Any thoughts on the lack of sexual reproduction of anemones in aquaria?
- Thread starter Randy Holmes-Farley
- Start date
Minh, I don't have any pics, but I can take some tomorrow. Fortunately, I have a few red ones. I bought a red E. crucifer a couple of years ago, and now it appears to be one of the anemones that spawns. I have several sizes of the red. I also have several sizes of the regular green ones (green tentacles with brownish oral disk). Tomorrow afternoon I will try to take a few pics of them.
elegance coral
They call me EC
I am working on it. I have a known female haddoni, and I recently acquired another haddoni of unknown sex. Hopefully, it's a boy. I'm pretty sure I know how to get them to spawn. That's not the hard part. I believe, raising the offspring will be the hard part. One thing for sure. We'll never manage to do this if we don't try.
I have a gigantea, which I believe is female. I can see the light colored structures inside it, like the ones in your pic. I'm keeping my eyes open for another gigantea, but they're rare in my area.
I too have had crucifer reproduce in my system. It looked to me as though the female released tiny, well developed, larvae that settled quickly. What was strange in my case, is that all the offspring were the same color as the mother. (the only one I had of that color) This would typically indicate asexual reproduction, or self fertilization, but I witnessed this female almost turn herself inside out every time the males would spawn. Which appeared to be an attempt to expose her pharynx to male gametes???????
A little off topic, but I've also done a great deal of work on elegance coral reproduction. Some day I will succeed!
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OrionN
Moved on
somebody needs to break the sexual reproduction barrier in captive anemones!
Gary,
How sure do think these are eggs, or is it just a guess on your part?
Mine have the same. I wonder if this is something I should pay attention to when I try to get another Gigantea. Not that there are a lot of healthy Gigantea out there.
elegance coral
They call me EC
Just FYI, there's an article in this months CORAL magazine about the reproduction of E. crucifer. I haven't read it yet, but it looks good from the pic's. LOL
What do you do to get them to spawn?
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
Taking proper care of them is rather a given isn't it?
It had seemed he mentioned knowing something that would make the anemone spawn when he wanted too, hence me asking.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
actually
actually
anemones often spawn when they're NOT taken proper care of.
Stress induced spawns are fairly common.
"He" (reefgal?) didn't answer your question and since the question wasn't aimed at any one person I figured I'd post some kind of reply.
I hope reefgal will get back to us and tell us what she does to induce a spawn
actually
anemones often spawn when they're NOT taken proper care of.
Stress induced spawns are fairly common.
"He" (reefgal?) didn't answer your question and since the question wasn't aimed at any one person I figured I'd post some kind of reply.
I hope reefgal will get back to us and tell us what she does to induce a spawn
elegance coral
They call me EC
I believe the question was asked of me.
Stress induced spawns are fairly common in pretty much all animals. However, the odds of successful reproduction in these cases is very low. Even humans experience "stress induced spawns". Only we call it premature labor, or premature birth when referring to humans. It's often caused by drug abuse, trauma, or some other stress. Most of these offspring (babies) simply would not survive without modern medical care. If the gametes or offspring are not fully developed at the time of spawn/birth/release there simply will not be any reproduction. So, stress induced spawns are not a viable means of reproduction. If we're going to do this, we need to get these animals to spawn/reproduce when they are as healthy and stress free as possible.
To answer the question, IMHO, it requires lots of food, and as Gary put it, "Take proper care of them." If you view the video I posted above it becomes obvious that it required a great deal of resources to produce that many eggs. I fed that anemone large chunks of shrimp, fish, or crab legs every day for about six months prior to the spawn. I believe, it was this abundance of food, and a healthy environment, that gave the anemone the resources needed to produce the spawn. I don't believe the spawn had anything to do with stress.
When I said, "I'm pretty sure I know how to get them to spawn. That's not the hard part." I didn't mean I could cause them to spawn this Thursday a 5:15 PM. It takes time for these animals to produce the gametes needed to reproduce. All I can do is provide the animal with a healthy environment and plenty of good nutrition, but that's all that's really required any way. Mother nature will do the rest. I'm confident that if I feed my haddoni, the equivalent of a cocktail shrimp every day, she'll spawn repeatedly. If she's in a system with a mature and healthy male, I believe they'll both spawn at the same time. One triggering the other to spawn. So, like I said, that's not the hard part. The hard part will be trying to get the eggs/larvae to survive through settlement.
Stress induced spawns are fairly common in pretty much all animals. However, the odds of successful reproduction in these cases is very low. Even humans experience "stress induced spawns". Only we call it premature labor, or premature birth when referring to humans. It's often caused by drug abuse, trauma, or some other stress. Most of these offspring (babies) simply would not survive without modern medical care. If the gametes or offspring are not fully developed at the time of spawn/birth/release there simply will not be any reproduction. So, stress induced spawns are not a viable means of reproduction. If we're going to do this, we need to get these animals to spawn/reproduce when they are as healthy and stress free as possible.
To answer the question, IMHO, it requires lots of food, and as Gary put it, "Take proper care of them." If you view the video I posted above it becomes obvious that it required a great deal of resources to produce that many eggs. I fed that anemone large chunks of shrimp, fish, or crab legs every day for about six months prior to the spawn. I believe, it was this abundance of food, and a healthy environment, that gave the anemone the resources needed to produce the spawn. I don't believe the spawn had anything to do with stress.
When I said, "I'm pretty sure I know how to get them to spawn. That's not the hard part." I didn't mean I could cause them to spawn this Thursday a 5:15 PM. It takes time for these animals to produce the gametes needed to reproduce. All I can do is provide the animal with a healthy environment and plenty of good nutrition, but that's all that's really required any way. Mother nature will do the rest. I'm confident that if I feed my haddoni, the equivalent of a cocktail shrimp every day, she'll spawn repeatedly. If she's in a system with a mature and healthy male, I believe they'll both spawn at the same time. One triggering the other to spawn. So, like I said, that's not the hard part. The hard part will be trying to get the eggs/larvae to survive through settlement.
