7 day challenge...

[landlord]

Ok - So I am going on vacation in 7 days and figured I would pose this question out to the masses. I collected about 40 latezonatus fry last evening between 9:30 to 10:30 EST and transferred them to the larval tank. The larval tank is setup up with rotifers in greenwater. As of this morning for the first time I have not had any losses, yet....

The challenge is to figure out a way to get these fry weined onto Otohime A by next Thursday. My flight leaves at 7:30 PM so I'll be heading to the airport at 5:30 PM, so that's the cut-off

I have read on another board of a breeded who gets fry readily taking Oto A by Day 4, That would essentially be my goal. Any thoughts on how I can hyper-enrich some rotifers or perhaps do a short regimen of selcon soaked NHBBS (maybe 3 days worth) starting Sunday.

Feel free to chime in, don't be shy If you've done it that would of course be a huge plus.

Looking for any ideas, techniques, etc to get these fellas weined in a hurry. My fishsitter is truly a gift from on high but I wouldn't want to try and explain enriching rotifers or NHBBS to her. She would rather think about her boyfriend or her basset hound.

Thanks Everyone for reading and I look forward to any ideas.

Have a Great Week-End!

Kurt

 

[nauticac4]

Could you powder some Oto and add it to a small culture of rots(maybe a bit of selecon as well)? Get them used to the Oto taste and maybe they will take it early? I have seen a similar idea work when weaning off of live foods for aggressive fish, might work for the little ones as well. Best of luck!!

 

[landlord]

Definitely gonna give it a try.

Been browsing MOFIB all morning and I am truly amazed at the sheer number of folks using Oto A at such early days of the larval development. Some even use as a rotifer replacement. I guess I haven't exercised enough patience with it when I have tried. I am trying to kick the BBS crutch as much as possible, but I hate to see when my fry do not appear to be eating, as is what I have experienced with Oto prior to Day 10.

Kurt

 

[birddog486]

I've had surprisingly good luck getting my ocellaris on the otto A at day 3-4 with the rots still in the water. I just stop feeding the rots green water and the fry give up on them as the number of rots decline. from day 5 on all they get is Otto.

 

[ctenophors rule]

I've had surprisingly good luck getting my ocellaris on the otto A at day 3-4 with the rots still in the water. I just stop feeding the rots green water and the fry give up on them as the number of rots decline. from day 5 on all they get is Otto.

just wondering how economical is otto a?

 

[phil519]

just wondering how economical is otto a?

unless you are a full scale breeder - the "sample" pack is more than enough to handle a lot of fry. Mine is probably still 90% full after two batches. After A they rapidly graduate to B1, B2 etc.

Landlord - my last batch I skipped bbs and tried all oto A and it worked fine. The only downside in my opinion is that the coloration of the fry becomes quite pale. at least in my exp. However once I intro some cyclopeeze the fry darken quickly.

My main issue with Otto though is that because it floats, the smarter fish tend to gather at the surface and in their haste to eat, tend to ingest gas into their bellies, causing some to float.

 

[dalilgriffith]

What is Oto A? And where can i learn more about it. Joyce never mentioned it.

 

[landlord]

Thanks for the tips, and experience. I have been still doing greenwater with a small pinch of Otohime A (dalilgriffith - It's a larval food from Japan??? Reed Mariculture has some info on there site I believe Joyce doesn't mention it becuase it was probably after her time of publication).

I actually have about 15-20 fry after the 24 hours mark so I am quite pleased to say the least. As the latz get a few more clutches under their belts the eggs seem to be getting better in quality. I did raise my larval light up about 1.5 feet so the tank isn't as bright.

Still I just siphoned about 10-12 from the bottom of the tank. Again I think the eggs quality is suspect and it appears to be getting better.

In any case I hope the remainder will start taking the Oto A becuase I got 5 days left after today

Thanks guys I keep this updated

Kurt

 

[landlord]

BTW - Speaking to the economics of Otohime. I have been using the same starter pack since I began breeding about 15 months ago. Best money I've ever spent. I did run out of C1 and C2 so I have been grinding down the EP1 and EP2 grade and it seems to be just fine. It has helped me raise several hundred clowns across 3 - Hopefully 4 species

Kurt

 

[landlord]

I've had surprisingly good luck getting my ocellaris on the otto A at day 3-4 with the rots still in the water. I just stop feeding the rots green water and the fry give up on them as the number of rots decline. from day 5 on all they get is Otto.

So how many fry, if any do not make it during this weining period?

Kurt

 

[phil519]

So how many fry, if any do not make it during this weining period?

Kurt

i can't answer that question (i know it wasn't directed to me) but i can tell you that when i fed bbs heavily some fish would overfeed and I'd find them belly up the next day. no matter how much oto my fry eat (no matter if their bellies float them to the top upside down) they do not die.

Also they are far less excitable than with bbs.

btw i wish i had the same luck as you do with fish sitters. Once mine forgot to feed the QT tank...i'll never buy new fish again before i go on vacation.

 

[birddog486]

So how many fry, if any do not make it during this weining period?

Kurt

Some batches are better than others and I'm by no means a seasoned breeder, but I've got 8 sucessfull batches of fry past meta in the last couple months using the otto A.

I've got a clutch of Onyx and Ocellaris that will hatch tonight and the BBS is too much of a chore. My Ocellaris lays down 600-800 eggs every 10 days and I had trouble keeping the rots and BBS up so I switched to otto A and havn't looked back.

If I had to guess I would say from the 6-800 eggs that are laid, 3-400 make it to hatch day. From those I loose 10-20% the first day and another 20-30% over the next week and a half until meta.

I've had better results with my onyx but I don't want to throw out #'s and jynx myself just yet.

 

[landlord]

:lol: I don't want to jinx you either!

Thanks for the info.

On another note I have approximately 20 - 25 fry left. Only lost one in the last 24 hours. I have been allowing them to eat greenwater'ed rotifers at their leisure and have been putting in a tee tiny sprinkling of Otohime A 3 times daily. I haven't seen them surfing the top of the water for it but maybe they are getting the pieces that eventually settle.

Not counting today I have 4 days left....

Tonight or tomorrow I will be doing a 25 percent water change to prevent ammonia build-up.

Kurt

 

[landlord]

I think that there are around 15 left as of last night 11:00 PM EST. 3 more days not counting today hopefully those left are eating well. I looked at 2 or 3 under a magnifying loop and I do see shiny silver bellies, which is fantastic. Now maybe tonight I'll see some bellies full of Otohime

 

[Zooid]

Kurt,
I wean my larvae onto Otohime by adding the Otohime about a half hour before I add more rotifers and before I green up the water each morning and afternoon. This gives the early weaners to start feeding on the Otohime. Once the early weaners start feeding on the Otohime, the other larvae will learn from them very quickly. Normally within a few days of feeding Otohime, most larvae will be eating it. I start feeding Otohime on day four. Some larvae start feeding on the Otohime at day five and most of the other larvae will start hitting the Otohime on day 6. All these numbers apply to my onyx/picasso percs.
Good luck
Gale

 

[landlord]

Gale - I like that. Currently I am kinda stuck because I initially deposited a LARGE volumn of rotifers into the larval tank which are simply sustained on greenwater. I do not have to add them each day. Therefore the fry are basically front row and an all you can eat rotifer buffet.

Maybe it's not too late for me to siphon out the majority of them, being that I am going onto Day 4 today and try and incorporate your protocol.

Thank you very very much for the idea.

Kurt

 

[landlord]

Counted 12 fry last night before bed.

Those remaining seem to have grown at least 2 millimeters in length since hatching. My eyes were absolutely burning from staring at the water for so long. This must be how heron's feel during the hunt, except they do not wear glasses.

:lol:

The little guys still show a lackluster interest in Oto A but maybe they are taking it, we'll see. I guess the only way to know is to siphon the rotifers, which I cannot yet bring myself to do....

2 Days to go

I may simply just get my babysitter to keep the greenwater going along with the Oto A supplemental feedings see where that takes me --> Ammoniasville

Kurt

 

[Zooid]

If I missed it, I'm sorry, but do you keep them in a 10 gallon tank?
I actually hatched out my last batch in a 10 gallon tank with two sponge filters just to keep the ammonia down. I was losing all my larvae at day 5 so I figured that I couldn't do any worse so I went with the sponge filters for a trial. The larvae have absolutely no problem with the filters and at day 7 I still have hundreds of larvae left.
You might just throw a seeded sponge filter in with them now. That way you wouldn't have to worry as much.

 

[landlord]

I am keeping them in a 5 gallon (3/4 full) right now so I could maintain a good rotifer density. How are you keeping the rotifers out of the sponge filter??? Or is it not an issue. I figured they would get sucked within.

I have several seeded filters ready to go in any case.

Thanks Gale

Kurt

 

[Zooid]

Kurt, I don't really worry about the filter sucking in the rotifers. As a matter of fact, I kind of like how it decreases the density because I was having to add more and more RotiGrow Plus or RotiGreen in order to feed the extremely prolific rotifers because my larvae couldn't eat them faster than they reproduce which was bumping up my ammonia every second. Using the sponge filters forced me to add rotifers twice a day. The decreasing density of rotifers may be the cause of my larvae starting on Otohime quicker. That's just an anecdotal guess though.

Gale