Rock Flower Anemone Breeding

[hypostatic]

Some more info on RFA reproduction from member Mirya's thread:
http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/342744-rock-flower-anemone-information-and-appreciation-thread/

 

 

Reproduction:

P. crucifer at Coral Morphologic releasing sperm. For the full video go to http://coralmorpholo...1/anemone-spawn

 

P. crucifer reproduces sexually. No confirmed reports of asexual reproduction of P. crucifer by fragging have been identified, but if anyone has a documented example, please post it. Most temperate sea anemones that reproduce sexually have an annual cycle influenced by various factors such as water temperature, sunlight intensity, lunar cycle or food availability. In Brian Jennison’s study of P. crucifer, he found a low level of gametogenesis throughout the year, with a significant increase in the spring. Dick Perrin comments in his article on captive breeding of P. crucifer that collectors of wild specimens off the Florida coast see an increase in juvenile anemones in the spring and fall, suggesting a biannual pattern.

 

Left: Two newborn P. crucifer anemones attached to Valonia sp. bubble algae at the base of their mother anemone at Coral Morphologic. Right: Colorful juvenile P. crucifer captive bred at Tropicorium.

 

P. crucifer is dioecious and exhibits a sex ratio of 1:1. Males release sperm into the water column. Coral Morphologic reports they have always witnessed spawning in the evening, between 5-6 PM. Fertilization occurs internally in the female. The female broods the young internally, up to the 6, 12, or 24 tentacle stages of development. When the young are released, they tend to settle around the disk of the female. The young will accept feeding with items such as, brine shrimp naupulii, rotifers, Cyclop-Eeze, and phytoplankton. Newly released young are colorless; color development occurs within a few weeks.

 

Captive bred P. crucifer offspring surrounding an adult at Tropicorium.

 

I'll also be adding it to the first post

[Mirya]

 

FYI - most of the repro specific info I got for my write up came from three sources:

1. Jennison's 1981 article in the Canadian Journal of Zoology entitled, Reproduction in three species of sea anemones from Key West, Florida. If anyone is curious to read this article, shoot me a PM with your e-mail address and I can send you the PDF.
2. The article from the Sept/Oct 2012 issue of Coral entitled Captive culture of the rock anemone, Epicystis crucifer. Hypostatic has a link to a copy of the article in the OP, but if you subscribe to the magazine a slightly expanded version of the article is available with more pictures.
3. Coral Morphologic's blog, specifically the May 2012 and July 2009 entries.

[hypostatic]

 

 

FYI - most of the repro specific info I got for my write up came from three sources:

1. Jennison's 1981 article in the Canadian Journal of Zoology entitled, Reproduction in three species of sea anemones from Key West, Florida. If anyone is curious to read this article, shoot me a PM with your e-mail address and I can send you the PDF.
2. The article from the Sept/Oct 2012 issue of Coral entitled Captive culture of the rock anemone, Epicystis crucifer. Hypostatic has a link to a copy of the article in the OP, but if you subscribe to the magazine a slightly expanded version of the article is available with more pictures.
3. Coral Morphologic's blog, specifically the May 2012 and July 2009 entries.

 

This is pretty helpful actually. I think I posted earlier that both male and female anemones release gametes, which I guess would be incorrect then. I think if internal fertilization is happening, only males should be releasing gametes.

 

Your info is also very consistent with the data that I found in a few of the online threads, where babies were often found under the skirt of an adult anemone

[hypostatic]

SO this has come up in another thread -- apparently RFAs only spawn twice per year: in the spring and in the fall?

 

I think most coral spawning events are tied to the phases of the moon; perhaps with RFAs spawning is tied to the length of the day, since it seems that spawning would happen around the equinoxes? OR MAYBE BOTH the length of day and the moon??

 

Any thoughts?

[FlowerMama]

The Ugly Duckling article mentioned they had a smaller breeding event in the fall in Michigan where the photoperiod is shorter and that they were going to attempt to extend the fall breeding period with an extended photoperiod. Also did better when they had nicer size adults.

 

I found my little baby in my tank on 3/7 so that is not really a Spring or Fall baby so exceptions can certainly happen. But at 3mm I wonder how old it is?????

[DaveFason]

Great read. I just started a small pico/nano dedicated to these. I currently have four and will be adding 2-4 more.

 

I am running both Storm X controller and Bluefish. I may run the Storm X on this tank to run a true moonphase cycle to see effects over time.

 

These little guys have single-handedly sparked me back into the livestock part of this hobby!

 

-Dave

[FlowerMama]

Definitely will need to see some pics. I just bought one of those blue looking w/ red on the outside about a month ago.

[keydiver]

I just had a spawn after bringing about 4-5 more up into my pico from my old tank down in Miami. Hoping some babies will develop in the next couple months, check my pico thread if you're interested in pictures of the new guys

[FlowerMama]

I just had a spawn after bringing about 4-5 more up into my pico from my old tank down in Miami. Hoping some babies will develop in the next couple months, check my pico thread if you're interested in pictures of the new guys

 

That's exciting, how fun! Which thread is it for your pico?

[hypostatic]

Found this blog post

 

http://coralmorphologic.com/b/2009/07/06/summer-solstice-birthing#more-1233

 

according to the post, the release of the babies is tied to the solstice, so I guess any spawning events would have to come a little bit before

[FlowerMama]

Here's the most recent pic of the baby. I'm surprised she hasn't moved away from the mama to get more light. I have to distract the mama so she retracts so I can feed this little one.

 

She has a 4 mm body.

 

[glennr1978]

Hey guys, are rock nem's very nomadic? I've made a little "nem box" to house them in (I've got a few coming in early next week), but the top of it is submerged beneath the surface of the water. Will it be ok like that, or should I raise it up so that the sides are above the water line? Thanks!!

[FlowerMama]

Hey guys, are rock nem's very nomadic? I've made a little "nem box" to house them in (I've got a few coming in early next week), but the top of it is submerged beneath the surface of the water. Will it be ok like that, or should I raise it up so that the sides are above the water line? Thanks!!

 

They move some, It can move like 2-5 inches in a few hours. You could just rubber band some wedding veil material around the top of the container, just in case.

[glennr1978]

They move some, It can move like 2-5 inches in a few hours. You could just rubber band some wedding veil material around the top of the container, just in case.

 

Awesome! Thanks for the help .

[FlowerMama]

Awesome! Thanks for the help .

 

Type in Time Lapse rock flower in search function and watch the 2nd video.

[opaquelace]

I have 4 right now. I'd really love to see mine spawn and produce babies. I haven't seen any kind of event like that yet though so who knows what I have as far as sex goes. I think I'd be so excited if this happened. Maybe it will get rid of my useless human baby fever.

Hey guys, are rock nem's very nomadic? I've made a little "nem box" to house them in (I've got a few coming in early next week), but the top of it is submerged beneath the surface of the water. Will it be ok like that, or should I raise it up so that the sides are above the water line? Thanks!!

All of mine have stayed where they are once they get comfortable. If you move around their rock and they find they don't like where you've put them sometimes they'll move back relatively close to where they were. They can move pretty fast too. I do find that mine stay close to each other. Like, right on each others asses. Makes it easy to keep them located in one spot though.

[frankdontsurf]

I've always had a hard time picking them on the site because they're so beautiful. I sometimes find the simpler ones are more pretty than the ones w/ 3-4 colors. But they change as they grow, some spots getting more darker, some lighter, you just never know. Those are really nice choices for breeding stock!!! I've just never seen anywhere w/ a diverse selection like them. One day, if I'm ever in Miami, I know where I'm going to stop in for a moment to visit. I'll have to have a handkerchief to take care of the oncoming drool.

 

 

It is difficult to choose - that's probably why I ended up with several of them! I would love to see their stock in person, but I did some looking on Facebook and they have a great video of tons of their rock nems, it was beautiful!

 

 

I picked mine up at the shop, got to know Javier the owners son a bit. Smart kid, in school for aquaculture. Gives legit info, actually cares where the livestock is going - they ask about your set up and it's age and any problems you have with it. They advise on how to dip what.. Cool peeps, I go to every shop in South Florida and they are one of the best when it comes to customer service - top 5 for sure. The one I picked up came with about 12 babies on her skirt, I didn't know what they were. So far only 4 remain and they seem comfortable next to mom.

 

For the record, they have about 1000x more nems in the shop compared to online. They only post their "Ultra Premium" on the website. They have 4 propagation tanks, about 24' of tanks just for the nems and a few really unique ricordea. They have some insane looking rock flowers.

[Mirya]

For the record, they have about 1000x more nems in the shop compared to online. They only post their "Ultra Premium" on the website. They have 4 propagation tanks, about 24' of tanks just for the nems and a few really unique ricordea. They have some insane looking rock flowers.

 

I have in-laws down in south Florida. Maybe it is time to visit them.

[FlowerMama]

It would take me like 11.5 hrs to drive there. Sadly I've looked that up. I've talked to Frank personally on the phone to thank for the freebie he threw in for me. He's customer oriented, whenever I've asked a question, he's come back w/ answers, and he writes several sentences to a paragraph. Nice guy. He loves his nems. I have 14 of my 17 from him. I know they are super healthy.

[keydiver]

About 9 weeks into my breeding tank at this time, and I still haven't gotten a spawn, which is unusual. I have mature males in the system that regularly spawned for me before transferring them to the current system.

 

This leads me to believe that something different between the two tanks was triggering the spawning events. Naturally, the first two things to assume are lighting and temperature, as those are universal cues for most cnidarian spawning. Further research confirms my suspicions that creating ideal temps and lighting to simulate a spring season might do the trick here.

 

Regardless of the research I've done, I can only find very limited information about long term studies on temperature and lighting data for the Caribbean spring. If anyone knows where to look, I'd be in your debt.

 

Just thought I'd share this information as I think it's pertinent to the large scale aquaculture of this species. I also did some research on how to artificially induce a spawn with certain chemical injections, although I came up pretty empty. Does anyone know of anything that is used in other anemone aquaculture or bivalve aquaculture that causes a mass spawn?

[FlowerMama]

nope. That's awesome that you've had spawns. I only have 2 RFAs in my 34 that are big enough but one's a female, the other I don't know but I've never seen a spawn yet.

 

The 60, the big yellow one and one other are large enought, all else is like 2 inches or smaller so none of mine are of age to do anything really yet.

 

And my ATO stopped pumping.

 

And have no idea how to induce chemically or any other way for that matter. And I had diatoms that since also turned to cyano I believe. Trying lights out for a couple days and my reefcleaners order comes this week to help as well.

[beolson]

All,

I have recently fallen in love with these amazing creatures. I have 4 in my tank now that have some pretty nice colors. I eventually would like them to breed but that is a whole separate question.

 

My question is to those who have bread these things before. Assuming that the two parents are very colorful(not plain or brown), How many of the babies turn out to have good color out of the several that make it to adulthood? Is there a large number of babies that turn out with drab/unappealing colors?

 

I'm just interested to know since I can't find much info on it onlne. I am really excited to have a breeding pair or two so I can see the different colors that come out. It's almost like having a baby and seeing what traits it got from mommy and daddy.

 

I hope someone can reply with their thoughts.

[BulkRate]

I seem to remember that the article featuring Tropicorium's efforts mentioned bi-annual spawns (fall/spring) as well as salinity swings triggering the event.

 

I suppose a batch of water change water could be made up special to try to induce this by being off by a couple points but wouldn't recommend doing so in anything other than a dedicated "rock-flower anemone only" system, or by checking lunar charts for the Caribbean and matching if your lighting's fancy enough to do so.

[kazoofish]

I made some acrylic containers for my baby rfas. I used a plastic container before this but now that it is more of a permanent fixture in my tank I wanted something a little more pleasing to my eye. I had some pieces of acrylic cut by a local plastics company. It seems like some of the baby nems gravitate towards crevices or otherwise would be climbing the walls. In my plastic container (before I made the acrylic ones) some of the babies would escape and climb the wall. I put in a scallop shell and they started to pile up around the perimeter of the upside down scallop shell. This has greatly reduced escapees. Taking this into account for the newer acrylic containers I put some upside down frag plugs in them . This entices them to feel secure and not leave the confines of the container. I feed them once a day and blanket them with zoplan or frozen cyclops. I then will stirrup the surrounding gravel to both clean the gravel and hopefully get a second feeding from the extra uneaten food. I also put in a couple of tiny chromis in the tank to pick at all the extra "stuff" floating in the tank at feeding time in the water column. The bigger rfas actually take whole mysis too. They are greedy buggers and will surprise you on how big a meal they can actually eat.

I attached some pictures of the new acrylic containers and a picture of the baby rfas in the plastic container showing how they populate the "crevice" around the perimeter of the scallop shell.

[hypostatic]

nice! It seems like you've got some really pretty babies too!