Rock Flower Anemone Information and Appreciation Thread

[jball1125]

The nem that I have been waiting for for over 6 weeks finally came out of it's hole at my LFS. Brought her home last night. Such a beauty. Pics to come later if I can get the color looking right. Such an intense color. Hunter orange face with powder blue skirt. Can't wait to show her off.

Sounds perty!

[Slowtwitch]

My newest pretty:

The colors here are too purple, but they are close.

So vibrant IRL.

[FlowerMama]

Love the purple streaks in the folds. So fun to see how they change as they get bigger.

[cindyp]

My newest pretty:

The colors here are too purple, but they are close.

So vibrant IRL.

 

gorgeous!!

[seabass]

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.

I had one of my RFAs get sucked into a HOB powerfilter. The resulting two anemones survived.

 

[jamescstein]

 

I had one of my RFAs get sucked into a HOB powerfilter. The resulting two anemones survived.

 

 

Any recent pics of the 2?

[seabass]

Here's one that I just shot.

[TimberC]

Here's one that I just shot.

It's great that everything turned out well for you but I would still not recommend anybody to try to cut RFAs in half to get them to multiply. I have extensive experience with RFAs and they don't do well when their foot gets damaged or get cut in half.

[cindyp]

hello RFA lovers! i took a foto of my ultra

nem and it's damaged (eaten or melted) barbed

skirt. it is the stubbly bits on the top. poor thing.

but it seems to have recovered fully. i only wish

i knew why. i saw the giant overgrown mushroom

get near it yesterday and it was closing again, so

i moved the mushroom as far away as i could. but

my tank is small...

 

this is one of the oldest nems in my tank (along with

its buddy beside it) and my favorite. sad it somehow

got hurt, but so happy it seems to be okay now.

 

[FlowerMama]

Yeah, they recover well. They're strong. I had one that went too close to the curlique anemone in the back and all of it's tentacles were barely there. Barely ever fed cuz it couldn't grab it and now its tentacles are half the size now and growing. So it's expected to make a full recovery.

[cindyp]

Yeah, they recover well. They're strong. I had one that went too close to the curlique anemone in the back and all of it's tentacles were barely there. Barely ever fed cuz it couldn't grab it and now its tentacles are half the size now and growing. So it's expected to make a full recovery.

 

makes me wonder what happened to my

pink skirted zebra. it was a big nem, but

never grabbed or closed to eat. then one day

just free floating dead. very sad.

[FlowerMama]

hm. I don't know. Maybe it was somehow sick when you got it. But I found out my light pink zebra likes to be left alone. Of course right now I haven't fed any flower in the tank since 3/15 at least. I did though give a mysis to the serpent star and red starfish mid month last month and will do the same this month. I'm not gonna feed til the cyano/dino is gone.

[jamescstein]

I think RFAs have some of the same issues as the larger nems. Sometimes during collection they just aren't treated well or get injured and its hard to see. Perhaps they expelled their guts and or zooxanthellae when captured and it just takes a while before they starve to death.

 

I am at the point now that I am not going to buy anymore expensive RFA's. I bought a $120 RFA from AquaSD. It lived for 3 weeks and then disappeared and hid in my tank and as far as I can tell its gone now, I have never found it. I purchased a nice $120 rainbow from VIP reefs at Reefapalooza and it is withering away, I suspect to see it melting any day now.

 

I have a free RFA that came with my wifes liverock that is doing great. A $25 nem I bought at Reefapalooza that is doing great. A $30 one I bought from Finaddicts that is doing the best of all and a $40 one I bought from my LFS that is doing great as well.

 

I think my desire for super looking nems will have to be met through breeding.

[cindyp]

hm. I don't know. Maybe it was somehow sick when you got it. But I found out my light pink zebra likes to be left alone. Of course right now I haven't fed any flower in the tank since 3/15 at least. I did though give a mysis to the serpent star and red starfish mid month last month and will do the same this month. I'm not gonna feed til the cyano/dino is gone.

 

that is interesting, annette.

 

the pink zebra came attached to a few rubble,

and it refused to attach to anything else, like buried

into sand or any of my rock work. i DID move it around

more than a few times, because it'd just drift into other

corals--which was dangerous. who knows. but it was

my only loss. 4/5 isn't so bad, i guess? sitll was sad.

I think RFAs have some of the same issues as the larger nems. Sometimes during collection they just aren't treated well or get injured and its hard to see. Perhaps they expelled their guts and or zooxanthellae when captured and it just takes a while before they starve to death.

 

I am at the point now that I am not going to buy anymore expensive RFA's. I bought a $120 RFA from AquaSD. It lived for 3 weeks and then disappeared and hid in my tank and as far as I can tell its gone now, I have never found it. I purchased a nice $120 rainbow from VIP reefs at Reefapalooza and it is withering away, I suspect to see it melting any day now.

 

I have a free RFA that came with my wifes liverock that is doing great. A $25 nem I bought at Reefapalooza that is doing great. A $30 one I bought from Finaddicts that is doing the best of all and a $40 one I bought from my LFS that is doing great as well.

 

I think my desire for super looking nems will have to be met through breeding.

 

all my RFA are from ASD. that is very sad to hear.

this ultra nem is my best and most expensive one.

and like i said, i've had 4/5 survive. i'm sorry you've had

bad luck with them though.

[CalebD]

Ooooh sounds beautiful can't wait to see it.

[Halo_003]

Finally got a semi decent picture. Think it could be better if I white balance but this is right off the iPhone.

 

 

Any thoughts on what it's worth? The colors are pretty close but the tentacles that look orange are more red I think. Those royal blue tentacles are white. The mouth area is an electric green and the edge of the skirt before the tentacles is kind of a navy blue.

[FlowerMama]

Who knows what the worth is, it can be worth $150 if you want or $45. Usually people price by how many colors it has, how it's patterned, but it's still always subjective. I have several with big fat stripes. Love them.

[HarryPotter]

I moved a rock anemone yesterday

 

I was at my aunts house and she was telling me how upset she was that the rock anemone I got her (With her credit card- I am the tank-keeper) was hiding in the back.

 

​Well of coarse I couldn't hide from that challenge! It was on a big structural piece, so I (gently) poked one side of its foot until it was half released. Then, it attached to my finger! Scariest S*** ever lmao!

 

jkjk but I moved it to a nice spot- not too much flow or light, and its stayed there since.

Heres a pic, of coarse! The Rock Anemone is on the right side of the aquarium, under the candy cane coral. I might need to move that later.

 

[FlowerMama]

Down in front on the bottom left side on those rocks or right before the vertical edge of that rock would be nice too. More visible and its colors won't be shaded. Concerned it might sting the candy cane.

[keydiver]

I had one of my RFAs get sucked into a HOB powerfilter. The resulting two anemones survived.

 

That's pretty incredible. Do you have any details of this incident, and are you sure it crucifer as opposed to one of the similar species? If someone found out how to successfully frag RFA's, they would corner the market very quickly, as most sold right now are wild caught. From what I understand their availability is declining rapidly

[HarryPotter]

I moved a rock anemone yesterday

 

I was at my aunts house and she was telling me how upset she was that the rock anemone I got her (With her credit card- I am the tank-keeper) was hiding in the back.

 

​Well of coarse I couldn't hide from that challenge! It was on a big structural piece, so I (gently) poked one side of its foot until it was half released. Then, it attached to my finger! Scariest S*** ever lmao!

 

jkjk but I moved it to a nice spot- not too much flow or light, and its stayed there since.

Heres a pic, of coarse! The Rock Anemone is on the right side of the aquarium, under the candy cane coral. I might need to move that later.

 

 

 

 

Down in front on the bottom left side on those rocks or right before the vertical edge of that rock would be nice too. More visible and its colors won't be shaded. Concerned it might sting the candy cane.

 

 

I get to move the Rock Anemone again? YAY!

 

I also am concerned with the candy cane. I put it there (although a few inches lower) because originally I placed it horizontally, and it HATED all of the light. Went right into the rock, until I tore up the aquascape yesterday to get it out and moved it to its current location.

 

Rock Flower Anemones don't like excessive light? Lighting is two Hydra 26s maxing out at 65%

 

Tank overall is doing pretty well- when I first saw it the inhabitants were Aiptasia, GHA, and a "Nemo". After a year of maintenance, I'm happy to see that it has finally recovered and is growing again.

[FlowerMama]

Well, I've kept my nems first in my 34 g w/ a Kessil A350W and had 75% white and then 100% Blue from 2pm unitl 5:30 when I'd come home, then I lower the white so they can handle bright. But right now I keep the nems downstairs ramping to 40-50% white and w/ blues slowly increasing throughout the day to 80.

 

They do open wider with lights a little lower but I don't know if it's because they're relaxing and feel more comfortable that way OR if they're spreading to have more area open to the light that is available because they want more. I always question that. I don't have an answer on that one yet.

[Dlc27]

I think this is probably the case. I have used flatworm exit multiple times with my RFAs and they haven't batted an eye. Of course after each treatment the FW that survived continued to reproduce and then I had a population of super resistant uglies. Finally got them under control with a yellow cori wrasse.

 

I've got flatworms now. I got some nems in from vip a while back and just saw the flatworms a few weeks ago. I've been terrified to treat them.... Think I should try the flatworm exit with massive water changes daily?

[FlowerMama]

Yeah, I'd do water changes with it since they said what they believed hurt them was the toxins from the flatworms. Maybe if you don't have a lot you can remove them w/ a baster or piston or something.

[Speaker73]

I've got flatworms now. I got some nems in from vip a while back and just saw the flatworms a few weeks ago. I've been terrified to treat them.... Think I should try the flatworm exit with massive water changes daily?

 

Also have some carbon you can run to remove toxins from the water after treatment. I have used a canister filter stuffed with carbon on my tanks after use of FW exit. I just did a 50% water change after a few hours and nothing bad happened. Of course they always came back until i got a wrasse to take care of them.