• Why not take a moment to introduce yourself to our members?

Minh Nguyen

Advanced Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
AM 10/23/2009
This morning I find my H. malu with eggs in its tentacles. I am sure that it is a H. malu because I have had her for 3 years and she is no bigger than 7 inches, now with eggs even at that size. My other anemone with her is likely a H. malu also is slightly bigger is without egg. They are in my 30 g tank. I took pictures with my point and shoot camera which I have at the office. I was going to get my SLR from home later this PM but the anemones spawned later in the afternoon and thus did not have a change to do this. Please forgive the quality of the pictures because I only have my point and shoot and camera phone available.
These anemones get morning sun for about 4-5 hrs in my office, at a wall to wall window facing east. They get feed but not overfeed, and get 10 g water change every month out of 30 g sump less, no skimmer tank with sand bed 3 years old. The tank is also full of Xenia and occasional clams. I use it as a clam quarantine tank. They are under 150 W DE MH 12 hrs light cycle 7-7. Summer here has longer day length but in the winter they get 12 hrs.
I had my Onyx pair with them but this pair is at a friend having babies, www.gcreef.com. He had several hundreds very beautiful Onyx A. percula babies near the point of sale-able.
Here is the best picture of my Purple H. malu with eggs:
2009-10-23%2007.59.08.jpg


PM 10/23/2009
Well I just finish doing a bunch of water change on my tank. I was out of the office for about 1 hr this afternoon. When I got back at about 6 the tank was a little cloudy. Looking closely the green H. malu was pumping out sperms. I grab a few pictures with my phone and start to do water change. I keep 12 g of premixed water all the time in my office for situation like this. I just slow siphon the water our right at the mouth of the male and got most of the sperm out, replace water 1 g at a time while I do this. I squirt some of the sperm laden water to the female. The strange thing is that even as the male discharge the sperm, the female did not release any eggs. Most of the eggs in the tentacles seem to disappear down to the body of the anemone but none was released through the mouth. This morning when I see the eggs, I estimated that there must be 100+ eggs in the tentacles total, now I only see maybe 10. There was no egg released.
At 7 PM my light turns off. I did not wanted to change the usual condition of the tank, so I did not turn the tank light on but just use my office overhead light only. The male have finished releasing sperms about 45 min ago and the female have not release any eggs. After the 12 g water change, the tank is slightly cloudy only and the spawn even was over with no eggs released. I only see a few eggs in the tentacle of the female while when I first got back to the office and notice the spawn, most of the eggs was still in the tentacles. Now almost all are in the body of the female. The female column is raised about 1.5 inches above the sand. This is very unusual. I think she is taking water from the tank internally resulting in in crease volume of her column.

Is it possible that H. malu use internal fertilization and release fully formed babies? Anybody ever have H. crispa or H. malu released eggs? If internal fertilization for this species is the case, I am in luck. I will keep you guys and gals update. I will see if I can get the pictures out of my phone and post on this thread later. If anything developed from this even, I will repost in a new thread. IMO, it is highly likely that H. malu use internal fertilization as it is not very logical for the anemones release eggs and sperms too far apart. I am very excited regarding this even. I keep multiple anemones in the same tank, hoping that this would happen. I keep the anemones that I think is H. malu because I read about Anna Scott able to reproduce them in aquarium (her initial writing indicated that this is the species not H. crispa). I hope I can do the same. We will see over the next several weeks.

About my tank, it is a Finnex all glass tank (with a back chamber came with a skimmer which was removed) with 150 DE MH. It is skimmer less. I have a clip on fan that turn on with the MH and a Finnex digital heater in the back chamber set at 80 degree. My office temperature varies usually mid 70’s. It just got much cooler over the last few weeks and the day length is much shorter now than the last few months. The tank is right inside a wall to wall window with night light from the parking lot below (office is on 3 floor). Lost month I have start to run carbon to clear the water. The tank has 3 inches of fine sand, set up 3 years ago and has always at the same place. I got somebody change 10 g of the water the first week of every month for me. It is fishless at this time although I had an Onyx Percula pair in it until about 2 months ago. They are at www.gcreef.com at this time producing some very nice babies. If any of you guys and gals want nice Onyx, you may want to contact them. I have had pictures of these anemones and fish in the past here and there.

It was pointed out to me that in SeaScope Volum 6 Winter 1989, there was an article on reproduction of H. malu. In it Colin J. Lau report of H. malu reproduction at Waikiki Aquarium in Hawaii. Lau reported that this species does produce planula larvae from internal fertilization. I am not certain of the regarding the species. They described a smaller anemone than the pair that I have.
From my observation, I am certain that H. malu does not broadcast eggs, rather the eggs are fertilized internally inside the female. This is very good new for me. I do have lots of circulation in the tank with two Korellia 2’s in a 30 g tank. I will stop one and may change the other to a Korellia 1 for the next week or two.
Here are the pictures of the spawn and two post pictures after water change:

2009-10-23%2017.53.42.jpg


2009-10-23%2017.53.53.jpg


2009-10-23%2020.01.54.jpg


2009-10-23%2020.02.41.jpg
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Whoa, Minh! You got your anemones spawning?? WOW! You deserve a huge pat (more like a slap I think it's so exciting) for that.

May I suggest you also send this in to Bob Fenner at wetwebmedia? As many people as possible should know about this, IMVHO. How exciting! :D
 

jamesw

Advanced Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Wow Minh - that is so exciting! I always love to see people keeping pairs in their aquaria for this very reason. Congrats! I hope that you have some fertilization and the next photos we see are of little tiny anemones inside the female's tentacles.

Thanks for sharing - I'll also send a link to Frank so he can check it out.

Cheers
James
 

Minh Nguyen

Advanced Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
This AM the tank looks normal. The two anemones and other animals are all well. There are eggs or planula larvae inside the tentacles of the female anemone. I hope that there will be some baby anemones come out of this. I am thinking of someway to decrease the risk of having planula larvae chew by circulation pumps before it get to settle down on the rock. Maybe air stones or something like this for a few days next several weeks. I will just have to play by ear on this one. I got lots of Xenia and clams (6 small maxima) in this tank. Totally no circulation is out of the question.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I agree, but it's going to require more water changes, too.

:D
 

Minh Nguyen

Advanced Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I mixed 32 g of water yesterday, way more than I need to do any water change. I decided not to do any water change today but will see on Mnday. Iwill come by tomorrow just to check on the tank.
Anybody have an opinion on how and what I should feed the baby anemones with,if or when, I have some babies?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Congratulations Minh! :D

That really is an amazing achievement.
 

Minh Nguyen

Advanced Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thanks,
48 hrs after the spawn everything is fine. There are planula larvae inside the female anemone. The larvae are moving on their own power. They move a lot faster than when they were eggs. Basically Friday morning when I first see the eggs, they were just there, not moving very much. Now the larvae are moving much faster. I know that they are moving on there own because they mare moving right past each other in opposite direction. The sizes of the larvae are not uniform, some are two or three times the diameter of the others.
Just an update for those who are interested.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Cyclopese, phyto, and baby brine are a good start for food. Grinding up pellets into a fine powder would be okay too.
 

Minh Nguyen

Advanced Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Update 10/26/2009
This morning 60hrs after the spawn I was not able to observe any larvae. All the larvae in the female anemone were not there anymore this AM. Last night at 48 hrs they were all there. They must have been released at night between 48-60 hrs post spawn in my tank. I spend ½ hrs stare at the tank on the rock, sand and side glass to see if any settle but was not able to find any. Over the next several weeks, I am sure I would be able to find any that I missed.
At lease I was able to observe the timing of this event. Next time I will air stone the third night after the spawn so that the larvae will not get chew-up by the pumps. Now that I know I have an Anemone pair, I will make sure that they stay in condition and will see if I can get them to spawn consistently. If this even is related to day length, I am sure I will have another spawn next October. I will know better what to do then. This will be the last update, unless I find anything interesting.
 

Sponsor Reefs

We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.

Click here to sponsor $10:


Top