Hello everyone,

Those of you who are keeping Corynactis Californica, can you tell the growth rate at which they bud and
separate via longitudinal fission? What kind of flowrate will promote colonial spreading. What are the best foods to feed Starwberries. Any tips you have would be great. And yes I love that song.

Thanks, H

What temp is your tank at?

Currently at 60 degrees F. I have really good
control over the temperature of my tank. I can
adjust the temperature to as low as 50 degrees if
necessary.

H

It's hard to say exactly how fast they spread, and, while it's not as fast as, say, a tropical zoanthid species, it is noticeable. I'd say that in the 10 or so months that I've had mine, they *might* have doubled in number. I think that you might see faster growth rates if you separated them from each other. An anemone that is surrounded on all sides by other anemones isn't going to split, and when they are solitary, they seem more likely to split more often. I had a lone orange strawberry go from 1 to 3 to 7 in the span of about two months, but it's been maybe 4 months since the last split and nothing much has happened. I think once they establish a small colony, they wait to grow bigger before the next splitting episode. After all, despite the fact that there were more individual anemones, there was not significantly more anemone tissue - all the energy was being put into splitting, and none into growing, so by the time there were 7 nems, they were pretty tiny. They've just been growing since.

As far as flow, I'd say med/low-med/high is good, but it's not critical. You don't need to go as high or chaotic as an sps tank, but you need enough water movement to deliver food to the anemones and carry waste away. If you can see tentacles waving in the current you're probably good, but I have some nems in areas of the tank with almost no flow, and they're quite happy too. As long as they're getting food.

I feed a mixture of frozen mysis, cyclops, and rotifers. The rotifers might be too small for the berries to catch, but the sponges like them. Berries have no problem eating mysis, and probably prefer it, but If I were to dump enough mysis into the tanks so that every anemone caught one every day, I would have a crash. Cyclopeez is nice because everyone gets some for sustenance, and the lucky ones get a mysis treat. I feed one cube of each food per day, and while feeding more would probably mean faster growth, it would also mean heavier filtration, and, since I never change my water (not something I advocate) it would probably be a bad idea.

They're really very simple to take care of - probably the easiest cold water organism I've ever kept, just feed them and watch them grow!

And yes, that is a good song.

-Jamie

There you go^ haha

I just wanted to make sure you knew they were a coldwater species lol. Good luck!

Jamie,

I've been keeping strawberry anemone for about a year, but they are not growing, In fact they are slowly dwindling. I wonder if I'm feeding enough. A few weeks ago I quadrupled the amount I was feeding, but I haven't seen a change yet. How much do you feed, and for how "many" nems?

I have 5 round flat shells, each about 5" in diameter, each mostly covered with strawberry anemone (call it 80 sq inches total), and I feed frozen Rotifers and Cyclops, one frozen cube of each , twice per day (two cubes of each total per day) which works out to about two teaspoons of food per day.

How much surface area do you think your population of nems covers (square inches), and how much do you feed them (in grams, ml, or teaspoons if you can calculate it, or even estimate it)

My water temp is 60 F, and my flow is medium high to medium low, depending on where they are in the tank, but always enough to keep the food in suspension. I feed twice per day, by turning off the sumnp return pump for 30 minutes while the two Tunze power heads circulate the tank water with the food in it. How do you feed?

Thanks,


For OCD types:
I'm feeding H20 Life brand cyclops, which have 35 cubes per 100 gram package, which works out to 2.9 grams each, or roughly 2.5 ml each (a little heavier than water) or about 1/2 teaspoon of cyclops per cube.
The rotifer come in slightly smaller cubes.

I have probably 50 sq inches of anemone coverage. I feed one 3/4 inch square cube of mysis, one 3/4 inch square cube of cyclops, and one half inch square cube of rotifers daily (sometimes I miss a day, or even a few in a row, and the berries don't seem to mind). I have a hob canister filter, which I turn off during feeding time for an hour or two.

I would guess that the amount of food you're feeding is probably not the problem, it seems fine. I guess you could try something meatier like mysis though. My tank ranges from 58-60, so temperature is good too. hmm... What sort of light do yours have? Mine seem to hate bright light, I have a single, 2 year old, 20-ish watt T-5 bulb (10000k) for illumination. At first they seemed more sensitive to the light, but they seem to have gotten used to it.

How often are your nems open during the day? At first when I got mine, they would stay closed most of the day, and only open for food or at night. I don't recall when they started staying open more, but at present, they stay open all the time. Either they were adjusting to brighter light, a new feeding regime, or both.

Sorry I can't help much, it sounds like you're doing everything right.

Jamie,

Based on your numbers I think you are feeding almost three times as much food, per sq inch of nem, as I am. I think I'll up the food again and see what happens. My lighting is on the low end also. My PH is often a little low, so that may be an issue.

Mine stay mostly open all the time, but completely open for a few hours after feeding (as if they are hoping for more!)

Thanks for your help!

Great, let us know how they do!

Here are a couple pictures of the strawberries I have.
They have been splitting like wildfire! I started with
three polyps and now I have twelve. Enjoy



A close up



A new addition



After feeding



The patch

Corynactis must be fed frequently and in sufficient quantities to actual growth or split. Without these feedings, they first dwindle in size....then dissolve. These pictured below were not long ago spread out to the point that there was more rock than polyp visible....not now with automated feedings three times a day plus extras.




Four months ago, there were no corynactis on this rock.....but now there are over fifty.....one must have detached and found its way to this rock.

I would suggest dropping the temp at least a few degrees.
Those are nice Corynactis... do you know where they were collected?

Yes I have my tank at 55 degrees now.

H

nice nems everyone!

Steve, those are amazing growth rates. Unfortunately my tank has to come down soon (college) but on my next cw tank I'll definitely set up an auto-feeder like you have. Looks like it's working great!

Enjoyed. .

Those lavender berries are to die for or dive for LOL.
Yes it seems Steve's auto feeding works well.
I do not think I could pull that off in my small setup
it would turn my tank into miso soup! Maybe in
setup I do.

H

I basically have two flavors....a red and a lavender...both flavors have new pathches growing throughout the tank. I wish I could get other flavors though.

You got yours from Monterey ?

I collected mine from my favorite place Pillar Point in Half Moon Bay. They are within arms reach. Among the corynactis are competing colonies of metridium senile. The metridiums I collected are also
spreading rapidily within my tank.

H