melev

Saturday and Sunday, I moved the livestock and rock from the temporary tank to the new ones. After mostly everything was cleaned up, the lights were out and I was quietly at my computer, I spotted the 60g aquarium looked cloudy from afar. Since the water was crystal clear, I was very surprised. With a flashlight, I quickly found that my anemones were spawning - releasing sperm into the water. This happens often enough, but what got me super excited was seeing eggs blasting around in the tank. The Rose anemone was releasing eggs simultaneously.

This is the second time I've ever witnessed this event. The last time was three years ago, when the brown BTAs were spawning in the 280g and the Rose BTA spawned eggs in the angled tank. Here's the Youtube video from May 15, 2010:



Once I realized what was going on, I quickly turned on the Radion light (gotta love how LEDs turn on instantly compared to metal halides) and grabbed my iPhone to get some pictures and video. Then I called Wes and showed him what was going on via Facetime.

Video 1: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...14877162912127

About 10-15 minutes later I shot one more video, which shows the corals in both tanks as well as what was going on with the protein skimmer.

Video 2: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...28238714701650

I watched the clownfish eat some of the eggs drifting near them. The mandarin seemed to wake up from his slumber only to move into the rockwork instead of getting a bellyful of food.

Since the drain from this tank runs by itself into the bubble tower in the sump, who knows if I might get lucky and perhaps see tiny anemones form on the pebble-rubble? I know it's a long shot, but all the eggs and sperm were draining into that area that has zero competition to consume it, and the 5" of pebbles would provide surface area for the eggs to stick. Maybe? Even if they did somehow settle out to begin life, how would they be fed with food small enough to provide their diet? I don't know, I never expected to see this again.

Pretty neat to be surprised after 15 years in this hobby.

I should add that my next blog will be my 500th blog on ReefAddicts, and it will be a nice update about the 400g and 60g that officially came online today. The 215g is no more, and has been sold. Quick teaser picture...