Rock Flower Anemone Information and Appreciation Thread

[banasophia]

Happy all three of my RFAs up top are visible again... the orange and yellow one likes to go on little adventures but usually comes back haha.

 

[Tigahboy]

10 hours ago, banasophia said:

Wow I love these shots - gorgeous colors and detail!!

Thank you!  Used the Polyplab lens for these.  

[banasophia]

3 hours ago, Tigahboy said:

Thank you!  Used the Polyplab lens for these.  

Nice!! The orange and the macro? 

[Sancho]

On 11/15/2019 at 4:46 PM, Tired said:

Does anyone have any photos of rock flower anemones that are red and white under white light? Red center or red rim would both be cool, but especially red center. I'm looking to get one like that, if I can. 

Here’s mine. The one with the red and blue center is a different variation from Vietnam. To my knowledge they are a deeper water variety 

 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

1 hour ago, Sancho said:

Here’s mine. The one with the red and blue center is a different variation from Vietnam. To my knowledge they are a deeper water variety 

 

Did you get that guy from AquaSD? I’ve got three that look similar to that, that I got from them. They even feel different than a Caribbean rock flower. 

[Sancho]

15 minutes ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

Did you get that guy from AquaSD? I’ve got three that look similar to that, that I got from them. They even feel different than a Caribbean rock flower. 

I got it from Reefers Garage another San Diego shop. Pretty sure they got them from

the same supplier. 

[Tired]

Oh, those are interesting. And they're red under white lights? 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

23 minutes ago, Tired said:

Oh, those are interesting. And they're red under white lights? 

Yes... And their tentacles are white, and way different. They're really tough (one took a ride to an MP 40 and just decided that was going to be his new home, until the tank keeper peeled him off). 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

57 minutes ago, Sancho said:

I got it from Reefers Garage another San Diego shop. Pretty sure they got them from

the same supplier. 

That's interesting AquaSD wouldn't tell me where they came from, but i think they're really cool. The three of them are segregated on their own little island in the sand bed, because it appears their sting is stronger than a Caribbean rock flower. 

[SeaFurn]

Moved a bunch of babies out of the nem box and into the tank this past weekend. I think they will grow faster in the tank and they are now big enough to deal with being buried in sand by a snail or hermit.

 

 

[Tired]

Oh, that's so cute! Look at 'em! You've got some really nice ones in there. 

[Sancho]

7 hours ago, Tired said:

Oh, those are interesting. And they're red under white lights? 

Here’s it under whites

[Tired]

I'd still call that pretty close to orange, but it's redder than any I've seen yet. Looks pretty cool. Any idea if clownfish treat it like they do other RFAs? 

[Tired]

Today's discovery: micro decorator crabs are, apparently, immune to rock flower stings. That, or this rock flower doesn't think it's anything that needs to be stung. Possibly both. 

You can also see that it hasn't hurt my micro zoanthids any. The ones it's on top of aren't very happy about being touched, but the ones at the edge aren't being harmed when the tentacles brush over them. I'm not sure if it's not stinging them, or if the stings are too weak to do any harm.

[Raketemensch]

On 12/4/2019 at 7:28 PM, SeaFurn said:

Moved a bunch of babies out of the nem box and into the tank this past weekend. I think they will grow faster in the tank and they are now big enough to deal with being buried in sand by a snail or hermit.

 

 

 

 

Do you have a thread on this tank? I'd love to know more.

[SeaFurn]

On 1/5/2020 at 2:40 PM, Raketemensch said:

 

Do you have a thread on this tank? I'd love to know more.

I don’t but I’m happy to answer any questions you have on it. It’s a 45 gallon shallow tank I set up specifically to breed RFAs. 

[Raketemensch]

14 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

I don’t but I’m happy to answer any questions you have on it. It’s a 45 gallon shallow tank I set up specifically to breed RFAs. 

Awesome, thanks!

 

What's the stock list look like? I'm thinking of building a biocube 14 to try growing them myself, then maybe building out a breeder tank later if  it goes well.

 

I was thinking of just doing RFAs and 3 sexy shrimp, I was wondering if you have any other fish in yours, or what you're using for a CuC, if any.

 

What does your filtration look like?

 

[edit] Oh, and I'd almost forgotten... I was wondering what your lighting looks like. If the more brightly-colored RFAs come from ~40 feet deep, they must not have very big PAR needs, I would think. It seems like you could get away with some cheaper lighting on a tank that was *just* RFAs...

[Raketemensch]

I just added my first RFA (and a tuxedo urchin) to my Biocube 14, after an hour of drip acclimation. The urchin is exploring like Magellan, that dude is climbing around like a mountain goat. There's a ton of algae for him, I picked up this cube with an almost 4 year old ecosystem, tons of algae and coraline.

 

The RFA is very closed up at the moment, and has moved around a few times already. It's so wild to watch both of these things travel. I've read that they don't like a lot of flow, and that they like medium flow, so I'm not sure what'll make the little thing happy. Right now there's a Koralia Nano 240 running in there, which is the smallest powerhead I've found.

 

I'm hoping it'll acclimate and open up tomorrow. My params look good, but I know that my salinity is higher than the LFS', so it may take a bit.

 

Fingers crossed!

 

They're just bathing in moonlight right now, but starting tomorrow PC2 will be on for 12 hours, with PC1 on for 10 hours in the middle of that.

 

I think I should wait until tomorrow to try feeding the poor thing. I feel so bad, it's all shriveled right now.

[Raketemensch]

Phew, it finally found a nice spot today and opened up in lower light.

 

When I got up this morning it had entirely disappeared under the rock, then as the day went on it appeared upside down in the cave in the rock, still entirely closed up. I was feeling horrible about it.

 

I think the lights at the LFS weren't very bright, so that was causing some stress. 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

40 minutes ago, Raketemensch said:

Phew, it finally found a nice spot today and opened up in lower light.

 

When I got up this morning it had entirely disappeared under the rock, then as the day went on it appeared upside down in the cave in the rock, still entirely closed up. I was feeling horrible about it.

 

I think the lights at the LFS weren't very bright, so that was causing some stress. 

I'm glad it's settled in. Looks like it has great texture! 

[Tired]

I intentionally got myself a white one, and I love it. This is it freshly arrived and all wadded up under the new lights. It's been moving in tiny circles around that area, trying to find itself a balance between being against the sandbed (good) and away from the pistol shrimp's poking (bad). 

I've never seen pictures of ones quite like this. All the pictures online of white ones are under lights that don't show the color properly, or are of those "pinstripe" ones but with very faint pinstripes. This one has a really nice texture, and that bright purple mouth. It also has enough of a sting to cling onto my pipette slightly when I offer it Reef Roids. 

 

Anyone know how long it takes RFAs to come back from browning out? That little guy used to be a pinstripe, but the light it was under for awhile in quarantine/holding was, I guess, good for brown zooelanthae. It's very slowly un-browning, and it's definitely healthy, I'm just curious how long I can expect it to take to get back to normal. If it is going to, like I'm hoping it will. 

 

[Raketemensch]

That purple mouth is too cool!

[SeaFurn]

On 1/18/2020 at 10:28 AM, Tired said:

Anyone know how long it takes RFAs to come back from browning out? That little guy used to be a pinstripe, but the light it was under for awhile in quarantine/holding was, I guess, good for brown zooelanthae. It's very slowly un-browning, and it's definitely healthy, I'm just curious how long I can expect it to take to get back to normal. If it is going to, like I'm hoping it will. 

I've never had any that browned out, only bleached. Those took several months to get their color back.  I've also notice that as some of the pinstripe ones mature, their pinstripes seem to fade and not be as prominent. 

[Tired]

I don't think this is a matter of color changing with age, though it is pretty tiny. It went from zebra-striped with a pink rim to this in a few months. Some zoanthids also browned a little under the same light, so I assume that's what happened. It's definitely losing the brown. 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

1 hour ago, Tired said:

I don't think this is a matter of color changing with age, though it is pretty tiny. It went from zebra-striped with a pink rim to this in a few months. Some zoanthids also browned a little under the same light, so I assume that's what happened. It's definitely losing the brown. 

That’s interesting. What kind of light was it?