Ron Reefman's Rock Flower experience

Judi M · May 18, 2019

What is the difference between a rfa and a ultra rfa?

Redleg · May 18, 2019

Judi M said:
What is the difference between a rfa and a ultra rfa?

Price. If you call it ultra it sells for more[emoji6].

Ron Reefman · May 18, 2019

How'd I let this slip my mind? I'll get pics of the 3 I bought and post them here. Thanks for reminding me!

Coralreefer1 · May 18, 2019

Judi M said:
What is the difference between a rfa and a ultra rfa?

The ULTRA are more colorful and expensive as mentioned above. They also tend to come from deeper waters of Florida and the Caribbean whereas the standard white, brown and cream colored RFA’s come from shallower regions and are less expensive.

Ron Reefman · May 19, 2019

Coralreefer1 said:
The ULTRA are more colorful and expensive as mentioned above. They also tend to come from deeper waters of Florida and the Caribbean whereas the standard white, brown and cream colored RFA’s come from shallower regions and are less expensive.

Exactly right.

And one other point, the Ultra RFA's tend to need to be fed more than the plain RFA's that are far less colorful. I think it's that the plain RFA's are in shallow water, get far stronger sun and develop a better strain of zooxanthellae to do photosynthesis. Where as the Ultra RFA's from deeper water (30 ' or more) don't get nearly as much light and don't have as good zooxanthellae and don't do photosynthesis nearly as well.

saltyhog · May 27, 2019

Last night my RFA's spawned again. This is the 6th or 7th spawning event that I've observed from them in the last year. It always happens in the evening and lasts a few hours. Most of the time I notice the change in their appearance first, other times I notice the tank is cloudy and find them spawning when I investigate. The first thing I notice is them extending and "cupping up" like this picture from last night.

Sometimes they are even more elongated than this. Usually all of them spawn at the same time.

Lots of questions...How do they synchronize their spawning? Is the smaller yellow/green one in this picture a female? It's the only one that doesn't emit the smoke like semen during the spawning events. How often do they usually spawn?

This is a video that's pretty typical of what it looks like. This one is from Oct.

TriggerFinger · May 27, 2019

Do you have all shallow water varieties? Wondering if shallow and deep water varieties spawned would they make different colors.

KorD · May 27, 2019

In a few weeks I will be collecting some (with proper license) in the shallows of Galveston. I know they are not going to be the beautiful ones everyone seeks out, but I am trying to build a Texas only tank.
If I can find this thread again after I get them, I'll post pictures.

Baldguy · May 28, 2019

KorD said:
In a few weeks I will be collecting some (with proper license) in the shallows of Galveston. I know they are not going to be the beautiful ones everyone seeks out, but I am trying to build a Texas only tank.
If I can find this thread again after I get them, I'll post pictures.

Do you know that rfa's are found in Galveston waters at all? That would be a lot cooler than the tropical waters of the carribean.

Ron Reefman · May 28, 2019

TriggerFinger said:
Do you have all shallow water varieties? Wondering if shallow and deep water varieties spawned would they make different colors.

RFA reproduction through spawning should produce offspring that are a mix of the parents, just like humans. I think some of the newer, colorful RFA's with the white strips in the tentacle area may be a mix from deep and shallow RFA's. I see the shallow ones all the time when we snorkel in the Keys and alot of them have that white stripe in the tentacle area. In the past (a couple of years ago or more) very few if any of the really colorful deep water RFA's had that feature. As for different colors... maybe, but my bet would be on somewhat less colorful.

KorD said:
In a few weeks I will be collecting some (with proper license) in the shallows of Galveston. I know they are not going to be the beautiful ones everyone seeks out, but I am trying to build a Texas only tank.
If I can find this thread again after I get them, I'll post pictures.

Scroll up to the top of this page. On the right side about halfway down the screen you'll find the word 'WATCH'. Click on it and anytime a post gets added here, you'll get an alert. Hope to hear about what you find. I had a 4'x2'x14" shallow reef tank that was for local stock from the Gulf of Mexico (mostly pick ups off the beach) and from snorkeling in the Keys. I love the idea of an all Texas tank.

Baldguy said:
Do you know that rfa's are found in Galveston waters at all? That would be a lot cooler than the tropical waters of the Caribbean.

Excellent question! I wonder what their range is? And are they indigenous to just the Caribbean or are they found other places like the South Pacific?

KorD · May 28, 2019

Baldguy said:
Do you know that rfa's are found in Galveston waters at all? That would be a lot cooler than the tropical waters of the carribean.

There are a bunch in the Galveston waters. They tend to looks different then the typical rfa you are used too. I'm sure they go by a different name here, but have to be close to the same species.
I just took this pic from another person's site. They also collected from the Galveston waters.

There is also a video out there.. just Google Galveston anemones.. should pop up on youtube

Redleg · May 28, 2019

http://txmarspecies.tamug.edu/invertlist.cfm

Redleg · May 28, 2019

Redleg said:
http://txmarspecies.tamug.edu/invertlist.cfm

They aren't actually rock flower nems. Just a quick Google search.

KorD · May 28, 2019

Redleg said:
They aren't actually rock flower nems. Just a quick Google search.

It's true, but they do have out on the rocks and they only get about 2.5 inches across. I have seen that Texas page before.. issue I have with it is that the ones on the beaches are not on that list.

If you were to head to the flower garden reef, there are your typical RFA out there all day long. A friend of mine brought some home.

We call them gulf anemones. There really is not a name for them, but they do however fall into some category of RFA

KorD · Jun 8, 2019

Got a few new babies today. A LFS shop is selling everything off 40% or more. Figured I would get a few more to add to my tank, and also picked up a 4 head doser for $10.

tupes · Jun 8, 2019

@Ron Reefman

Wow.... finally finished reading the entire thread. Definitely a lot of good info shared here.. Its nice to see all the right info shared in one place. I had to do a lot of digging to find the info about them and I still learned more here. If you wouldnt mind I'd like to share a photo of my nem collection with everyone.

mmw64 · Jun 8, 2019

tupes said:
@Ron Reefman

Wow.... finally finished reading the entire thread. Definitely a lot of good info shared here.. Its nice to see all the right info shared in one place. I had to do a lot of digging to find the info about them and I still learned more here. If you wouldnt mind I'd like to share a photo of my nem collection with everyone.

Please do.

Ron Reefman · Jun 9, 2019

KorD said:
There are a bunch in the Galveston waters. They tend to looks different then the typical rfa you are used too. I'm sure they go by a different name here, but have to be close to the same species.
I just took this pic from another person's site. They also collected from the Galveston waters.

There is also a video out there.. just Google Galveston anemones.. should pop up on youtube

Those are different, but bare a very strong resemblance to the Keys RFA's. I'd like to see more photos, especially of them opened up. Heck, I'd like to have a couple! hint, hint!

Redleg said:
http://txmarspecies.tamug.edu/invertlist.cfm

That's a nice list of local stuff. I wish I could find a list like that for things local to the Florida Keys with names and photos. Very cool!

tupes said:
@Ron Reefman

Wow.... finally finished reading the entire thread. Definitely a lot of good info shared here.. Its nice to see all the right info shared in one place. I had to do a lot of digging to find the info about them and I still learned more here. If you wouldn't mind I'd like to share a photo of my nem collection with everyone.

Are you kidding, that's what this thread is all about. ;Woot Post away.

Maybe this should become a sticky about the RFA? ;Bookworm

I just took a couple new photos yesterday after I cleaned the glass, I should probably post something as well.

Ron Reefman · Jun 9, 2019

This is one I got at the Orlando RAP awhile back. It's seems to be coloring up more as it starts to grow. It's only about 1.5" in diameter right now. I like it because it appears to look colorful (rainbow) and has the white (kind of blue under blue leds) cut ins that divide it up like a pie that none of my other RFA's have.