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

[BrianPlankis]

Our club has a local breeder that is doing Onyx and she has those fake anemones and they love it:

http://www.marshreef.com/modules.ph...pic&t=16592&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

Brian

 

[mwp]

Well, just an update - headstripes starting to show up on Batch III today...everything else seems to be going just fine.

Matt

 

[Kathy55g]

We need an update: how many and how old!
Thanks,
K

 

[mwp]

Well Kathy, here's part one of the update.

First, I took some pics of Batch I - 38 days old at the time of photographing - 4 remain. 3 look stunningly orange and one, the one I think we've been calling "runty" for the last few weeks, is well, runty! The two largest appear to be developing black coloration on their flanks and orange coloration has spread well into all their fins now, but as of this time no second bars.

Batch II - 26 days old, still only 2 remain...one that looks good and one that color wise is pale pink and still appears to have ICH (turns out my UV hadn't been working and it was a BALAST issue - I've been doing what I can to control the ICH with 50%+ water changes + Marine Max dosing + the addition of a Cleaner Shrimp to the tank).

Batch III - they are currently 11-12 days old (if I've done the math right), all have headstripes now. There are one or two swimming around that look like they have massive overbites (likely will be culled in the future if they don't die off on their own). I was planning on putting them under the microscope tonight. There's a good 10+, but they move around so fast right now that I can't get anywhere close to a good headcount.

Next Up - Batch IV - a picture of Mama and Little Man and their eggs, now 4 days since being spawned.

That's the news!

Matt

 

[mwp]

BTW, the macro algae in with Batch I was ID'd over on Nano-reef.com as Scinaia complanata. We've had to trim it back which it handled OK...I have many pieces of it sitting in a breeder net with Batch II at the moment...maybe frags of it soon?

FWIW,

Matt

 

[danfrith]

Im surprised that the cleaner shrimp and wrasse are aloud to get that close. Also, what kind of wrasse is that?

keep up the good work matt.

 

[mwp]

Danfirth, the wrasse is Halichoeres marginatus, the Dusky Wrasee, or a very close match to that. It was picked up at a LFS that has since closed, and is apparently from Africa. When smaller, it was almost jet black with horizontal yellow lines and the big navy blue ocelli. It's grown QUITE a bit - for a long time it resided in our 6 gallon, but was moved to make room for Batch I.

Matt

 

[mwp]

In preparation for the hatch of Batch IV, I'm being good about being semi-prepared for a change. Batch III is going to get moved to a breeder net by Friday. The BIG news though, I've tweaked my larval collector a bit. Upon closer examination, I realized that most of the larvae were going underneath the netting - that's how they were getting churned through the pump and killed. I simply had the screen held in place by a couple suction cups...I've since removed those from the configuration and run silicone sealant around all three sides...there's no way to bypass the screen except if the water level rises ABOVE the screen level. It my not be perfect, but it's what I cobbled together with stuff that, for the most part, I already had on hand!

I figured it's now "up to snuff" to share some pix with you guys!

Here's the rough materials list.

1 300 micron synthetic mesh filter bag - Seachem's "The Bag".
1 0.5 gallon Lee's Specimen Cup
1 $3 U tube from Drs. Foster & Smith (couldn't bring myself to pay $15 for one from the LFS)
The bottom frame from a "Breeder Net" (the Seachem bag is slipped over the frame
1 Clip-On mini light - actually part of a headlamp assembly for nighttime fly fishing
1 Minijet 404
Black Tubing for the minijet water return feed.

Now here's the really COOL part. IN THEORY, all I'd need is a surface skimmer on the other side and viola...simple mandarin egg collection device!!!!!!!!!

Thoughts?

Matt

 

[Kathy55g]

"Now here's the really COOL part. IN THEORY, all I'd need is a surface skimmer on the other side and viola...simple mandarin egg collection device!!!!!!!!!"

All you need is a hole in the side of that box( or a bigger box) and submerge/float on the surface of the tank. There is less damage to the larvae or eggs if they don't have to bang around inside all that U tube. They cross the threshold, and they are there. FWIW

 

[mwp]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8509345#post8509345 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kathy55g
All you need is a hole in the side of that box( or a bigger box) and submerge/float on the surface of the tank. There is less damage to the larvae or eggs if they don't have to bang around inside all that U tube. They cross the threshold, and they are there. FWIW

Kathy, you're a genius! Heck you could even just cut an overflow right into the side of the container.

Guess I'm building a 2nd one down the line

Matt

 

[Kathy55g]

:worried2:
At last, someone appreciates my greatness...

Too bad, I can't take credit for that one.

 

[mwp]

Just a quick update:

Batch I - they are now 41 days old, 3 with bright vibrant orange and one that still looks more like a Pink Skunk clown The big news, two have small light teardrop shaped patches on their back, roughly where the first dorsal fin ends and the 2nd dorsal fin starts. Without a doubt, 2nd stripes are slowly starting to form on 2 of our little guys.

Batch IV - the eggs started developing eyes yesterday. Today the female has started showing a greater interest in egg care again. I'm tentatively forecasting hatch for Saturday night.

Matt

 

[mwp]

Alrighty, here are the PIX to go with that update. BTW, Batch IV was laid last Friday afternoon, so these are basically 7 day old eggs.

Batch I - finally, 2nd stripes are just starting to develop..right now it just looks like a "tiny spot" on the fish!

Batch IV, 7 day old eggs, my chance at redemption

FWIW,

Matt

 

[mwp]

So based on that photograph above, what's visible in the pictures is approximately 408 eggs....theres a few more behind Little Man.

408 eggs! (each color shift represents 100 eggs, the last one, pink, being the 8 eggs).

Matt

 

[FishGuttz]

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[mwp]

LOL, you've been waiting to use that text effect forever, right?

Upon further review, there's a few eggs I missed to the right on the red coraline algae! So it's more like 412 in the picture!

Matt

 

[ediaz]

Feed those little ones whatever you are feeding brood stock or that might be as far as that second bar is going to develop.

You are slamming ORA for the Indigo Dotty, and now you raising red,blue,pink,green and yellow percs?

 

[mwp]

Ed, just for you, rolling out January '07.

The Congressional Clownfish

MP

 

[Kathy55g]

"Don't count your eggs until they are hatched"

Works with chickens, and now, fish.


K

 

[mwp]

Pretty darn difficult to count the clownfish AFTER they hatch

So another larval update, this time on the other batches.

Batch II - as of today, we only had one...the other little guy disappeared. I took our one remaining clown from batch II over to Old Orchard Aquarium (mark put it in their 12 gallon cube with a newly released bangaii for company). So, IF it makes the transfer, you can see one of our babies there. I'll do what I can to keep you guys up on the lone survivor of Batch II if and when I can.

Batch III - as of today, the headcount was 17, and is now 15. It was time to move them out of the 10 gallon rearing tank to make room for Batch IV. 6 kicked over from "shock", 4 popped back up. They are currently being very slowly acclimated over to the Seahorse tank water...the biggest "change" will be temperature, almost a 5 degree DROP. I'm "iffy" on whether they'll make it or not...that remains to be seen as they're currently "IN TRANSIT" between the tanks.

I'm going to scope the 2 SHOCKERS from Batch III just to see how they look...it appears that they may be deformed a bit. It remains to be seen whether this whole batch has deformities or not - it's just so hard to tell when they're swimming around and still small. I was partially considering a 100% cull today, but I've decided to reserve such drastic treatment until I can truly assertain the quality of each individual.

The other general news, my Otohime came today and the big boys (Batch I) love it. Hoping to see some of those increased grow-out times...currently the babies are getting the gamut of foods (so Ed can rest easy)...the mainstay for the last week has been cyclopeze, Ocean Nutrition frozen Cyclops, BBS and ground up pellets. All frozen foods were still being soaked in Selcon.

FWIW,

Matt