Rock Flower Anemone Information and Appreciation Thread

[Noinoi24]

1 hour ago, tofer said:

Are the staying open all the time ?  When you try to target feed do they eat ?   

I haven’t tried feeding them. But yes, they stay open. 

 

 

Heres the 6th One dying.

[tofer]

I'm sorry this keeps happening to you hopefully you don't lose anymore . You said your nitrates were high I don't know if this would affect them just an idea . Im new to these as well .

[Noinoi24]

I’m setting up a 2.5 gallon tank just for them RFA and Seahorse... 

[seabass]

10 hours ago, Noinoi24 said:

I’m setting up a 2.5 gallon tank just for them RFA and Seahorse... 

Have you checked to see if ponies are compatible with RFAs?  @vlangel, any thoughts about this setup?

[vlangel]

35 minutes ago, seabass said:

Have you checked to see if ponies are compatible with RFAs?  @vlangel, any thoughts about this setup?

I do not keep dwarf seahorses but it is my understanding that absolutely no nems of any kind with any seahorses.  I am afraid your DSHs would end up being an expensive meal.

[Nixperience]

I thought RFAs weren’t that capable of eating fish?

[vlangel]

50 minutes ago, Nixperience said:

I thought RFAs weren’t that capable of eating fish?

I am not familiar with RFA so maybe they don't.  Dwarf seahorses are tiny however and they should only be in tanks with macro algae.  Even amphipods and hydroids are lethal to them.  If you have to treat for hydroids with panacur then most coral can not survive the treatment.  With dwarfs eating enriched hatched artemia, often hydroids are transferred into the tank via the artemia cysts.

[Nixperience]

25 minutes ago, vlangel said:

I am not familiar with RFA so maybe they don't.  Dwarf seahorses are tiny however and they should only be in tanks with macro algae.  Even amphipods and hydroids are lethal to them.  If you have to treat for hydroids with panacur then most coral can not survive the treatment.  With dwarfs eating enriched hatched artemia, often hydroids are transferred into the tank via the artemia cysts.

Well I’ll stick with my RFAs and not be tempted by seahorses. To hell with that. RFAs are no effort at all. 

[Noinoi24]

I guess I’ll stick with RFA tank only or Sea horse tank only.

[tofer]

I'm wondering a couple of things 

1) If there is only male anemones in your tank will they still try to spawn  ?

 

2) Is there anything special you can do to make them spawn ?

 

3) Do they act different prior to spawning?

 

4) If I do see them in the act is there something I could do to increase chance  of making it a success ?

 

 

 

[SeaFurn]

22 minutes ago, tofer said:

I'm wondering a couple of things 

1) If there is only male anemones in your tank will they still try to spawn  ?

 

2) Is there anything special you can do to make them spawn ?

 

3) Do they act different prior to spawning?

 

4) If I do see them in the act is there something I could do to increase chance  of making it a success ?

 

 

 

 

1.  I've been wondering that myself.  I have both males and females in my tank so I can't really comment based on my experience and I haven't found much about it on-line. If I had to guess I'd say that females in the tank probably increases the chances of a spawning event.  Maybe they send out some kind of signal??

 

2.  I've read that spawning usually occurs around the solstices and equinoxes.  The first spawning I had in my tank was on October 2, a little over a week after the Autumn Equinox (Sept 22).  Then again on Nov 22 which is a month earlier than the Winter Solstice (Dec 21) and then another one last week (Dec 13) which is just over a week early.   So i'd say those were in the ballpark.  

I mentioned this on my page, and I'm completely speculating, but I think tank conditions (parameters, lighting, amount of flow), maturity of the nems, numbers of them in the tank (and sexes), and feeding regimen all play a part.   There are others on here that have much more experience than I do and hopefully they can share what they feel are contributing factors.

 

3.  The spawnings I've witnessed in my tank have occurred in the early evening (6pm-8pm) when the moonlighting is on.  It's all about ambiance I guess!  

You'll know when it's gonna happen because the nems stretch upward. They look like this.

 

 

 

There's a couple more videos over on my page if you're interested. 

 

4.  I've tried two different things when they are spawning.  One time, I turned the pump off completely and gently swirled/stirred the water around the tank for 20 minutes or so.  Then I took out the filter floss and turned the pump back on running it that way for an hour or two.  Then I put the floss back in.  This method resulted in 16 baby nems so far (found a couple more in the past few days).    

Last week when they were spawning again, I just pulled the filter floss out and let the pump run.  Then I put the filter floss back in a couple of hours later.  We'll see what happens in 6-8 weeks!

 

[SeaFurn]

On 12/18/2017 at 10:37 AM, Nixperience said:

I thought RFAs weren’t that capable of eating fish?

I have a 3" one that's super aggressive when it's fed.  If a small goby decided to plop down on it, it would be lunch in about 2 seconds. 

[tofer]

@SeaFurn Thanks for the info  . I will have to keep an eye out for the stretch and makes sense to take out floss . 

 

 

 

 

[Nixperience]

20 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

I have a 3" one that's super aggressive when it's fed.  If a small goby decided to plop down on it, it would be lunch in about 2 seconds. 

Wow. I just found that they’re not as sticky as other nems and figured a fish could get away. 

[BulkRate]

I have a yellow clown goby in my tank since way before I caught the rock flower anemone bug, a ruby mandarin for (about 1.5 years) as well as a relatively recently added pink streaked wrasse.  All are/were in the habit of picking food off the anemones from time to time and I've witnessed them getting tagged a couple of times, but shake it off quickly.

 

My suspicion is as many others have said - a healthy fish can handle an encounter with the relatively mild sting of a rock flower anemone.

 

PS - SHOULD... should be able to.  Every time you make a blanket statement in this hobby something happens to prove you completely and utterly wrong. 

[fishfreak0114]

@tofer I only have one RFA (crazy right?!) and it's a male. It spawned this year. So it is possible with only one for them to spawn. My not sure if having females increases the chances or not. 

[tofer]

3 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said:

@tofer I only have one RFA (crazy right?!) and it's a male. It spawned this year. So it is possible with only one for them to spawn. My not sure if having females increases the chances or not. 

Did you do anything special such as change lighting schedules ,target feed more  to trigger the spawn

[fishfreak0114]

1 minute ago, tofer said:

Did you do anything special such as change lighting schedules ,target feed more  to trigger the spawn

Nope, it was completely unexpected. Occasionally I give it some mysis, but I didn't up the feeding or anything before it spawned.  It was the first time it spawned since I bought it last summer. 

[LongPig]

Bad pic but here are three of my five new anemones. 

 

[Felixeus]

Hi all. I’m from Singapore. Just got this anemone about 3 weeks back and would love to share with all. Stuck him on a frag rock. Taken with my mobile phone. I’ve just started target feeding it with mysis shrimp for 2 days. Hope it grows fat and juicy!

 

question: he seems very comfortable and does not extend out from the rock - flushed. Is this normal? 

[seabass]

14 minutes ago, Felixeus said:

Is this normal?

I'd consider either way to be normal.  It looks healthy.  Nice nem.

[revolution1925]

Hi! So one of my rfa stay buried when the lights are on. At night start to open and stay open and happy all night.  Any advise?  

Sorry about my english

[SeaFurn]

5 hours ago, revolution1925 said:

Hi! So one of my rfa stay buried when the lights are on. At night start to open and stay open and happy all night.  Any advise?  

Sorry about my english

I think you mean it stays closed during the day.

How bright are your lights during the day? Maybe they are too bright for the RFA.

Do you lower the flow at night?

[revolution1925]

I have a kessil a160we at 60%intensity max. 

The tank is 55cm x55cm x45cm

All the others rfa are happy. 

Flow is the same Day and night. 

When i feed them, this guy eat food Just stay all Day buried. 

[BulkRate]

Watch it over the next couple of weeks (take pics if you can for time-lapse comparison) and see if the colors noticeably fade & the tentacles start to shrink back down into nubs... that will tell you if it's starving or just a weirdo. 

 

If it IS starting to starve & you happen see it moving around even a little, cut the pumps and nudge it well away from that spot - the foot will not be anchored firmly and you can probably get it off the bottom of the tank with nothing more than a few gentle nudges with an old credit/bank card cut in half.

 

I've had a couple that bunkered down in locations that were either too shaded or otherwise unsuitable and had them start to waste away... it's always better to intervene sooner rather than later when that happens, as it can take weeks or months for a starved rock flower to recover.