Amphiprion percula "Onxy" (Onyx Percula Clown) Breeding Log!

I gotta say before I go to bed, it's great to see a TON of new faces browsing the fish breeding forum since this thread went "TOTM" earlier today! I hope you guys and gals stick around, take a browse, consider captive reared fish as your FIRST CHOICE, demand your LFS's carry them, and heck, and consider giving captive breeding and rearing of fish a shot yourselves...it's simply "different" than fragging (and more rewarding IMHO!)!

So many folks have interesting things going on here...everything from sharks and wolf eels to gobies, clowns, mandarins, jawfish, dottybacks, plus phytoplankton and zooplankton cultures (which happen to be beneficial for reefs even if you don't breed fish!!!) Reef Central's FBF ( http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=86 ) seems to be the best resource for marine fish breeding on the net today!!!

Enjoy!

Matt
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8909690#post8909690 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mwp
I gotta say before I go to bed, it's great to see a TON of new faces browsing the fish breeding forum since this thread went "TOTM" earlier today! I hope you guys and gals stick around, take a browse, consider captive reared fish as your FIRST CHOICE, demand your LFS's carry them, and heck, and consider giving captive breeding and rearing of fish a shot yourselves...it's simply "different" than fragging (and more rewarding IMHO!)!

So many folks have interesting things going on here...everything from sharks and wolf eels to gobies, clowns, mandarins, jawfish, dottybacks, plus phytoplankton and zooplankton cultures (which happen to be beneficial for reefs even if you don't breed fish!!!) Reef Central's FBF ( http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=86 ) seems to be the best resource for marine fish breeding on the net today!!!

Enjoy!

Matt
Click to expand...

I am one of these people, I clicked the TOTM link and couldn't stop reading until i finished. You have done a really good job of giving someone (like me) who has no idea of what really goes into raising fish a much better picture of what it takes. Hopefully when my c.b. ocellaris get a bit older I can give this a shot. I might out some of the books mentioned as well, can't hurt to be prepared.

Lastly, I'd just like to thank you for providing such a detailed log of your experiences both good and bad!
 
Kathy, bucknellreefer, thanks again for all the kind words.

So I got back out of bed still wide awake and realized I had neglected my rotifers (David M, I'm heading your persistent advice ;) ) - while I was at it I harvested 1L of Nannochloropsis and maybe 100 ML of Tetraselmis and added both directly to the larval tank...come morning (6-7 hours before the timer kicks on) those rots will be full of food and it'll be a baby clownfish smorgasborg. BTW, I am again using the "top" larval tank which is FULLY shrouded in black plastic garbage bags, and illuminated with a standard 20" strip light (18" bulb). Between initial broodstock water + what I collected in the snagger + the phyto culture additions, we're probably starting off with a running volume of 3.5 gallons in the 10 gallon tank. The phyto addition will hopefully last until Sunday morning for the next harvest...

Ok, goodnight for real ;)

Matt
 
good job matt im one step closer i just setup my 30 cube in a medium traffic area so i can monitor my clowns and also i can isolae the room so its pitch black should ineed and i have a canister filter for filtration i was using on my 300 and i added an airstone for added O2.

I put a fake anemone in there for them because im not moving the one they are actually hosting now ill let my true percs have it.

so far nitrite is 0
ph is 7.4
temp is 75 degrees but im working on raising that
NH4 is high about 4-5ppm
Nitrate is at 0

looks like we have a cycle going.
ill check again tomorrow and see where my params are and move from there.



**** EDIT ****
What are you keeping your PH and salinity at? as there will be no inverts or anything other than the clowns in this tank should i keep my salinity lower than what they are in now ? or leave it.

i know once the larvae come i will have their grow out at like 1.018 or so so i was thinking of keeping broodstock at like 1.021

any ideas ( kathy / matt / david )
 
Congrats of TOTM Matt!! :) Was wondering if you change your SG as well after hatch. I know you mentioned letting the phyto lower it over time, you still using that procedure. My hatch could have been better. I really need to stick around for them, but I had to leave last night with a prior commitment. I like the idea of adding the phyto and rots at night with lights out to allow full phyto saturation by lights on. I'll do that next hatch, was actually thinking along the same lines as you due to the fact that I had an awesome hatch, with the new air stone technique, but had big losses by morning. Best of luck with this batch Matt and cool progress of egg development. Carl
 
Keef, Carl, regarding water quality, the broodstock tank is kept at 8.1 if possible, and SG 1.025 or so, because it's a reef. That means my larve are starting out there as well. My phyto is run only slightly lower, maybe 1.020, but with evaporation I bet the salinity stays pretty close to the parental tank. Also, when I mix up new water, I'm mixing it up at 1.023-1.025 or so, so when water changes occur on babies they're staying around that level. I'm not dropping salinity down as suggested by most everyone here and to be frank, it doesn't seem that I've had any problems by "not dropping"

Batch VIII! 12 hours old - the rotifer population simply EXPLODED overnight...looks like it reached critical mass just in time. A quick check of the bottom revealed 10 bodies...I'm guessing there could be more as I can't see them. They're simply scattered about and I suspect they are primarily from the siphoned stragglers who got poured into the empty tank. There are still may babies up and about, feeding in the water column. The rots have already done a good job of clearing up the phyto...I can see from front to back but not end to end...no one's starving here, but I may have to dilute my rotifer population later today (maybe I'll do a selcon enrichment as well).

That's the news.

Matt
 
1-06-07 - Batch VIII seems to be doing well. Around 5:00 PM I had to put 1L of Tetraselmis and 1L of T-Iso into the tank...I'm pretty sure I'll have to thin the rotifer population out tonight as the tank was pretty much 100% cleared out! I haven't found any additional bodies, so I think we were limited to 10 or less. 1 gallon of 24 hour hold new saltwater was also dripped in to help dilute the rotifer population for now. The ammonia alert badge remains at the "safe" level.

FWIW,

Matt
 
1-7-06 - how about some updates on Batch I (99 days old) and Batch III (72 days old) living happily in a 6 gallon nanocube?! Renee found "ghost-striper", my nickname for the Batch III juvie that I thought had died...he was running around in the filter chambers!

Also, notice the white mouths on Stripey and Spotty (batch I) have disappeared and their mouths look fine...either I DID have some mouth fungus running around, or the areas have otherwise healed. While there is still "aggression", since combining Batch I and Batch III it has been DRASTICALLY reduced...not nearly as much ruff and tumble between the two largest clowns as there was before the merge.

Batch I is in the middle, Batch III at the bottom and top...
DSCN7834.jpg


Spotty, Batch I, right side
DSCN7836.jpg


Stripey, Batch I, right side
DSCN7838.jpg


Stripey, Batch I, left side
DSCN7839.jpg


Runty Jr., Batch III, right side
DSCN7841.jpg


Spotty, Batch I, right side
DSCN7843.jpg


Runty, Batch I, left side
DSCN7845.jpg


Longstripe, Batch III, right side
DSCN7846.jpg


Longstripe, Batch III, right side
DSCN7850.jpg


Stripey, Batch I, at top, right side, Spotty, Batch I, bottom, left side
DSCN7853.jpg


FWIW,

Matt
 
Last edited:
Checked the Params of my broodstock tank again last night

Nitrate - 0
Nitrite - 0
Ammonia - ~.3
SG - 1.023-1.024
PH - 7.9 or so
Temp - 82-84

Im thinking i should do a 5 gal WC on the tank and see where the Ammo goes but im not all that sure at the same time my filter was running on the 300 and i put a few small pieces of live rock in the tank also but im thinking i may give it a few more days and then check again.

Any suggestions? and everything looks good matt hopefully ill be there in a few months.
 
Water change immediately and all the live rock you can use. Ammonia should be 0 by the time you put broodstock in there. JMHO
 
the only thing im concerned about is if the clowns dont use the Tile i put in there and use the live rock. but at the same point since there is only a canister filter should they lay on the rock and not the tile i can snag them out easily just turn off the filter and just leave the airstone running.
 
Keef, I'm all for your dosing with a product called "Stability". How did the pH get low?

Embroyguy - tanks! The one I didn't get a good picture of is "Ghoststriper" who has the black OUTLINE of his 2nd bar on one side, but no white filler yet!

Matt
 
matt, whats difficult it seems to many onyx breeders is to get good black dev. at an early age. there are many onyx breeders out there and i only know of one that gets good black early. think about it. for a commeicalized breeder to make alot of onyx would be very beneficial to them. but how many are out there? very few.

your babies seem to be on a good path towards the exception.
 
I'm really thinking that LIGHTING plays a role - we've seen it said before somewhere that the more intense the lighting, the better black color development.

I.e. - my "Halfblack" Ocellaris - they were living in dimly lit conditions at RPI for what, maybe a year? They were black ocellaris offspring yet had only colored up black on the back half of their bodies at best? I bring them home, put them in a 24 gallon tank with 150 watts of Metal Halide lighting over them and in a month's time they've almost become regular "Black" Ocellaris? http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=982251

I'm definitely not dismissing the role that diet can play, but look at Batch III vs. Batch I at roughly the same age...Batch III spent a lot of time getting the same basic diet, but lived in a breeder net, shaded from much of the light. They're pastey orange compared to Batch I.

My working theory is "give your clowns a suntan"!

Matt
 
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