea is that they have time to get settled then the zoas would grow around them and they’d be incorporated into the zoa garden to breakup the zoas a little bit.