SeaFurn's 100 Days of Nanos Contest Tank: 40 Baby RFAs

[SeaFurn]

2 minutes ago, RIP Sebastian said:

She passed away a few hours after I posted, unfortunately. Thanks for asking, though.

Sorry to hear that.

[RIP Sebastian]

Just now, SeaFurn said:

Sorry to hear that.

It's unfortunate. However, all my other fish are out a lot more now. She was kind of a bully, but its still unfortunate she passed.

[HoffyZ]

I’m excited too about the babies colorization. Please post pictures when you see the baby’s color change.

 

What is the plan or how will you able to separate the babies w/o breaking their foot from the rock when you want to relocate them? Maybe this question is a bit early.

[banshee]

I can't wait to see your baby nems color up. My first two RFA's are doing great and I can't wait to add more. Your thread just makes me even more excited!

[SeaFurn]

10 hours ago, HoffyZ said:

I’m excited too about the babies colorization. Please post pictures when you see the baby’s color change.

 

What is the plan or how will you able to separate the babies w/o breaking their foot from the rock when you want to relocate them? Maybe this question is a bit early.

I'll try to get some good pics of the colorful ones and the others when they change.  I've noticed one of the brown looking ones turning a little more green on the disc.  They are all super small so it's just wait and see at this point.

 

I'm not really sure what I'll do with the ones on the rocks.  The ones that have attached themselves in the small holes will eventually outgrow the hole and have to move.  I guess my plan would be to catch them while they are on the move and in a spot where they wouldn't likely be damaged. 

But....I've not decided if I'm going to leave them in the IM14 to grow or move them to another tank.  I have an IM10 that I could set-up but they've all been doing well so I don't really want to change anything.

[SeaFurn]

19 minutes ago, banshee said:

I can't wait to see your baby nems color up. My first two RFA's are doing great and I can't wait to add more. Your thread just makes me even more excited!

Thanks! 

Yes, get some more - it will increase your chances of having both males and females and you have PLENTY of room in your new RSR 250!  I love that tank by the way.   

[banshee]

Just now, SeaFurn said:

Thanks! 

Yes, get some more - it will increase your chances of having both males and females and you have PLENTY of room in your new RSR 250!  I love that tank by the way.   

It's a great tank! I can't believe how easy it has made everything this go round. I'll never go back. Any recs on where to get beautiful and healthy RFA's?

[SeaFurn]

27 minutes ago, banshee said:

It's a great tank! I can't believe how easy it has made everything this go round. I'll never go back. Any recs on where to get beautiful and healthy RFA's?

I got all of mine from VIP Reef (Miami, FL)  and would recommend them based on my experience.

I've also seen recommendations for Got Corals and Austin Aqua Farms.

I don't have any feedback on these - Pacific East Aquaculture, Salt Critters, Kush Corals

I think there are some others listed in this thread.

 

[SeaFurn]

So the GSP on the largest rock in my tank has completely grown over the top of it and it's starting to work it's way downward quickly. As much as I like it, I don't want it to over take the entire rock, especially now as there are several baby RFAs on the side of that rock.

Any suggestions as to what I should do? Try to split the top of the rock off?

 

[seabass]

Breaking up the rock is definitely an option.  You just want to be careful when the rock splits that it's not where a RFA foot is located.  However, since RFAs tend to sit in depressions, and rocks tend to break on depressions, the chances are pretty good that it will.  But don't worry, if it does break under a foot, you can carefully separate the two sides (allowing the anemone time to release from one of the sides).  I've actually used this method to remove RFAs from rocks before.

 

You could also attempt to pry off the GSP mat (to put on a smaller rock) and then scrape off the remaining mat.  Then take a stiff brush to the remaining mat to get as much as you can off of the rock.  Finally rinse off the rock in saltwater to remove any loose particles of the mat.  GSP is very hardy, and might even survive this attempt to get rid of it, but there's a decent chance that you'll do enough damage to it that any remaining specs might just disintegrate.

[HoffyZ]

I’m following the next 3 vendor sites. Still I’m hesitating to add RFA to my tank as they could move on the rocks...

VIP reef

my saltwater fish store

KP aquatics

[StinkyBunny]

There are lots of places to get RFAs from. They are expensive because they have to go 80 miles off the coast to get them so there's a hell of a lot of fuel used to collect them.

[SeaFurn]

So if I want to keep breeding these RFAs and others, what would the optimal set-up be? 

What I've got going on just doesn't seem optimal with 30+ babies. 

A larger tank with more RFAs? Several smaller tanks with breeding pairs or multiple pairs if I could figure out which are males and females?

Some combination of larger and smaller tanks? 

Sand, bare bottom, Marine Pure block bottom? 

Sumped set-up? 

Give me your thoughts! 

 

[seabass]

IMO, a large, shallow, tank with sand and lots of nems.  You can use PVC fittings for the anemones to attach to.

[SeaFurn]

32 minutes ago, seabass said:

IMO, a large, shallow, tank with sand and lots of nems.  You can use PVC fittings for the anemones to attach to.

45g shallow? Actually been thinking about one of those....

 

The PVC fitting is an interesting idea. Sure would make it a lot easier to move them off of it if I needed to. 

[Pjanssen]

The first time I got an RFA it came in a pvc fitting with netting over it. Made adding it to the tank easy and it eventually relocated itself to the rock work

[HoffyZ]

17 hours ago, StinkyBunny said:

There are lots of places to get RFAs from. They are expensive because they have to go 80 miles off the coast to get them so there's a hell of a lot of fuel used to collect them.

As SeaFurn’s example shows they could breed them instead of farming the ocean. 

[StinkyBunny]

53 minutes ago, HoffyZ said:

As SeaFurn’s example shows they could breed them instead of farming the ocean. 

That would be a great idea if we can produce them in number to sustain the demand, therein lies the problem. I'm all for captive propagation, it's just not totally sustainable at this point. We're getting there, but we're not there yet. Then there's delivery, 1 day shipping is very costly.

 

If you have the room for one, go for the 60, it's 48x24x12, I have 3 of the Deep Blue 80s now and I love the size. as for the bottom, I'm not a fan of bare bottom tanks, I feel you need the buffering capacity of an aragonite bed in a marine system.  You could use 1/2" PVC fittings for them to attach to.

[HoffyZ]

18 hours ago, seabass said:

IMO, a large, shallow, tank with sand and lots of nems.  You can use PVC fittings for the anemones to attach to.

A pvc pipe cap or perforated cap also would be good

[BulkRate]

To chime in on the why not captive bred question... it takes several months of dedicated target feeding or over a year of normal to get the typical baby rfa up to the size that a place like VIP reef will risk shipping out.

 

Unfortunately it's not very economical for most smaller players in the supply chain (including local stores) to put this kind of time into it compared to wild harvesting.  Some larger outfits (I recall seeing an article in some online reefing publication a couple years ago about Tropicorium doing so) run larger scale raceway tanks (which appear to be lined with coarse gravel, Seafurn) to breed and raise them in sufficient quantity to stay in business doing so.

 

Of course, the easier solution is for those of us who opt to keep them trade/sell the tank bred ones locally as we're already resigned to most $'s going in the "away from our pockets" direction.

[SeaFurn]

 

[SeaFurn]

On 1/6/2018 at 11:13 AM, HoffyZ said:

As SeaFurn’s example shows they could breed them instead of farming the ocean. 

I suppose it could be done but it would require a big operation and lots of patience. 

 

I'm wondering how repeatable this this is considering I can't really say why mine are reproducing while other peoples are not. 

[SeaFurn]

On 1/6/2018 at 12:12 PM, StinkyBunny said:

That would be a great idea if we can produce them in number to sustain the demand, therein lies the problem. I'm all for captive propagation, it's just not totally sustainable at this point. We're getting there, but we're not there yet. Then there's delivery, 1 day shipping is very costly.

 

If you have the room for one, go for the 60, it's 48x24x12, I have 3 of the Deep Blue 80s now and I love the size. as for the bottom, I'm not a fan of bare bottom tanks, I feel you need the buffering capacity of an aragonite bed in a marine system.  You could use 1/2" PVC fittings for them to attach to.

I do like those Deep Blue tanks. 

I probably only have room for a 3 foot tank. They have a 45 that's 36in but I'm just not sure where I'd get one around here. Haven't spent a ton of time looking. 

Do they use Durso drains?

I also like the CAD Lights 45s that I've seen in a few threads on here. I am aware of the concerns that some people have had with them. 

 

I'd lean towards having sand as well. 

[SeaFurn]

23 hours ago, BulkRate said:

Some larger outfits (I recall seeing an article in some online reefing publication a couple years ago about Tropicorium doing so) run larger scale raceway tanks (which appear to be lined with coarse gravel, Seafurn) to breed and raise them in sufficient quantity to stay in business doing so.

I saw a video on this very thing on YouTube. It was from a bunch of years back but unfortunately nothing more recent on the topic. It seems like they had gained a bunch of knowledge on breeding these things. 

 

I'm actually having less of a problem with the gravel now that they are getting a bit bigger and don't get buried every time a snail goes by. 

Not sure I'd ever go with something as big as crushed coral due to the likelihood of detritus build up. I use special grade right now and siphoning that is a breeze and the snails keep it pretty clean. 

[banshee]

I took your advice and got a ten pack from VIP on the way! I was reading through all of the issues you had with your first batch. Did you ever figure out what caused all the deaths and what the best treatment was? I tried reading all the way through but after thirty minutes my brain started to hurt!