Ron Reefman's Rock Flower experience

Squeaky McMurdo · Dec 19, 2018

Great thread! I saw some RFAs for sale and now I’m thinking of getting a couple.

Also as a NANFA member, I envy your ability to go collect native saltwater livestock...heck Florida has some pretty colorful freshwater fish too.

Ron Reefman · Dec 20, 2018

Squeaky McMurdo said:
Great thread! I saw some RFAs for sale and now I’m thinking of getting a couple.

Also as a NANFA member, I envy your ability to go collect native saltwater livestock...heck Florida has some pretty colorful freshwater fish too.

Thanks for letting me know you appreciate this thread, that's means a lot to me. I love my RFA's because I love the fluorescent colors and especially since we've had 3 rounds of baby RFA's!

I'll have to look into NANFA. And if you look at my Snorkeling & Collecting thread (there's a link in my signature below) we are hoping for a good collecting day on Saturday as we have a strong cold front passing by with 20-30 mph winds from the west. That usually washes some interesting 'stuff' up on the beaches of Sanibel. I'll write up our beach walk and post it there on Saturday afternoon. And yes, I feel very lucky to be able to do the wild collecting. It's kind of like hunting, except I try very hard NOT to kill anything! And R2R just posted an article I wrote about doing beach walks. Here is a link: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-beachcomber.554/
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NY_Caveman · Dec 20, 2018

Ron Reefman said:
Thanks for letting me know you appreciate this thread, that's means a lot to me. I love my RFA's because I love the fluorescent colors and especially since we've had 3 rounds of baby RFA's!

I'll have to look into NANFA. And if you look at my Snorkeling & Collecting thread (there's a link in my signature below) we are hoping for a good collecting day on Saturday as we have a strong cold front passing by with 20-30 mph winds from the west. That usually washes some interesting 'stuff' up on the beaches of Sanibel. I'll write up our beach walk and post it there on Saturday afternoon. And yes, I feel very lucky to be able to do the wild collecting. It's kind of like hunting, except I try very hard NOT to kill anything! And R2R just posted an article I wrote about doing beach walks. Here is a link: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-beachcomber.554/
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Thanks for sharing. That was great.

Squeaky McMurdo · Dec 24, 2018

Ron Reefman said:
What I’ve been doing most recently is buying various sizes of PVC end caps. Before I put a new RFA (or move one for some reason) I pick an end cap that is just a bit bigger in diameter inside than the RFA’s foot (yes, it’s a real guessing game). Then the PVC end cap and RFA go into a 16oz deli cup full of tank water. About 95% of the time, the nem settles down inside the PVC end cap and attaches. It may happen quickly, it may take a couple of days. Then I can take the PVC end cap and transfer it to the tank. I push the end cap down into the sand so that just a tiny bit of the end cap’s rim is exposed above the sand.

At this point I’ve never had a RFA move from the end cap. After a week or so, I’ll often go back and push the end cap down just a bit more so the rim disappears in the sand. At that point the sand will start to get inside the end cap with the nem. I have 10 of my bigger RFA’s in end caps now.

How do you determine when they have attached?

Ron Reefman · Dec 24, 2018

Squeaky McMurdo said:
How do you determine when they have attached?

When I can take the pvc end cap and can hold it upside down and the anemone doesn't fall out! LOL! Seriously, I swirl the end cap around and see if the nem moves at all. If it doesn't I put it in the tank water and hold it upside down and keep a hand or net ready to catch it if it falls out. That's only happened to me twice when I wasn't giving them enough time. Now I give them 3 to 7 days to attach and they all seem to take hold very well.

Katrina71 · Dec 24, 2018

@Ron Reefman the baby...you'll see... starting to resemble it's parents

Katrina71 · Dec 30, 2018

Ron, I have a pink RFA that has decided to move. A lot. Never had this happen before. Any chance it is looking for a place suitable for babies? Any ideas? It has been beside of 3 others for a few months.

Ron Reefman · Dec 30, 2018

Katrina71 said:
Ron, I have a pink RFA that has decided to move. A lot. Never had this happen before. Any chance it is looking for a place suitable for babies? Any ideas? It has been beside of 3 others for a few months.

Hi Katrina. Were was it located before it started to move? On a rock up away from the sand, on a rock at the edge of the sand, in the sand or in a pvc end cap? I've had almost no experience with RFA's moving except one that pulled out of an end cap and attached to the outside of it just below the sand. I didn't bother with it for a long time and then realized a very small RBTA had moved into the end cap! I doubt yours is looking for a place to have babies. It seems that doesn't happen unless they are well fed and very happy with their surroundings. But it is a possibility. It could just be it wants a deeper hole in the rock to be able to retract into or to be along the sand so it can hide under it.

Maybe some others here will have ideas.

Katrina71 · Dec 30, 2018

Ron Reefman said:
Hi Katrina. Were was it located before it started to move? On a rock up away from the sand, on a rock at the edge of the sand, in the sand or in a pvc end cap? I've had almost no experience with RFA's moving except one that pulled out of an end cap and attached to the outside of it just below the sand. I didn't bother with it for a long time and then realized a very small RBTA had moved into the end cap! I doubt yours is looking for a place to have babies. It seems that doesn't happen unless they are well fed and very happy with their surroundings. But it is a possibility. It could just be it wants a deeper hole in the rock to be able to retract into or to be along the sand so it can hide under it.

Maybe some others here will have ideas.

All of them have been happy at the sandbed against a rock. This one moved to the top of the rock. Mine are well fed.

saltyhog · Dec 30, 2018

Katrina71 said:
All of them have been happy at the sandbed against a rock. This one moved to the top of the rock. Mine are well fed.

That's weird! All five of mine are in the sand up against rocks and none of them have moved an inch in years.

Katrina71 · Dec 30, 2018

saltyhog said:
That's weird! All five of mine are in the sand up against rocks and none of them have moved an inch in years.

Mine either. That's why I'm wondering.

Saltyanimals · Jan 9, 2019

@Ron Reefman Any ideas how to get them *out* of the end caps? I guess mine are too small for the 1/2" caps and thus doesn't extend out much and really don't look right. I think the cap idea is great, but only for larger nems.

Ron Reefman · Jan 10, 2019

Saltyanimals said:
@Ron Reefman Any ideas how to get them *out* of the end caps? I guess mine are too small for the 1/2" caps and thus doesn't extend out much and really don't look right. I think the cap idea is great, but only for larger nems.

RFA's get to be 4" or more in diameter, so if given a few months, ours will grow big enough. Also, if you allow sand to get inside the end cap the anemone will extend it's trunk to get up above the sand. That may help make it get up and out above the end cap. In the long run even the 1/2" end cap will be too small as the nem grows to full size.

But if you want to get it out, here is what I would suggest. And this is a only a suggestion as I have never removed a RFA from an end cap... yet. I have some youngsters from my first round of babies (about 2 years ago) that may need to be moved to bigger end caps soon. So get a small bowl of tank water and hold the end cap upside down over the bowl. Then take an ice cube or blue ice pack and hold it up against the bottom of the end cap. As the pvc gets cold, and that could take several minutes, the RFA will let go of the pvc and end up in the bowl of tank water, unharmed.

One other thought is that you could prep another pvc end cap by cutting the sides shorter so the end cap is less deep. Then put the released RFA in the new shorter end cap. BTW, my baby RFA's reach about the size of the 1/2" end cap at about a year old (maybe slightly less than a year). My full size adults that are my current breeders are in 1 1/2" end caps pushed below the sand and the RFA's hand out well beyond the rim and also never move. But they are easy to relocate when I want to do work in the sand. I've even pulled them all out and held them overnight in a holding tank while doing rockscape reconstruction.

I hope that helps? Let us know how this works out for you.

Saltyanimals · Jan 10, 2019

Great tips on removal. I thought about cutting the caps so they're not as deep, but then couldn't come up with a way of doing it without leaving sharp edges behind. I could go back over with sandpaper. Good tip on the sand inside the caps and the ice. Now I just can't wait for them to grow. And nice to know of the growth rate.

Ron Reefman · Jan 10, 2019

I just got a yellow filter for my camera and took a FTS and a close up of my breeding size RFA's under all blue led light.

Baldguy · Jan 11, 2019

Ron, those are some really nice pics. You said a yellow filter. I've seen a lot of people use orange filters but those pics look great! Got a link?

Ron Reefman · Jan 11, 2019

Baldguy said:
Ron, those are some really nice pics. You said a yellow filter. I've seen a lot of people use orange filters but those pics look great! Got a link?

I have a filter swatch pack made by Lee Filters USA based in Burbank, CA.
www.leefiltersusa.com

I bought the sample pack from Parlights Inc. and you can see the pack here:
http://shop.parlights.com/shop/colo...MI-MfhweXl3wIVGYvICh1LmQF2EAQYAiABEgJtfPD_BwE

There must be 200+ samples. They run from deep purple to clear and frosted as well as some strange ones for effects. They're 3 1/2" by 1 1/2" which makes them just big enough that they cover the lens of my cell phone. There are 6 to 8 filters that I would call yellow with orange ones beyond at one end and amber off the other end. The shots you saw were with a filter that they list as a 514 Double G&T filter and it says Y=87.3%. I'm not sure what the Y=87.3% means as all the filters have a Y= something %. It appears to me that the darker the filter, no matter what color it is, the lower the Y%. I also did some shots with darker yellow filters that had Y=80.0% and they came out too yellow for my taste. I didn't even try any of the orange or amber filters.

Maybe I should clean the glass on the tank and try some other filters?

Baldguy · Jan 11, 2019

You might try the orange. Looks like most of the clipon lens available for smart phones include yellow and orange as well as a macro lens. This polyplab lens kit has a 10X macro. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/coral-view-lens-polyplab.html

cpschult · Feb 3, 2019

I can’t wait to schedule a trip to collect some for my tank!

Ron Reefman · Feb 3, 2019

My wife and I find snorkeling in the shallows of the Keys to be both exotic (like floating above an alien world) and unbelievably relaxing (everything that could bother you is left behind at the boat ramp). You brain becomes so focused on all the things you only get to see when your face is in the water that everything else fades to the distant background (except for keeping an eye on eachother and the boat!).