Attempting to breed clownfish - log

[FB]

Just a little update

B1 laid on 11/15 hatched 11/23
I have about 40-50 growing well most all have two stripes most have 3. Not to many mis-bars. They are eating mostly Oto A2.

B2 laid on 11/26 hatched 12/4-5
I have over 100 in this batch but they are not doing great for being 11 days old. Some have not even gone through met yet. This batch was not feed as well as the previous as my second rotifer culture did not take well. They are being fed BBS every 24 hours and Oto A1 2X-3X a day.

B3 laid on 12/7 hatched 12/16
I left the tile in the tank the night of the 15th and I don't believe any hatched. Moved B1 in with B2 and that opened up another tank for me. I emptied my 10 gallon rotifer culture and siphoned everything out of it. Put 30% of the gunk in the new larvae tank and 70% in a new rotifer cutlure, this time in a salt bucket. I also moved the sponge filter from the tank into the bucket. I added reed instant algae to the larvae tank, the rotifer bucket and my small rot culture. This morning almost all the algae in the larvae tank was gone. I had a MONSTER hatch last night 100% of the eggs. There were probably between 600-800 although I did not count. When I turned the lights on they were actively hunting rots. Not sure how this batch will do as I am going out of town for the holidays from the Dec 19th - Jan 1st so a tank sitter will be looking after them. She was able to keep a young hatch alive last time so she may be able to do it again. If not no big deal.

Still no spawns from any of my other pairs that I have seen!

Later

FB

 

[rEd86]

Congrats on the big hatch. That sucks that you'll be going out of town but it looks like you're in good hands.

What (if anything) do you do differently with a hatch of that size?

We look forward to the good news when you return from vacation with lots of pictures.

--Ed

 

[rkelman]

I'm glad things are going well FB. Have you considered not using BBS at all and going with just Otohime? I haven't hatched BBS in months without any drop in survival rates. I have very few misbars like maybe
2%. I hope your sitter does well for you. I'm sure she will. It sounds like you got a good one.

 

[Sullyman]

What size Otohime? I'm using golden pearls.
FB, good luck while your gone.

 

[FB]

Luck while I'm gone won't matter much. I got home tonight and almost all are gone. Not sure what happened. Ammonia is zero, water is not as green. I think it may have been the gunk that was in the rot cutlure. It was pretty old who knows what bacteria may have been in there.

FB

 

[FB]

Got my uncle to pick up 4 buckets of salt at the Big al's boxing day sale. Have not gotten any calls from my fish sitter so imagine everything is going well.

Will be back home on Thursday!

 

[FB]

Got home yesterday and things went pretty well while I was on Vacation

After adding B2 to B1 the B2 batch continued to have a rough go at it and did not take to the Oto A very well and most perished. On thursday night (18th) I transferred about 50 or so fish to the system and had no deaths during this time. They are currently eating Oto and NLS Grow.

Still no eggs from any of my other pairs.

My display tank was pretty dirty when I came home as I had stolen my skimmer for the fish system and my RO is acting like a *****. I was not expecting any eggs when I came home as they had been laying pretty consistently.

B1 laid on 11/15 hatched 11/23
B2 laid on 11/26 hatched 12/4-5
B3 laid on 12/7 probably 12/15-16

I was expecting the following
B4 to be laid on the 19th or 20th and hatching about the 28th or 29th.

I have to assume the batch on the tile is B4 as the eggs appaer to be 4 or 5 days old. Unless they laid on the 19th and they hatched on the 27th. But that would mean they would have to lay again on the 29th or 30th. Anyway I am going to call the current nest B4, no matter what they did.

Rotifers don't look good and I am going to pick up two more bags tomorrow. Hopefully I can get a good strong batch going in time for these to hatch. Once again here I am complaining about rotifers. If I can ever get a real grasp on them I could be dangerous.

Today I ordered a Octopus NW200 skimmer for my fish system so my reef can have it's ER RS135 back. Should be here on Tuesday.

Next thing to fix is my RO/DI.

Later

FB

 

[rkelman]

You name your batches? I never noticed that before. Do you mix them up later by size? I can't keep track of who hatched when. Cool new equipment if always fun. I'm glad everything went well while you were away.

 

[Sullyman]

You should name the hatches/batches to keep track.
I wish I had a local source for rotifers, I've got a percula hatch coming Monday and a GSM hatch that should be Tuesday night.
I've had great success with the perculas but no luck at all with the GSM's and I think it's the low rotifer count that's been the problem. 6,000,000 should be here Tuesday am, so we'll see if that makes a difference. My last 2 perc hatches have given me hundreds of babies, all on GP dry food now, guessing 500+ between the two. Brine Shrimp Direct sells freeze dried rotifers, the percs accept it by day 2 or 3, that's helped a lot.

 

[Sullyman]

You should name the hatches/batches to keep track.
I wish I had a local source for rotifers, I've got a percula hatch coming Monday and a GSM hatch that should be Tuesday night.
I've had great success with the perculas but no luck at all with the GSM's and I think it's the low rotifer count that's been the problem. 6,000,000 should be here Tuesday am, so we'll see if that makes a difference. My last 2 perc hatches have given me hundreds of babies, all on GP dry food now, guessing 500+ between the two. Brine Shrimp Direct sells freeze dried rotifers, the percs accept it by day 2 or 3, that's helped a lot.

 

[rkelman]

Why keep track though? They get all mixed up later anyways when I sort them by size. I guess I'm just not much of a record keeper. Freeze dried Rotifers. Hmm. I've never thought of that.

 

[FB]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14064550#post14064550 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rkelman
You name your batches? I never noticed that before. Do you mix them up later by size? I can't keep track of who hatched when. Cool new equipment if always fun. I'm glad everything went well while you were away.

I just started keeping track because hopefully I will have more than one pair breeding. But they are all mixed up already so it does not really matter much. However by the end of the year you will know how many hatches you had and how many survivors. Oh maybe I don't want to know that.

FB

 

[Sullyman]

FB, they'll start spawning and then 8 tanks won't be enough, lol.

 

[FB]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14065718#post14065718 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sullyman
FB, they'll start spawning and then 8 tanks won't be enough, lol.

Don't I know it!

 

[marcus.breaux]

Is it extremely hard to breed clownfish?

 

[FB]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14069989#post14069989 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by marcus.breaux
Is it extremely hard to breed clownfish?

I wouldn't say its difficult. It is time consuming and challenging.

FB

 

[FB]

I can't keep my temp up on either of my tanks. My breeding system is currently @ 76.8 and my reef was a 76.2. I guess I need more heaters.

My hyrdo bill was also pretty high this month. Oh Well.

FB

 

[rkelman]

I know the feeling FB. I already have 350w of heater in my growout and can't keep it up to 80. I have another 200w but its in use for my water change container at the moment. I need another one. My main tank is barley holding on with a 250w. If it wasn't for the halides and my Mag return I would need another heater for it. I'm using the Stealth heaters. I like that they aren't as fragile as glass heaters but I really don't think they are as efficient.

 

[FB]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14070606#post14070606 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FB
I can't keep my temp up on either of my tanks. My breeding system is currently @ 76.8 and my reef was a 76.2. I guess I need more heaters.

My hyrdo bill was also pretty high this month. Oh Well.

FB

I just realized that my fan in my hood was still on 24/7. I turned it off and my temp went up pretty quick to 81-82 with a 250w and a 300w heater. I am going to move the 300w back down to the clown system and see if that makes a difference.

FB

 

[rkelman]

I forgot to mention I don't keep a fan in my stand running in the winter so as to keep the heat in. We are paying for the heat all these pumps / lights give off so we might just as well use it