Babies! Babies! Babies!

[Nagel]

Ok, on my third batch of Black Ocellaris, and I'm doing much better. I still have 12 of the first batch (5 weeks old), completely didn't catch a single fry from the second batch, and caught a good 160+ of the third batch. Mom and Pop (Doublestuffed and Oreo) seem to lay a new clutch 6-7 days after the last one hatches, so I'm loving it right now.. Took them long enough!

Anyway, I have a good 150 or so ten day olds that have made it past meta! WHOO HOOO!!!! I did some things different with this clutch, and it looks like its working for me. First, I fed twice as much. Next, I ditched the airstones, and I am now using rigid airline, with a flow rate of about 3-5 bubbles per second (well, there's two rigid airlines, one on each end of the tank). I just started them on BBS last night, and it looks like many pink bellies!

Here's a pic of one of the small schools (theres a dozen little schools in the tank)...

I'm finally doing something right...

 

[David M]

I have a good 150 or so ten day olds that have made it past meta!

Ok, I'll bite... What the HECK are you fortifying the rots with???? TEN days ???? My oc's, tomato's and gsm's take more like 15-20

 

[Kathy55g]

Mine start getting a headband on day 9, and don't get the middle band until a week later, usually. Those are very mature looking 10 day fish!

Also, what camera are you using? That picture is fabulous! I've been trying for the past 3 weeks to get a good shot of my babies, and it never looks that good!

Congrats! Keep up the good work, and tell us all your secrets of success!

 

[Kathy55g]

And they made it past meta without bbs?

Why do you think that straight tubing is better than airstones? My tanks are airstone city.

 

[Nagel]

I just run 3 x 5.5g tanks of Rots, and feed them with nanno3600 from Reed..

My exact process (and I wasn't sure it would be ok, but it seems to be working) is:

I freeze the nanno3600. My fishroom is directly under my kitchen / dining room, but the stairs are on the other side of the house. Its a PITA to get refrigerated nanno every day (and the wife isn't too keen on it being in the fridge), so I just started keeping it in the box freezer in the basement next to the fish room.

When I feed the rots, I basically take a Dixie cup of their tank water, pour it into the bottle with the frozen nanno, swirl a bit, then filter the tank water / melted nanno through a synthetic coffee filter to get out the larger solids. After that, I dump it right into the rotifer tank. I know I could cross contaminate the cultures this way, but (knock on wood) it seems to be working so far.

They get nothing but rotifers until meta. I started seeing headstripes on Friday (one week old) and saturday I fed a little bit of BBS, and as of last night I started full on BBS feeding with no more rots.

I've been diligent with the water changes (I keep about 3.5g in a 5.5g tank, and change about 2.5g every other day). Other than that, nothing special. No selcon, vitamins, etc.. In about a week and a half (when they are almost 3 weeks old) I will start weaning them to pulverized flake (New Life Spectrum Optimum SW flakes), but then it slows down. My 2 month old orange ocellaris are still 1/2" or so, and growth isn't as rapid as on the BBS, but the fry aren't as hyper either.

Keep in mind too, thats a macro shot with a Nikon D70S w/ 60mm macro lens.. They are still pretty tiny (1/4" or less).

 

[Nagel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7241910#post7241910 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kathy55g
And they made it past meta without bbs?

Why do you think that straight tubing is better than airstones? My tanks are airstone city.

Yup! I fed extra heavy on the rotifers this clutch. My other clutches have gotten past meta without BBS also, but they took 12-14 days. I was determined to increase numbers, and with the parents spawning roughly every 14 days, I figured I would experiment a bit.

As for the airline vs. airstone, I read somewhere about the babies being bashed by too much bubble flow (and thats probably the reason my "pulled tile" nests don't fare as well). The Blacks like to lay on a base rock, so I am forced to use the Wilkerson Larval Snagger. I figured the airflow with the rigid tube was too low this time, with that many fry, that much food, and that little water, I figured O2 would be super low, but it seems to be working for me. I mean, the bubbles are slow enough you can just barely make out each bubble. Now that they are post-meta, I plan to start with airstones, but for the pre-meta stage, no more airstones for me! I tried a bunch of airstones too, some were too fine, some were too coarse. Finally I tried open tubing, and well, its working

The camera is a Nikon D70S digi-SLR. I used a 60mm Nikon macro lens, and no tripod. Sure, I took like 10 shots, and probably 4 were not blurry, but with the speed of that camera, and the quality of the pics, I'll take dozens of shots to get one thats just right.. I'm sure a tripod would help even more, but with the tanks layout here, its difficult to use a tripod.

Oh yeah, I also keep the temp at a balmy 80F, and SG is 1.021 - 1.022.

Here's a closeup of a single fry.. (notice the unhatched / escaped BBS egg near the glass at the top of the pic for size reference)

 

[Nagel]

One other thought on the BBS. I know Wilkerson suggests feeding 25 BBS per day per fish (estimated), or they will eat until their stomachs explode. Well, evidently ocellaris are less likely to do that because I feed BBS kinda heavily, and there's usually enough still swimming 2-3 days later to notice them. Not the density you want to keep going with (I do feed them daily) but I have gone away for 2 days and came home to see there is still some BBS, and no dead babies (much less the evaporation! I must have a hardy pair!).

And the parents pretty much eat only Spectrum Thera+ pellets, with the occasional (2x a week) treat of Hikari Mysis..

 

[rsman]

Nikon D70S digi-SLR

Cool

ok so we ARE going to see more pics RIGHT!!!

 

[spk]

Ok,

This sounds cool. I have found that the longer I kept my Bangaiis on their first food, they grow a lot quicker. So perhaps the same is true for the clowns.

Cool, pics are needed. How about one of the set-up that you have this lot running in too. That would be really neat.

Good luck and keep those pics coming.

Steve

 

[Yhee]

what do you do with all the fry?

 

[Nagel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7242587#post7242587 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rsman
ok so we ARE going to see more pics RIGHT!!!

Of course! Why do you think I GOT the camera! My tanks are the most photographed subject, followed closely by my dogs..

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7247388#post7247388 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Yhee
what do you do with all the fry?

Well, I'll be selling some to the LFS's, getting credit at some of the others. I also will be donating some to my reef club for raffles, and a few friends have asked for them as well.. I also plan to keep some and work on developing my own breeding stock.. I need to diversify though, so I might be trading some for other brreeding stock too..

 

[imbuggin]

instant algae

instant algae

I have heard I can use instand algae to feed my rotifer culture. Does anyone know where I can get instant algae?

 

[Nagel]

DT's phyto is one, but I use Reed Mariculture's Nanno3600..

 

[Atticus]

Very nice Nagel. I too have noticed quick meta with the blacks. I have seen head stripes at day 6 and as you mentioned mine were only on rots at that time also. I rarely use BBS anymore and try to switch them to frozen foods as quickly as possible. My fry tank runs 84 degrees with 2 airstones and a sponge filter. SG is rather low at 1.015. The only downside I noticed with this last batch is an increase in mis-barring. The first batch I raised were 100% perfect barred. This new batch at a higher temp. and no bbs feeding are nearly 80% mis-barred. Kind of an interesting occurance.

As for breeding stock, what bloodline do you have? Mine are a mix one from ORA stock and one from TMC. I believe this is one of the better bloodlines in the states at this time.

 

[Nagel]

Mine are both ORA, and I want to assume siblings (both bought from the same shipment at the LFS I used to work at)..

I'm sure I can locate some other bloodlines. Most of the LFS's around here only get ORAS.

So far can't tell much on the mis-barring. most have two stripes and are still developing..

but I do feed alot of BBS...