Another Shot at Raising True Perculas

[saltyjo]

After many months of absolutely nothing, the pair of percula clowns that I have had since February of 2007 have laid a nice batch of eggs right under their anenome! I had 2 semi sucessfull batches earlier this year but ended up with one baby living for 4 months until I had a heater go bad and cook his tank. I have learned so much over the year and am excited about giving it another shot. In all the clutches my clowns have laid I have never seen them laying thier eggs but this time I managed to capture the egg laying on my Iphone!
Enjoy the video.

 

[saltyjo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=SdRYoQ6kUko&list=ULSdRYoQ6kUko

 

[edandsandy]

:celeb1::celeb1::celeb1::celeb1:
Congrats! Your clowns are beautiful....

 

[saltyjo]

Thanks so much Sandy I only hope I have the sucess you have had with your little guys. The eggs look great and the male is taking such good care of them. They have developed into a nice dark copper brown color so I know little clowns are growing inside the eggs!!!
~Jo

 

[ernieq]

:rollface::rollface::rollface:

 

[cmabrey75]

Super nice clowns, hope you get a good batch out of them.

 

[saltyjo]

Super nice clowns, hope you get a good batch out of them.

Thank you so much. I am anxiously awaiting hatch night tomorow night. My rotifers are culturing and I will prepare the fry tank today.

 

[saltyjo]

It's Hatch Night!

It's Hatch Night!

The male has been guarding the clutch as the eyes in the eggs twinkle with a silvery light. If you look closely right below him and a little to the right you can make out their eyes. They will hatch tonight. I can't wait!

<a href="http://s1162.beta.photobucket.com/user/SaltyJo/media/maleguardingtheclutch.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1162.photobucket.com/albums/q536/SaltyJo/maleguardingtheclutch.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"/></a>

 

[saltyjo]

Well no hatch last night at all. The eggs still looked good this morning, lots of silvery twinkle going on. I did notice however that the temperature was a bit low, 77. I usually keep my tank from 78-80 degrees, so I increased the heater 1 degree and am ready for another shot tonight!

 

[saltyjo]

The eggs hatched tonight however collecting in the new 150 deep presented some new challenges! I only managed to catch about 10-12 little guys It seemed like it took so much longer for them to come to the surface of the water. I use a little flash light and point it in a white cup and watch the little fry swim in. My first two attempts at this in the past in my 75 gallon were so much easier. I would collect 10-15 at a time. This time it seemed like 1 little fry at a time very tedious and ended up with far, far less than I hoped.
If anyone else can chime in or post pictures of their lavae snagger I would really really like to see them!!

 

[edandsandy]

10-12 is better than zero.... also it is a lot easier to keep 10-12 happy and healthy.

I don't know if you've hear about a guy name Chad Vossen, he makes a wonderful fry collector. All you do is set it and basically forget it! This is what I use and it make hatch night SOOOOO much easier..

Here's a link:
http://chadvossen.blogspot.com/2010/05/larval-fish-traps.html

It's the best money you'll spend on this hobby!

Good luck with your babies! I hope to see pictures soon


Just found another GREAT link...
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/fish-breeders-love-the-vossen-larval-fish-traps

 

[saltyjo]

10-12 is better than zero.... also it is a lot easier to keep 10-12 happy and healthy.

I don't know if you've hear about a guy name Chad Vossen, he makes a wonderful fry collector. All you do is set it and basically forget it! This is what I use and it make hatch night SOOOOO much easier..

Here's a link:
http://chadvossen.blogspot.com/2010/05/larval-fish-traps.html

It's the best money you'll spend on this hobby!

Good luck with your babies! I hope to see pictures soon


Just found another GREAT link...
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/fish-breeders-love-the-vossen-larval-fish-traps
Thank you so much! I really wanted one someone else is using sucessfully. I liked his facebook site and will send a message to get one this afternoon! On a better note, I counted 9-10 fry several times over in the fry tank and I think I have my rotifer count up.I did a few things different this time, like load the baby tank with rotifers, I strained 400ml of rotifers last night and added 400ml more this morning. I left the light on diffused with paper towels over night and tonight I will let them have night time. How many hours of dark did you give your babys on day 1-5?

 

[edandsandy]

We kept the lights on for the first 72 hours.
Are you tinting the fry water?
I "loaded" our juvi tank too with rotifers
They didn't have to swim far for food....

 

[edandsandy]

We kept the lights on for the first 72 hours.
Are you tinting the fry water?
I "loaded" our juvi tank too with rotifers
They didn't have to swim far for food....

 

[Tmoriarty]

I have been keeping my lights on a 24 hour light on cycle. I will be changing to a 16/8 cycle after the little guys go through meta.

Be careful with to many rotifers (because of the low count of fry) I have noticed my rotifers reproduce much faster than they are consumed, the issue with that is that to many rotifers in the water will reduce the oxygen levels which may be one of the causes to flared gills.

As for catching the fry I feel your pain. I tried the light in the cup in the 200g, but at 30 inches deep I didn't get much of anything. I left the light on top of the tank and was able to get a decent number in the beam, then started a siphon through a 1/4 inch flex line and siphoned the clowns into a container.

I am sure it caused some un-needed stress and maybe a few losses, but it was a much faster method with not to much stress.

I did contact Chad and will be ordering a trap from him soon. They are well made for sure.

 

[saltyjo]

I had lights out for 8 hours last night and all 9 suvived the night. I will have lights on for 16 hrs and lights out again. Sandy, yes I have the water tinted just a bit to keep the rotifers fed. I am afraid of feeding them too much.
Tyler I didnt think it would be so hard to catch them in a deeper tank but boy was I wrong. I could like you said get quite a few in the beam but getting them to swim up to the surface was not happening. I tried the turkey baster method but got discouraged when the little guys were much too fast. There was quite a bit of colorful words!! LOL
I ordered a trap from Chad yesterday and am hoping he gets it done soon. I am hoping my clowns lay another batch of eggs really soon.
Will keep updating.... and if I can get any decent pictures I will post them as well.

 

[ernieq]

I only do lights for the first 24 hours. Then they go on a 14/10 cycle. It is diffused with 3 sheets of paper and then I remove one sheet after day 4, one sheet at day 9 and the last sheet after meta.

 

[mwilliams62]

Following along here regarding that fry trap... Does anyone have a video of it in action? And when using it do you still need to turn off all pumps during hatch time??

 

[Tmoriarty]

Following along here regarding that fry trap... Does anyone have a video of it in action? And when using it do you still need to turn off all pumps during hatch time??

not to hijack, there is a video you can find through google (thats how I found it) you do still need to turn off all pumps and flow to the bottom or the fry will be blown around to much and not able to swim to the trap properly.

 

[Tmoriarty]

Tyler I didnt think it would be so hard to catch them in a deeper tank but boy was I wrong. I could like you said get quite a few in the beam but getting them to swim up to the surface was not happening.

My solution to that problem was the 1/4" line, started a siphon and just moved it to the fry, they got sucked in before they could swim away. For the fry in the deep portion of the tank I taped the siphon line to a 3/8 fiberglass rod (snow reflector rod) and used that as my extension to get down deep to the little low swimmers, however most of those fry were weak and did not make it past day 1/2.