Rock Flower Anemone Information and Appreciation Thread

[.Boris]

Thanks!

They are listed as "Epicystis lucifer rock flower anemone".

[seabass]

Epicystis crucifer, yeah, not so much.

[holy carp]

Agree - they look too round, tentacles too smooth, and too identical to one another.  

[Lula_Mae]

Definitely not RFA's but a very pretty anemone thingie anyway!

[BulkRate]

Seabass is right - those aren't rock flower anemones (epicystis crucifer) per se - they seem much more colonial and likely a species that reproduces via splitting given how dense they are on that rock you show.  Doesn't look like they're a typical mojano "pest" anemone either given the shape of the tentacles... were it me I'd add them simply because they look so nice & keep them on their own rock "island" to try to corral them.

 

Best bet for finding inexpensive RFAs are flash/live online sales, coral swaps or bulk orders (5/10/15/etc packs) from vendors like VIP.  Or if you're especially good at cat herding, try to get your local reef club or favorite store to go in on one such bulk order.  In those cases you can get them from about $20-25 apiece.  Otherwise you're paying a steep premium for "I can get this exact one, right now" at a local store (which I have also done from time to time ) 

[SeaFurn]

Does anyone know if there are any commercial captive breeders of RFA's? 

[BulkRate]

Just got everything cleaned up & ship shape again following our 5 day post-Irma power outage... and BOOM!  Forgot the fall equinox is just around the corner.  But the rock flower anemones haven't, so we'll see what we get in 7-10 weeks.  ;-)

 

Important disaster preparedness tip for those of you out there with small tanks - an 18-26AH rated 200+ watt auto power pod/inverter is a godsend.  In addition to allowing you to charge personal electronics/get your wifi router back online for work or such it can run a PAR38 reef grade LED fixture for 3-4 hours plus a koralia 285 powerhead for around 14 more.  Bonus when you find out that instead of trickle charging it for 12-72 hours off the wall at work you can (carefully!!!) mainline a 70-80% charge into it via leaving it hooked up to a running car's jump connections for 30-odd minutes in the driveway. (stay nearby to supervise & avoid overcharging) 

[SeaFurn]

52 minutes ago, BulkRate said:

Just got everything cleaned up & ship shape again following our 5 day post-Irma power outage... and BOOM!  Forgot the fall equinox is just around the corner.  But the rock flower anemones haven't, so we'll see what we get in 7-10 weeks.  ;-)

 

Important disaster preparedness tip for those of you out there with small tanks - an 18-26AH rated 200+ watt auto power pod/inverter is a godsend.  In addition to allowing you to charge personal electronics/get your wifi router back online for work or such it can run a PAR38 reef grade LED fixture for 3-4 hours plus a koralia 285 powerhead for around 14 more.  Bonus when you find out that instead of trickle charging it for 12-72 hours off the wall at work you can (carefully!!!) mainline a 70-80% charge into it via leaving it hooked up to a running car's jump connections for 30-odd minutes in the driveway. (stay nearby to supervise & avoid overcharging) 

Wow! So things for you fared pretty well during the power outage? That's a good tip! I have one of those inverters and really really long extension cord! 

 

So are you saying yours spawned already - before the equinox? 

 

I think my oldest are still just a little immature for that. 

[BulkRate]

Yup.  Cloudy tank soup Saturday/Sunday night.  I opted to just cut the filters and left the circulation powerhead running.

 

All in all came through the outage well.  Only one of my blastomussa mini-colonies is the worse for wear - has had some significant die-back but it looks like there's enough intact polyps left to grow back out again.

[SeaFurn]

1 hour ago, BulkRate said:

Yup.  Cloudy tank soup Saturday/Sunday night.  I opted to just cut the filters and left the circulation powerhead running.

 

All in all came through the outage well.  Only one of my blastomussa mini-colonies is the worse for wear - has had some significant die-back but it looks like there's enough intact polyps left to grow back out again.

Very exciting!

Can you post what your params are now?  Want to start documenting the various conditions under which nems are spawning.  We generally know the time frames now. 

[SeaFurn]

@reefhound Did your adults spawn yet?

[BulkRate]

Will double check when I run the round of weekend testing.

 

But of late my parameters have been hanging around 420ish Ca/8.5-9ish Alk/1400ish Mg (Fritz Pro salt is amazing stuff).  That is until the lights & heat were off for 5 days and tank dropped into 69/71F territory. ;(

 

Takeaway is that RFAs largely don't care what they're in to be in the mood for love, so long as the time is right and the water's wet.

[revolution1925]

So 2 Days ago my smallest rfa start moving from her  original location. 

During the moving time i was able to take some pictures  and i find some White spherical things attached to the body at the nem. Can anyone id this things?  Thanxs  (sorry about my english) 

 

[SeaFurn]

1 hour ago, revolution1925 said:

So 2 Days ago my smallest rfa start moving from her  original location. 

During the moving time i was able to take some pictures  and i find some White spherical things attached to the body at the nem. Can anyone id this things?  Thanxs  (sorry about my english) 

 

Those are pieces of your sandbed. RFA's like to stick pieces of the sandbed on their outer edges to help keep them from getting blown around if they become unattached and to help keep them laying flat. All of mine have them. Nothing to worry about. 

On 9/19/2017 at 4:11 PM, BulkRate said:

Will double check when I run the round of weekend testing.

 

But of late my parameters have been hanging around 420ish Ca/8.5-9ish Alk/1400ish Mg (Fritz Pro salt is amazing stuff).  That is until the lights & heat were off for 5 days and tank dropped into 69/71F territory. ;(

 

Takeaway is that RFAs largely don't care what they're in to be in the mood for love, so long as the time is right and the water's wet.

Haha! Well fingers crossed for you!

What temperature range do you normally keep your tank at? 

[SeaFurn]

On 9/19/2017 at 4:11 PM, BulkRate said:

Will double check when I run the round of weekend testing.

 

But of late my parameters have been hanging around 420ish Ca/8.5-9ish Alk/1400ish Mg (Fritz Pro salt is amazing stuff).  That is until the lights & heat were off for 5 days and tank dropped into 69/71F territory. ;(

 

Takeaway is that RFAs largely don't care what they're in to be in the mood for love, so long as the time is right and the water's wet.

Haha! Well fingers crossed for you!

What temperature range do you normally keep your tank at? 

[revolution1925]

17 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

Those are pieces of your sandbed. RFA's like to stick pieces of the sandbed on their outer edges to help keep them from getting blown around if they become unattached and to help keep them laying flat. All of mine have them. Nothing to worry about. 

 

I am pretty sure that is not pieces of the sandbed. This things was tottaly spherical and they start to floating around after some time.  Is there any possibility to be baby nems or some Kind of eggs or something? 

[SeaFurn]

I'm not sure what you saw floating around but I'm sticking with my hypothesis that it is sand. 

When I had my newest acclimating in a basket they had the same thing on their undersides and when I moved them into the tank there were little individual pieces of sand left in the basket that had fallen off while they were in there. 

 

RFAs have live babies that don't stick to them (and don't look like white spheres) but rather settled under/near them on the sand or get blown by the flow in the tank to some other part of the tank. 

Adults will spawn around the solstices and equinoxes (the fall equinox is today!) with babies showing up about 2 months later. 

[seabass]

I agree that coarse substrate can stick to the bottom of the anemone (and not just the foot).  However, RFA babies can look like that when first born.  Although, I wouldn't think that babies would stick to their parents (I have never witnessed that).  I'd try to touch them to see what they are.

[BulkRate]

That almost looks like bits of PhosGuard (especially since you describe it as floating at times)... are you using the product in your filtration bags/reactors?

 

It could be irritating it.

[seabass]

5 hours ago, revolution1925 said:

It does look a little like PhosGuard.  But look at the substrate in the foreground.  It kind of looks like that too.

 

In any case.  It's not a problem.  So that's good.

[revolution1925]

No PhosGuard i dont use it. If it is normal something like that then i am cool.! 

Thanxs! 

[rsucre]

I got my second rock flower anemone.  They are local to Panama, where I'm from.  The first one, red, is doing very well in the front of my tank, where the rock work meets the sand bed.  The new one is yellow.  I placed it close to the red one.  This morning I saw that it moved to the back of the tank, also where the rock meets the sand, but in the back where it can't be seen and with almost no light.

 

What should I do?

[SeaFurn]

5 minutes ago, rsucre said:

I got my second rock flower anemone.  They are local to Panama, where I'm from.  The first one, red, is doing very well in the front of my tank, where the rock work meets the sand bed.  The new one is yellow.  I placed it close to the red one.  This morning I saw that it moved to the back of the tank, also where the rock meets the sand, but in the back where it can't be seen and with almost no light.

 

What should I do?

Leave it alone for now.  It will probably move again as it's still getting settled.  They will move until they find a spot they like. 

[rsucre]

4 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

They will move until they find a spot they like. 

I'm a little worried that I will lose track of where it goes or worse that it gets caught by the wavemaker.

[fishfreak0114]

Just keep a close eye on it. Mine wandered all over the rocks for a week or so before settling down. It hasn't moved since. Could you put a foam gaurd on your powerhead?