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

[mwp]

Thanks for the congrats guys!

The ones from our first batch are now how old? 26 days! The fins are starting to get orange color - in fact at least one of them has black tips on its pelvic fins already! They're kinda "turned off" to cyclopeze since the move...I hope over the next few days they'll redevelop the taste for it. My biggest question now is how soon will the 2nd (mid) stripe show up?!

Batch #3 - maybe 8-10 DOA in total for the first 18 hours...the rest look good. I'll get more this evening when the rest of their siblings hatch

Batch #2 - going to sift through them tonight and cull anything that's not up to snuff..getting the tank ready for something else so what remains will go into the breeder net!

Matt

 

[mwp]

Well, Batch #2 numbered at 11 before I started catching them - 3 died from the stress and were photographed under the scope. The remaining 8 seem to be doing fine, and will be moved to the breeder net shortly. Looking at them closely under the microscope, it seems my fear of poor development (i.e. skewed jaws, stubby upper jaws etc) may not actually be a concern. Heck, looking at them now they almost look big enough to be mixed with Batch #1 - I'd say that "Runty" in batch #1 is probably just as big as all the ones in batch #2...hmmm...

Matt

 

[EMBRYOGUY]

matt

your breeding log is almost "real time". most comprehensive log ive seen. thank you for letting us share your experience.

 

[BrianPlankis]

Matt,

I didn't see you start this thread, congrats on the babies doing so well and getting that second 10 gallon tank!

Brian

 

[mwp]

Thanks Brian!

OK, so here are the 3 15 day old perc babies that went into shock during their transfer to the breeder net today. I took some 60X images as well..should be interesting

10X, all three.

Head

First Dorsal

Second Dorsal

Caudal

Anal

Ventral/Pelvic

Pectora

Matt

 

[mwp]

Batch #3, part II, hatched out around 2:00 AM this morning - I collected maybe another 50-75 larvae and acclimated them over 15-20 minutes. We'll see how it goes - hardly what I had been HOPING for but still MANY larvae to work with - would like to have more than 8 at 15 days this next time around!

Matt

 

[mwp]

Batch #3, Part II has been botched - I guess I didn't acclimate well enough (AGAIN!) as there are MANY bodies on the bottom of the tank this morning...like everything I collected last night.

ASDF@!#$@#$!$#@#!$!!!

Matt

 

[Cuervo]

Sorry to hear about that Matt.

I am really enjoying your threads though, please keep going! I'm breeding vicariously through you!

 

[Kathy55g]

OT:
Brook is breaking out all over. Don't put any new fish in with your clowns. FYI.
K

 

[mwp]

The clown tank is for the time being done wth any new fish; in fact, all my tanks are pretty much where I want them. Besides, do to a recent purchase I'm pretty much broke

Still bummin' about my poor acclimation skills with last night's newborns...looks like it's going to be another small batch of percs. Sooo, at what age can you start to grow-out different batches of clowns together? Post Meta? 30 days? 60 days?

Matt

 

[Kathy55g]

Post meta when they can eat the same size food. Some say you cannot move the very young ones, as you have found out with the shock thing.

I have never acclimated my just hatched larvae. I make the larval tank match the broodstock tank in salinity and sometimes pH, (before the bleach and dechlorination steps), and then I just gently pour them in there. I haven't lost one this way.

 

[mwp]

Well Kathy, the kicker for me was that the larval tank was mostly water from the hatch tank, just taken out 24 hours prior with the Part I hatch Despite that, I did take some time to slowly introduce water until they were at roughly 25% tank water, 75% larval tank water, then simply dumped them in. I figured for sure this would work, yet the bottom was littered with bodies this morning. Could it maybe not be acclimation, but rather taking too long before hatching?

Matt

 

[Kathy55g]

It could be anything, I am afraid. Including BECAUSE you acclimated. They are so fragile at this point, it could be anything.

The good thing is that in 11 or so days, you get to try again!

 

[Baalz]

I use the water from my main tank for the hatching tank, 100%, the evening of the hatch. But I can see thats hard for you seeing the size of your broodstock tank. Regardless of me doing that, at times the hatch dies like yours did. Sometimes it just happens and it may be that its not related to your acclimation.

With the number of young your transferring try using just your broodstock water moved over the night of the hatch. Just fill the 10g to 5-7g at most. After they morph you can increase it to the full 10g, slowly over days.
Just treat hatch night like a water change night for your broodstock tank.
Hope this helps.

 

[mwp]

Baalz - in many respects that's what I planned on doing - what threw me off was the hatch spread out over 2 nights...what would you do if you had one larval tank and that happened? (FWIW, that's a genuine question too...I realize that *could* read a bit sarcastically)...

Matt

 

[mwp]

Just an update on the 3 batches.

Batch #1 - 29 days old - currently I can find 6 of the 7 juvies placed in the 6 gallon mushroom cube. They're taking Cyclopeze, but still prefer BBS enriched with Selcon. I think I see the makings of the 2nd bar on one of them, but nothing official yet, just a faint darker vertical line where the bar should be.

Batch #2 - 17 days old - the day after being moved into the breeder net, 3 of them disappeared. We are left with 5 apparently healhty little clowns. Looking at their orange coloration, vs. the coloration of Batch #1 (which is taking cyclopeze) there is a HUGE difference. These are still pale orange, whereas Batch #1 is bright.

Batch #3 - 3 days old - Last night I added in two gallons of clean water and started up the phyto drip again with Tet. and Nanno. This morning, 9 larvae were DOA. I've removed 2 gallons of water, seived an additional 2 for the rotifers and placed it back in, and am adding in another 1.5 gallons of clean water. I'd say we maybe have 40 larvae at best.

FWIW,

Matt

 

[mwp]

An update on batch III - lost another 14 today.

I sat down and put one under the scope - 91 hours post hatch, or possibly 115, as we had the hatch spanned out over 2 nights and I'm not sure which made it and which didn't. Judging by the fact that they're getting close to meta, I'm more inclined actually to say 115 hours old.

FWIW,

Matt

 

[mwp]

BTW, the headcount is 12. So basically, this batch wasn't mean to be "THE" batch. Guess I have some learning to do yet! Not really sure what precisely went wrong, but I can definitely refine my larval collecting techniques (aka. fix the larval collector or rebuild) and perhaps raising temps a degree or two on the broodstock tank will overcome the "2 night hatch"...that wasn't fun to deal with! On the upside, I haven't set back their timer for daylight savings time, so all the hatches should occur earlier in the evening now, hopefully.

Matt

 

[mwp]

Just another clown update - Batch II is down to 2 juvies. ICH in the tank...it was basically gone and then exploded again yesterday. GRR.

Batch I is doing fine, I'm getting anxious for 2nd stripe development. Batch III is doing OK I guess, no new deaths after adding in 3 gallons of clean water yesterday night.

Bit the bullet and ordered both Hoff's and Wilkerson's books...hopefully by Batch IV or V I'll nail it down and end up with more than just a handful of fry.

Matt

 

[mwp]

Just got a better headcount on Batch III - still 17 running around.

Matt