luu78
Well-Known Member
Hello everyone, Im always super excited whenever I have the opportunity to get involved in any new and exciting reef related experimentation such as Zooplankton and phytoplankton harvesting/culturing, efficient propagation methodology and or fry rearing and the such. So last weekend, I picked up three rock flower anemones (RFAs) from Shawn@ Crazy Corals, as luck would have it, one of the three had given birth to approximately 50 babies in the bag by the time I got home. Five of which are much bigger than the rest with their tentacles visible with the naked eye. While the rest are as small as the small-sized sinking food pellet. Most were found at the bottom of the shipping bag, with the exception of a few residing in the basket of the orange RFA, indicating she might be the one that gave birth. My excitement suddenly shifted from acclimating $500 worth of corals that I just bought that day to “how to raise these baby RFA’s to their glorious adulthood”. So far, the grow-out set up is quite simple, but I think is very effective at the same time. I’m raising them in a small Ziploc bag secured to the front panel of my refugium with a magnetic algae scrubber. The bag opening is above the maximum waterline when return pump is turn off to keep the baby RFAs and copepods contained inside during the occasional return pump shutdowns for coral feedings in DT. Small holes were made with a toothpick on both sides of the bag. I try to poke the holes smaller than the smallest RFA’s in the bag. This allow circulation of clean tank water through the bag flushing away any possible toxic buildup from the daily feedings. It has been almost one week and they are doing wonderful. Almost all of them have tentacles visible them by now. I will update this post with pics and notes as this progress. Let’s see how far along I can raise them...stay tuned....oh I have a few short videos of the baby RFAs under the microscope but don’t know how to load into this post. Anyone can guide me how to?
The orange RFA on the lower right might be the mother nem....
Various sizes of baby nems....
The biggest of them with the signature tentacles unique to RFAs visible..
The orange RFA on the lower right might be the mother nem....
Various sizes of baby nems....
The biggest of them with the signature tentacles unique to RFAs visible..
