Baby RFA

[fishnchips17]

So my 4 RFA made some loving and I was able to collect these 6 baby RFA. The largest is only 5 mm in diameter. Question for anyone who have raised these before, when will their true colors develop, or is what I see now what their adults colors are? How long does it generally take for them to be about a US quarter size?

I'm spot feeding them every other day to help speed their growth. These are I'm guessing about 2-3 weeks old.

Thanks.

 

[Ron Reefman]

In my experience (I've had more than a few rounds of RFA babies) they are pretty much the color they are going to be. But as they get bigger, some colors you may not be able to see now may become visible.

RFA are kind of slow growers. To get to the size of a quarter will take about a year, IMHO.

Good luck and have fun watching them grow.

 

[Cell]

Happy reading!

Ron Reefman's Rock Flower experience

Ok Wow! New to this, sorry. anyhoo picked up two RFA at the LFS and needless to say the gal working was supper busy and yanked the poor RFA’s out of the display tank they were in. Didn’t really pay attention, because I’m checking out the next purchase after these poor guys. The little one...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Thats amazing, congrats!

How long did you have them for before the babies? And how big are the adults? Thanks

 

[fishnchips17]

Thats amazing, congrats!

How long did you have them for before the babies? And how big are the adults? Thanks

I have the 4 adult RFA for about 10 months in my tank before they spawned. My biggest is about 3 inches, it's the green, yellow and red male. The other 3 are females I believe.

I used Ron's Reefman trick with the PVC end caps to cluster them around my rock.

 

[fishnchips17]

In my experience (I've had more than a few rounds of RFA babies) they are pretty much the color they are going to be. But as they get bigger, some colors you may not be able to see now may become visible.

RFA are kind of slow growers. To get to the size of a quarter will take about a year, IMHO.

Good luck and have fun watching them grow.

My largest RFA grew from 1 inch when I got it to be 3 inches now in about 10 months time. I spot feed my adult RFA, so hoping by spot feeding these babies I'll get faster growth.

Ron, did you get any really unique colors or patterns from any of the baby RFA you grew in your tank? Would love to see pics of the nicer ones that you grew.

Thanks.

 

[Ron Reefman]

My largest RFA grew from 1 inch when I got it to be 3 inches now in about 10 months time. I spot feed my adult RFA, so hoping by spot feeding these babies I'll get faster growth.

Ron, did you get any really unique colors or patterns from any of the baby RFA you grew in your tank? Would love to see pics of the nicer ones that you grew.

Thanks.

I didn't take many pics as they grew up. At one point I had over 20 adults in the tank. About half were male and half female (that's a guess as they didn't spawn when the others did). And there was such a variety of colors in my adults, I got all kinds of babies as well.

There are 5 to 7 babies in this pic, but the clump of orange with yellow rims are zoas, not RFAs! BTW, my RFAs and maxi-minis seems to get along quite well.

Babies showed up all over the tank. Here is one that found a home ina field of zoas collected in the Florida Keys.

I'm kind of out of the RFA stuff now as I almost moved out of the hobby. I sold off all my big tanks and 99% of my livestock. I kept some accidental frags and one favorite RFA in a 17g tank with a HOB filter for several months. Then I started noticing aio tanks. So I decided to give that a try. But I wanted to push the upper end of the aio systems.

I just got a 40g Breeder with a Fuji standard aio pro set up. In fact my last critters got moved over yesterday. The tank is just a few frags and a LOT of inverts. My intention is to do a variety of corals, including sps and lots of inverts, some rather uncommon in the hobby, but no fish... well, maybe an algae eater.

Now I'm building a 40g diy cube and I think Tenecor can build me a custom aio insert so I can run a bigger filter sock (4" rather than 2.75") and a more robust return pump.

Maybe there will be RFAs in my future!

 

[homer1475]

Of all the babies I've had in my tank, they pretty much look like they will as adults, when they are born.

Some change a bit in color, but it's either deeper colors, or lighter colors. The color they are when released from the momma, is the color they will stay as adults.

 

[fishnchips17]

3 week update: some of my babies are getting bigger and you can pick out more colours. I'm particularly interested in the yellow baby RFAs.

 

[Gadbery]

I have the 4 adult RFA for about 10 months in my tank before they spawned. My biggest is about 3 inches, it's the green, yellow and red male. The other 3 are females I believe.

I used Ron's Reefman trick with the PVC end caps to cluster them around my rock.

What is this Ron’s reef man pvc cap trick?

 

[fishnchips17]

What is this Ron’s reef man pvc cap trick?

You basically take a PVC end cap, put the rfa in it and wait for the rfa to latch it's foot to the PVC, fill the PVC with sand by surrounding the rfa, place the PVC end cap any where in your tank and the rfa will tend to just stay in the PVC.

This worked for 3 out of my 4 rfa. I was also being cheap and just cut the bottom of a 250ml plastic water bottle instead of using a PVC end cap and worked just as well.

So with this method I was able to place the rfa exactly where I wanted them and they can be easily moved if I needed to in the future.

 

[fishnchips17]

You basically take a PVC end cap, put the rfa in it and wait for the rfa to latch it's foot to the PVC, fill the PVC with sand by surrounding the rfa, place the PVC end cap any where in your tank and the rfa will tend to just stay in the PVC.

This worked for 3 out of my 4 rfa. I was also being cheap and just cut the bottom of a 250ml plastic water bottle instead of using a PVC end cap and worked just as well.

So with this method I was able to place the rfa exactly where I wanted them and they can be easily moved if I needed to in the future.

Here's a pic of my baby rfa in 250ml plastic water bottle caps. 3 out of the 4 ended staying in their bottle caps.



I'm on a long vacation now for 7 weeks, hoping my baby rfa and my tank survives till I get back.

 

[Ryebreadiest]

Very cool thread! My 6 month old nano has about 15 RFAs in it now, including a few truly big boys, and I’m so looking forward to them spawning.

 

[fishnchips17]

Very cool thread! My 6 month old nano has about 15 RFAs in it now, including a few truly big boys, and I’m so looking forward to them spawning.

How big is your nano? Is it going to be a dedicated tank for just rfa? It's a great feeling looking in my tank and finding my first baby rfa. Now the thing I look forward to the most in my tank is how much my baby rfa grow and develope, like a proud daddy

 

[Ron Reefman]

Using the water bottle caps is an excellent idea! Especially for the little ones.

I only have 1 big RFA and 1 very small RFA in my 2 new 40g aio tanks. But now I've put a couple of mini-maxi anemones in end cap in the 40g cube. Once everybody is stable in their end caps (like 3 or 4 weeks) I'll push them down into the sand.

 

[Ryebreadiest]

How big is your nano? Is it going to be a dedicated tank for just rfa? It's a great feeling looking in my tank and finding my first baby rfa. Now the thing I look forward to the most in my tank is how much my baby rfa grow and develope, like a proud daddy

It’s an IM 14g AIO, so pretty small. I found my love for RFA after setting it up so it’s unfortunately not optimized for them. A bunch of them are gathered in the main open sand area and the rock next to it, with a few along the rock/sand intersection on other rocks. I’ll get some pictures.

 

[Ryebreadiest]

How big is your nano? Is it going to be a dedicated tank for just rfa? It's a great feeling looking in my tank and finding my first baby rfa. Now the thing I look forward to the most in my tank is how much my baby rfa grow and develope, like a proud daddy

Not sure how to get the best photos of reef creatures but here is the main sand bed and island with RFAs. Another half dozen around scattered around the rest of the tank.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Not sure how to get the best photos of reef creatures but here is the main sand bed and island with RFAs. Another half dozen around scattered around the rest of the tank.

You might try the photography forum here at R2R. the use of some yellow filter material will block the strong blues and let other reef colors through. I bought a sample book of filter material and the small strips are big enough to cover the lens of my cell phone camera. Once I found the exact right filter for me, I ordered one for my good camera.

 

[fishnchips17]

So it's been about 1.5 years now. I have 3 surviving rfa from my initial spawn. They are about 1.5 inch in size now.