Auto feeding

Dman,
In one of my earlier threads, you said that you thought Otohime made your fish jumpy.
Do you not find that to still be true?
 
Definately, but i didn't really become a problem until they were big enough to jump outta the tanks. When they are smaller, eating up to C1 to C2 they ate feeding frenzy style, which the jumpiness probably helped.
Dman
 
LOL Luis, es bueno tener traductoras en todos los idiomas;-)

Yes, I did kind of a test, the tank was divided in half with a screen mesh several layers to get a screen size small enough to keep the larvae from swiming thru, they shared the water, rots artemia, ammonia etc. About half the batch in each side, they were fed through a pipe to avoid food going to the other side. One side is being feed Ziegler and the other Otohime , still are. I am on my second batch using this tank.

As for eliminating artemia from the diet, I think it should be fed for at least a few days, in small quantities but still used, I had a problem once with a batch and talking to Martin he suggested to limit the artemia because brineshrimp napulii will create a lot of fat and oil in the late and post larvae that accumulates in the gut
mesentaries and liver. Instead of reducing it I did not offered any artemia to the next batch, got a lot of deformities and underdevelopment form that batch. I think larvae should be weaned into dry food early but artemia should not be eliminated from the diet. Keep in mind it was only one batch.

Ed
 
Ed, did you notice jumpiness?

So do you feed NHBS and Otohime together until you are pretty sure they are taking dry food and then quit the NHBS, or how do you decide when to quit the NHBS?
 
Silent revolution

Silent revolution

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6718060#post6718060 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kathy55g
I don't mind doing rotifers, but i hate BBS. this is very good news.
Well,I donÃ"šÃ‚´t hate Artemia,but I suspect that we can track some of our larval/juvs rearing problems to the use of too much or poorly enriched bs.
Those that have read my old report of YT damsel rearing in Reef UK know that I could only make it when I skipped bs whatsoever.
So now some people is purposely raising clowns without bs?This is kinda revolution in "standard"rearing protocols.Who started and since when?.ItÃ"šÃ‚´s amazing nobody posted about it here before.This "bs less"method is inherent to the use of Otohime or could any other good feed work as well?.
Would be great to have developers/users of this method comment it.:thumbsup:
 
Well Luis, I'm far from a developer of any method, but I did use Ed's 2-3 days of artemia method on my last hatch, and I was using powdered Formula 1 and Formula 2 (75% - 25% respectively)

I messed up and put a hang on filter on the tank too early, with too high a flow rate (yep, I'm new to this) and killed probably 75% of the fry. I have 24 left, and they are as big as the earlier set that is 1 month older. These older fry were fed BBS for almost 2 weeks before switching to dry foods (F1 and F2 aslo).

Looking at them side by side, I tend to think the set that got less BBS are developing faster. Oddly enough, though it's probably unrelated, the set with very little BBS are a lot less aggressive towards each other. I've had several sibling rivalry casualties from the first set, and none from this one.

Keep in mind, these are my 3rd and 5th hatches, so take all of this data as it is, inexperienced at best! Unlike Ed's experiemnt, mine were in different water, with different densities of fry in each tank. Both tanks recieved the same number of cleanings, feedings, and water changes, and were at the same temp. The higher stocked fry are the faster developing ones. I only have 5 left from the heavy BBS fed batch. If not for my mistake, I would probably have 100 fry from the batch that only got 3 days of artemia.
 
That is a good topic for discussion Luis,

In my opinion artemia is here to stay but a technique that does not require artemia does not sounds bad, I was talking to somebody who practically told me not to use it. I beleive for a couple of days, transition days, is still necesary, also I suspect that the people skipping the artemia fed rotifers for a longer period.

Even when Mark Cosme in '98 got away with raising clownfishes with dry foods since day one, artemia was mandatory to bring the larvae up through meatamorphosis.

The artemia feeding technique is still widely used by hatcheries who will benefit form dry feeds.

For non clownfish species it may be detrimental as suggested by Moe, but I also witnessed 100s of thousands of dottybacks heavely fed artemia with not problem in survival and or development.

Maybe we should discuss it at IMAC if you come this year, we will be there.

Ed
 
Seeing as this thread has careened way off topic, anyone interested in starting a new thread regarding Otohime and NHBS/artemia?
Perhaps Frank can split the thread up somehow?
I too am doing everything in my power to be in Chicago for IMAC
Dman
 
I have been using Otohime for a while now also. The fish love it. I love the bottles that reeds sell's this stuff in too. The flip top makes it very easy to controll how much you are adding to the tank, and clean and fast to use.

I think you are correct that the "jumpyness" is more of a training of the fish to go into a feeding frenzy. If you are like me I often feed them from the same spot, and when they see the container they get really worked up, and start fighting to get to the surface of the water. Often time jumping out if the lid does not get closed right after adding food.
 
My order of Otohime came in and my fish seem to like it, although there is not the feeding frenzy just yet.

I am a little disappointed at the automatic feeders. The ones that are battery operated rotate, but dump too much food at once. I don't think I can use them....
 
They didn't ship mine until yesterday. I'm a little miffed, especially after I was told ti would ship Monday. It's hard to believe you got yours first!
 
I think they are understaffed. I asked for the sampler, but did not get it. I did place two orders though. first B1 and B2 and C1, and then I later ordered A. They all came in one box along with the chloramX that was on sale. That was better that they came in one box with one shipping charge, than getting the sampler.

It is hard, since you are in CA, to believe that I got mine first.
 
That IS strange, mine shows to have arrived here in town, and will be "out for delivery" in the morning. I ordered mine Saturday and it shipped Monday...I wonder what happened to Nicole's order.

I got wind that our year end bonuses will be here next week :D God only knows what I will blow mine on, but I can't wait. Randy will probably get some of it, and of course my seahorses will get ordered also.
 
These things happen, and it wasn't as if I was in a huge rush. I just wish these things didn't always happen with my Reed orders. They are always nice and apologetic when I say something, but I don't want nice, I want my order when I expect it, especially when they TELL me when to expect it!

It's not that I dislike the company -- but at this point I would never give them an urgent order.
 
I increased the difficulty level as I have a Belgium Credi Card but it will be shipped to a US friend. Received information that part is in backorder, so so far all looks perfekt.
 
Last edited:
I got my Otohime today. The clowns loved it! B2 is perfect for 5-6 week old clowns. My only complaint was it sunk really fast and a LOT ended up on the bottom. I usually have a couple of reluctant bottom feeders, but when I came back 10 minutes later there was NONE left on the bottom.

I got way to omuch out of the bottle, so I fed it to my adults, too. They were equally as enthusiastic. Of course, it did not sink in the reef tank and floated long enough to go down the overflow. :rolleye1:

Lad the goby got B1 mixed with CE -- I didn't see which one he ate.
 
My 5 week clowns seem to prefer B1. My 5 month clowns like the B2. I should try the C1 on them again. That was the first one I tried, and they just looked at it. But they had always gotten flake before, so maybe they just thought it was strange.

How do you know how much A to feed the really young ones? I am not sure my 2 week clowns are eating it, although, today it is the only food they got, and they appear to have reasonably full bellies.

Does anyone use the floating feeding rings to feed this stuff? I am finding that it helps to keep it out of the overflow. Gives the fish a chance to eat it.

I, too, found that the food sinks pretty fast. At the end of the day I have a pile to siphon up.
 
Got mine yesterday, tried B1 on my 5 week olds, they ran from it :) Tried some A just to see, and they ate it like crazy. This morning, i put a little A in there to get them feeding, and added B1 and they ate most of it. Mine aren't bottom feeding yet, but I can hope. The 2 month olds ate the B1 right off the bat.

After watching how fast it disperses through the tank, I am planning on trying a feeding ring. I lost some to the overflow, but mostly just due to sinking. Mine all eat in one area, so 3/4 of the food sank in other parts of the tank. Thank goodness my flow rounds it up into a nice small circle after a few minutes. I did see a few of them sniffing around the food on the bottom, hopefully they will figure out bottom feeding.

Had another hatch last night, I think they will get BBS for 2 days at day 6-7 (mixed with Otahime A), and then just A until they are ready for B1. We'll see how it goes, what are you guys planning for your new fry?
 
Back
Top