Apogon leptacanthus - Breeding Log

[mwp]

10:30 this evening I added more rotifers. Around 4:00 PM I harvested 1L of SS and 12 basters of L-Strain and enriched with 2 drops selcon...the water was already clear and the rotifers were very active, so in the tank they went.

Just keeping my fingers crossed at this point.

Matt

 

[mwp]

Overnight the tank Bloomed Rotifers - it had almost competely cleared out. So, another 1L of mixed algae (T-Iso, Nano, Tetra) was added. I also added in 1 gallon of clean water. I have room for maybe one more algae + clean water addition before I have to start doing water changes!

With so many rotifers in the tank, it was hard to get any good idea of a cardinalfish headcount. It looked like there were significantly fewer, but there are NO bodies on the bottom to confirm that.

Matt

 

[Kathy55g]

Funny, they look like gobies to me....

 

[Kathy55g]

Really, good luck with these guys. this may be your big batch.

 

[mwp]

Kathy, I think you and Renee jinxed it!

Seriously, it looks like we had a big larval dieoff. At least 100, maybe 200 on the bottom. On the flipside, there's probably that many swimming around...maybe more.

It's roughly 45 hours post release, so approaching the end of day 2. I pulled out one living larvae to see what's going on and was surprised to find they are DEFINITELY feeding and it LOOKS like they're eating rotifers. It's gonna be 2 posts, take a look at all the pictures and if you want, there's a 30 second, 11.75 MB vid (.avi) as well.

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[mwp]

200X

Video - http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanoreef/AL_45_12.avi

I'd love any feedback you al l might have.

Matt

 

[BrianPlankis]

Matt,

You are starting to get dangerous with that microscope! Nice stomach shots. What would you say is the size difference between a newly hatched Apogon leptacanthus vs the mandarin larvae?

Brian

 

[jake levi]

Matt this is great news.

Sure looks like a nice full gut.

I also am curious as to the larvae size compared to others, mandarins, gobies, jawfish et als.

Those are real nice pics, one of these days, in your spare time, do a long piece on your equipment and its use, feel free to take up all the site space you need .

 

[mwp]

Well, the leptacanthus larvae "LOOK" small because they're "all head" with a long whippy tail. Here's some larval lengths as I've been able to determine using the QX5 Pictures

Apogon leptacanthus - 2.5 mm on release
Elactinus multifasciatus - approx 3mm, maybe more
Priolepis hipoliti - 1.75 mm
Synchiropus splendidus - 1.75 mm newly hatched
Synchiropus splendidus - 2 mm after 10-14 days

Around 11:30 AM today I added in .5 L Tetraselmis and .5 L T-Iso; all my nano cutlures are immature and not ready for harvestings now.

It looks like there was more larval die off, but still like there are MANY viable larvae swimming around.

FWIW,

Matt

 

[mwp]

Alrighty, around 4:30 I added in 0.5 L Tetraselmis and 0.5 L T-Iso again as I have to head out of town tonight and won't return until tomorrow afternoon - that'll have to hold 'em over.

The leptacanthus larvae ALSO now have to share their digs with 167 Mandarin larvae!

MP

 

[Kathy55g]

...Around 11:30 AM today I added in .5 L Tetraselmis and .5 L T-Iso; all my nano cutlures are immature and not ready for harvestings now.
...FWIW,

Matt [/B]

Why you should always have some nano paste frozen in cubes in the freezer.

 

[mwp]

I know, I know, I need some frozen algae around This evening, they had to do with another .75 L of Tetraselmis (the tank water was again clear). No new larval deaths that I noticed...there's still a bunch in there.

Here's some pics and a vid - these are 93 hours post-release.

http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanoreef/AL_93_8.avi

 

[mwp]

Alrighty, another round of pics. These were shot just before 12:00 AM on 9-19, 119 hour post release.

 

[mwp]

continued from prior post...

I want to say we're maybe down to 10 or 20 larvae, but with so many mandarins and rotifers in there it's really hard to tell.

Matt

 

[mwp]

I removed 3+ gallons of water this evening via two slow airline siphons, then into a 120 micron seive, followed by a 10 micron seive until ultimately into the bucket.

On the leptacanthus front, I managed to collect at least 3-4 larvae alive, + at least another 4-6 that were dead. I don't believe this is a function of siphoning off live larvae only to have them die on the seive as it quickly developed a little "puddle" in it where water collected before filtering through. I can't be 100% sure though. On the flipside, I only collected 3 or 4 mandarin larvae, all who made it through into the seive and still alive.

My motivation for doing this water change was the rotifer density...it was probably 25-30 rotifers per ML. I'm frustrated that it appears that I will now have to do daily water changes to keep the rotifer population under control while at the same time keeping them enriched and thus nutritious! What a PAIN IN THE REAR when dealing with larvae this small!

I'm going to add only 1 gallon of clean water tonight and perhaps some phyto...tomorrow I'll probably draw out another 3 and replace with more clean water. Basically, I'm hoping to simply bring the tank's general "running volume" at 5 gallons vs. 8-10...it seems like the only reasonable way to keep the rotifers and phyto needs in check at the moment.

Matt

 

[mwp]

Alrighty, so I did hit some of the "older" cultures (last full harvest 4 days ago) and added in 300 ML in total of Tet, Nan and T-Iso in equal portions, + 5 or so drops of Reed's Phytofeast Live. I'm sure this will likely get used up REALLY quickly, although looking through the tank from end-to-end it is not yet at the "crystal clear" state anyway (but pretty darn close)

Matt

 

[adamprice271]

I've never seen this species at the LFS, and they look great!! I wish you the best of luck; I've been following every thread you make and you blow me away with your dedication and mad skillz with breeding fish. Once again, best of luck and I will be following this thread for sure.

Adam

 

[mwp]

So 2 gallons came out, this time 5 Apogon leptacanthus larvae showed up in the seive, but none were dead. 1 gallon of clean water + 750 ML Nannochloropsis and 750 ML T-Iso are being slowly added back into the tank now.

Matt

 

[Luis A M]

Wow Matt!Your pics are awesome as always,no,they´re getting even better.I want to believe that your x5 was much improved over my old x3,or to accept I´m just lousy with it!:lol:
We can clearly see green things in the 93 hr larva´s gut that were not present in the 45 hr.These must be algae filled rotifers.
Then the 119 hr show a reddish compact ball close to the cloaca?

I wouldn´t add NAN paste here,just do without.
Or even,as a feeding test,feed just T-ISO and see if the larval gut content changes from green to dark.

Put a sieve in the larval tank and siphon from within,so larvae won´t be sucked.

25-30 rot/ml is not that bad,if NH3 is OK.But they will keep rising until your larval tank becomes a rot culture.Partial water changes won´t make a dent in their numbers.Reducing algal input is out of question.You have two ways to solve it.Massive changes,like open circulation,or use a rotifer collector.I made mine with a Tetra foam filter,replacing the foam with a 200 mic mesh and discharging the outlet into a rot sieve. Hope that helps.

 

[mwp]

Luis, I like the idea of a "rotifer collector" but the problem lies with the size of the fish larvae themselves. I'm glad to see that you understand my "conundrum"! My main issue is the larvae are already getting sucked into the siphon for water changing..any type of "filter" will no doubt trap many fish larvae as well!

I wish I had some sort of open system, but we have to crack it with a 10 gallon tank, buckets and siphons!

Matt