Black / Darwin OC Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris "Darwin") Breeding Log!
- Thread starter mwp
- Start date
mwp
In Memoriam
OK, broke down cause I couldn't take it anymore, tore down the WHOLE TANK. NO TRACE of the male, nothing, nada. IT IS GONE! NO BODIES, no beaten up fish, no way for it to jump out of the tank unless it was able to open the freakin' lid.
The Male has simply VANISHED!
I'm beyond frustrated at the moment.
Matt
The Male has simply VANISHED!
I'm beyond frustrated at the moment.
Matt
keefsama2003
In Memoriam
i feel your frustration i thought i was going to loose my darwin pair last night a freaked o ut like you wouldnt believe
they were both on their sides on the sand breathing very fast and i couldnt figure ou *** was going on
then i realized this tank doesnt have as much O2 in it as the 300 did. so i added a limewood airstone and sank it to the bottom and have it held down with a rock.
it perked them up right away as i placed it near them and they have been good since i just finished playing with them
im not sure how far out they are from spawning but i would say probably a good 6 months they finally seem to have a good pair bond g oing and the male is really submitting for her and rubbing on her belly and they look cosey together
** EDIT **
My pair look in coloration just like yours.
my male is just starting to loose the orange around the mouth and they are fairly small still how big are/were yours
they were both on their sides on the sand breathing very fast and i couldnt figure ou *** was going on
then i realized this tank doesnt have as much O2 in it as the 300 did. so i added a limewood airstone and sank it to the bottom and have it held down with a rock.
it perked them up right away as i placed it near them and they have been good since i just finished playing with them
im not sure how far out they are from spawning but i would say probably a good 6 months they finally seem to have a good pair bond g oing and the male is really submitting for her and rubbing on her belly and they look cosey together
** EDIT **
My pair look in coloration just like yours.
my male is just starting to loose the orange around the mouth and they are fairly small still how big are/were yours
mwp
In Memoriam
FWIW Keef, the female is probably 2", and the male was probably 1.75".
So I even took apart the hood, as there's a small space in the back that through a series of jumps, a fish could, in theory, get stuck inside the hood/reflector. NADA.
So it's like someone literally came in and stole the fish overnight. No body, and unless the fish is Houdini, no way to get out of a closed Nanocube hood.
My best guesses are:
1. Jumped (how much would that suck to lose 2 fish to jumping in 48 hours...let alone one of the 2 in a hooded tank).
2. Murder and the cleanup crew already took care of the evidence.
3. Murder by Rhodactis (highly unlikely).
4. Someone actually came and stole the fish (but if they did, why wouldn't they take the PAIR?!)
I'm at my wit's end. TOTALLY PO'd that I'll have to re-pair this female with a new male. Technically, I have another pair (the good 'ole former halfblacks), but quality wise (perfect striping and lack of ANY deformities) this female (and the vanished male) were far superior to anything else I've come across. Not to mention the time and money lost on the pair for that matter. Assume I end this post which a stream of obscenities...
Matt
So I even took apart the hood, as there's a small space in the back that through a series of jumps, a fish could, in theory, get stuck inside the hood/reflector. NADA.
So it's like someone literally came in and stole the fish overnight. No body, and unless the fish is Houdini, no way to get out of a closed Nanocube hood.
My best guesses are:
1. Jumped (how much would that suck to lose 2 fish to jumping in 48 hours...let alone one of the 2 in a hooded tank).
2. Murder and the cleanup crew already took care of the evidence.
3. Murder by Rhodactis (highly unlikely).
4. Someone actually came and stole the fish (but if they did, why wouldn't they take the PAIR?!)
I'm at my wit's end. TOTALLY PO'd that I'll have to re-pair this female with a new male. Technically, I have another pair (the good 'ole former halfblacks), but quality wise (perfect striping and lack of ANY deformities) this female (and the vanished male) were far superior to anything else I've come across. Not to mention the time and money lost on the pair for that matter. Assume I end this post which a stream of obscenities...
Matt
mwp
In Memoriam
Took the hood apart (see the post before yours). This fish literally vanished.
I'm a bit more "broken up" about it because ALL the possible explinations are long shots. It made sense that my Red Scooter Blenny male could "disappear" without a body showing up in the uncovered tank (jump, get eaten by cat or dog, makes sense). But considering that I've never had a fish jump out of a hooded Nanocube unless I was standing there with the lid open (Mama did this once when she got overeager about feeding). Well, actually, I have to take that back. Here's a rundown of my losses in 2006/2007.
Firefish (1 of the pair) - Jumped in uncovered tank, found dead on top of prefilter sponge.
Red Scooter Blenny Male - Vanished - presumed jumped and eaten before I found it.
Mandarin Male - jumped in uncovered tank, found him.
Jawfish (1 of pair) - jumped, found on top of prefilter sponge.
Jawfish (our original "Pearl") - vanished without a trace
A few baby percs in the 6 - vanished without a trace
Red Scooter Blenny - murded by wrasse
Flame Angel Female - DOA with no reasonable explination other than murder by the mate or the wrasse or just sudden death (i.e. heart attack).
Saddle Clown - broke down with disease, never settled in all that well.
Neon Goby (1 in a pair) - got ICH from Day 1 and never shook it.
Margaritophorus female - died egg bound
What's amazing to me in this list is that there's very little loss in the way of disease - 2 to be specific. More than anything, "Vanished without trace" seems to actually be my number one cause of fish loss! Granted, to some extent it makes sense with the baby percs..there's tons of hazards in that little 6 including a surface skimmer, jumping and not getting noticed in time in the back filter chamber, or any number of predatory corals (blastomussa, mushrooms / ricordeas, tubastreas, fungia etc...).
Taking out the baby clowns, it still seems that jumping or "disappearing without a trace" is by far the way I lose the majority of fish. I realize with my open top MH settup it's a risk, and I've accepted it. But closed tanks and I still have 1 I KNOW jumped (the pearly jawfish mate) and had the bad luck of landing on the prefilter, the ONLY place in the tank not wet, and wierder still is the Firefish that did the same thing (even without a hood).
Anyway, that's that I suppose. I guess I'm just on the hunt for a new mate - I *could* steal the halfblack male, but being a misbar and a later color-upper, from my personal experience that's not the best fish to use as "quality" broodstock. Not knockin' the halfblacks, had they actually been true "halfblacks" they were definitely fish to breed with (being the only halfblacks), but I think even JL would agree that they weren't top-quality fish (in fact, when I first asked him about them he quite frankly referred to them as culls, which he doesn't put down, hence he still had them).
FWIW,
Matt
Matt
I'm a bit more "broken up" about it because ALL the possible explinations are long shots. It made sense that my Red Scooter Blenny male could "disappear" without a body showing up in the uncovered tank (jump, get eaten by cat or dog, makes sense). But considering that I've never had a fish jump out of a hooded Nanocube unless I was standing there with the lid open (Mama did this once when she got overeager about feeding). Well, actually, I have to take that back. Here's a rundown of my losses in 2006/2007.
Firefish (1 of the pair) - Jumped in uncovered tank, found dead on top of prefilter sponge.
Red Scooter Blenny Male - Vanished - presumed jumped and eaten before I found it.
Mandarin Male - jumped in uncovered tank, found him.
Jawfish (1 of pair) - jumped, found on top of prefilter sponge.
Jawfish (our original "Pearl") - vanished without a trace
A few baby percs in the 6 - vanished without a trace
Red Scooter Blenny - murded by wrasse
Flame Angel Female - DOA with no reasonable explination other than murder by the mate or the wrasse or just sudden death (i.e. heart attack).
Saddle Clown - broke down with disease, never settled in all that well.
Neon Goby (1 in a pair) - got ICH from Day 1 and never shook it.
Margaritophorus female - died egg bound
What's amazing to me in this list is that there's very little loss in the way of disease - 2 to be specific. More than anything, "Vanished without trace" seems to actually be my number one cause of fish loss! Granted, to some extent it makes sense with the baby percs..there's tons of hazards in that little 6 including a surface skimmer, jumping and not getting noticed in time in the back filter chamber, or any number of predatory corals (blastomussa, mushrooms / ricordeas, tubastreas, fungia etc...).
Taking out the baby clowns, it still seems that jumping or "disappearing without a trace" is by far the way I lose the majority of fish. I realize with my open top MH settup it's a risk, and I've accepted it. But closed tanks and I still have 1 I KNOW jumped (the pearly jawfish mate) and had the bad luck of landing on the prefilter, the ONLY place in the tank not wet, and wierder still is the Firefish that did the same thing (even without a hood).
Anyway, that's that I suppose. I guess I'm just on the hunt for a new mate - I *could* steal the halfblack male, but being a misbar and a later color-upper, from my personal experience that's not the best fish to use as "quality" broodstock. Not knockin' the halfblacks, had they actually been true "halfblacks" they were definitely fish to breed with (being the only halfblacks), but I think even JL would agree that they weren't top-quality fish (in fact, when I first asked him about them he quite frankly referred to them as culls, which he doesn't put down, hence he still had them).
FWIW,
Matt
Matt
keefsama2003
In Memoriam
good luck with everything i know my pair look exqusite nice dark coloration and seem to be gaining in size every week or so.
they seem to like their tank more and more and seem to be exploring but enough from me for now i ihave to do a 5 gal W/C on the 30 with my blacks in it then shower and get ready to go out when my wife gets home.
best of luck and if he just turns up one day then that would be awesome. i know i have lost fish and just not noticed them in my search and then one day they areback maybe you just missed him.
they seem to like their tank more and more and seem to be exploring but enough from me for now i ihave to do a 5 gal W/C on the 30 with my blacks in it then shower and get ready to go out when my wife gets home.
best of luck and if he just turns up one day then that would be awesome. i know i have lost fish and just not noticed them in my search and then one day they areback maybe you just missed him.
tanglovers
New member
Sorry to hear about this all Matt, they were a gorgeous pair!!!
EMBRYOGUY
New member
matt im very familar with nanocubes.
did you upgrade to a maxijet 1200?
they are very strong for the cube. possibly the male jumped into the chamber with the pump and got immediately sucked into it. within a day its body can be sucked thru the pump. ive had this happen.......
did you upgrade to a maxijet 1200?
they are very strong for the cube. possibly the male jumped into the chamber with the pump and got immediately sucked into it. within a day its body can be sucked thru the pump. ive had this happen.......
mwp
In Memoriam
No upgrade on the pump, it's stock. I checked it too...the openings on the stock pump are kinda shielded.
24 hours later, still no sign of the male. Vanished. Thankfully, both mandarins did show up, so I didn't crush them while placing all the rock back into the tank.
I guess I'm going to simply have to keep an watch for a replacement or steal the male from the halfblack pair. Or I could just send them all to Kathy LOL! Kinda bummed though because a young black OC pair would've made a perfect clownfish breeding pair for Renee's 6 gallon cube.
Matt
24 hours later, still no sign of the male. Vanished. Thankfully, both mandarins did show up, so I didn't crush them while placing all the rock back into the tank.
I guess I'm going to simply have to keep an watch for a replacement or steal the male from the halfblack pair. Or I could just send them all to Kathy LOL! Kinda bummed though because a young black OC pair would've made a perfect clownfish breeding pair for Renee's 6 gallon cube.
Matt
keefsama2003
In Memoriam
I agree with the young Black OC pair thats why i have mine in a 30 cube as thats the smallest i have in the house good luck tho
mwp
In Memoriam
1-13-07, 1:45 AM - this is BEYOND wierd. I turned on the lights in the room and glanced at the tank that houses the single remaining "female" Black Ocellaris as well as the pair of Allardi. The small Allardi is at the surface, the "female" Black Ocellaris and large "female" Allardi are hanging out together at the cup coral??!?!??!
HMM.
Matt
HMM.
Matt
mwp
In Memoriam
1-14-07 - So I've made some changes and regrouped. A trip to RPI and Joe's extreme generousity have helped me with a replacement "male" for my female. After finding both the "male" allardi and a mandarin in the filtration this morning, the "female" allardi has been banished to a breeder net for a much neeeded "cool down" period. That's the news...maybe Tuesday I'll get some pics of the new mate. He was one of the largest Joe had, hatched Oct 5, 2006, perfect bars, very nice black. It's my understanding that likely, this male and the female are from DIFFERENT captive lines, which means potentially stronger genetics than the original pair. At least, that's the optimist's point of view 
FWIW,
Matt
FWIW,
Matt
mwp
In Memoriam
BTW, I shoudl note that when introduced, the female ran up to him, nuzzled his abdomen, and has now pretty much left him alone (although he likes to hang out with her). So far this looks like a pretty straightforward introduction without incidents. He's maybe 1/2 her length, 1/4 or less of her mass. While we're definitely "set back" from the original timeline, things hopefully will be back on track soon, and in the next couple weeks they should have their own dedicated love nest (aka "tank").
Matt
Matt
keefsama2003
In Memoriam
Great Matt maybe we are at the same point now. my pair love the 30cube they seem to explore more and more and i think they finally realized they are the only ones in there. they are eating flake nicely when i feed them now i have to get them back to eating my fish mush concoction. im hoping they get to it soon they both live in the crease of the tile i have in there and the female has been seen by myself and my brother in law passivly mouthing the tile then going over to the male then back to the tile.
nothing intense yet but its a start
nothing intense yet but its a start
mwp
In Memoriam
So I have to post an update relating both the Allardi and Black Ocellaris pairs that are currently housed with my Mandarins and Seahorses. It's been a few days now that the clowns are battling a serious case of what I'm 90% sure is ICH, but it may actually be ICH, Brook, or Oodinium, or a combination thereof. I'm leaning towards two possible causes - nighttime temp drops (I let my house get down to 65F, but the tanks *should* be staying up) - OR - the big bruhaha I made in the tank when the Male Black Ocellaris disappeared. In the process of ripping apart the tank, I KNOW I stirred up a lot of sediment / detritus + it was a stressful event. I'm thinking I may have stirred up DORMANT CYSTS and VIOLA, OUTBREAK. The original female Black Ocellaris has yet to show ANY symptoms, and the pair of Barbouri, the MALE Mandarin and the pair of Rusty Gobies seem unaffected. However, the female mandarin is LOADED...she probably has it the worst.
I'm doing EVERYTHING I can in my power to bring this under control, but I'm afraid things are going well. Yesterday I put down our "spare" male Barbouri Seahorse rather than have him die in the tank (and thus have all those parasites LEAVE his body to reproduce / look for a new host). In a nutshell, here's the rundown of steps I've been able to take (remember, this is a REEF and ALL my tanks are currently occupied).
1. A spare, brand new UV (9 watt internal) was thrown into the tank.
2. Daily dosings of Marine Max (probiotic bacteria + vitamins)
3. Daily dosings of Reef Plus (vitamins).
4. Two FW dips with Methelyne Blue (one a couple days ago, one this evening).
5. Large daily water changes, on the order of 50-80% (to help "dilute" concentrations of the free swimming parasite stage).
6. Daily cleaning of all mechanical filters.
7. Removal of chemical filtration media (which I theorize simply adds "surface area" for reproductive stages of the parasite. They also aren't needed with DAILY water changes on the magnitude I'm performing).
8. Focusing on Selcon Enriched Foods (to up the caloric content). Feeding OFTEN (appetites are diminished, but not gone at this time).
9. There is a Cleaner Shrimp in the tank. I've seen the "female" Allardi visit it once....otherwise not doing much or so it seems.
When I had the outbreak in my OTHER tank (do to stupidity and a non-functioning UV) these methods helped stave it off and ultimately the fish recovered. However, NONE of the fish ever got as bad as the clowns currently are, ESPECIALLY the condition of the Allardi pair (and especially the much smaller MALE within that pair).
That's the news for the moment. I'm at the point where I'm considering breaking down and locating a reef safe medication (i.e. Greenex)...ultimately all the coral life in the tank is REPLACEABLE if it came to that.
Any other thoughts, I welcome them! My hope and optimism are slowly being erroded. It's been a rough couple weeks here!
MP
I'm doing EVERYTHING I can in my power to bring this under control, but I'm afraid things are going well. Yesterday I put down our "spare" male Barbouri Seahorse rather than have him die in the tank (and thus have all those parasites LEAVE his body to reproduce / look for a new host). In a nutshell, here's the rundown of steps I've been able to take (remember, this is a REEF and ALL my tanks are currently occupied).
1. A spare, brand new UV (9 watt internal) was thrown into the tank.
2. Daily dosings of Marine Max (probiotic bacteria + vitamins)
3. Daily dosings of Reef Plus (vitamins).
4. Two FW dips with Methelyne Blue (one a couple days ago, one this evening).
5. Large daily water changes, on the order of 50-80% (to help "dilute" concentrations of the free swimming parasite stage).
6. Daily cleaning of all mechanical filters.
7. Removal of chemical filtration media (which I theorize simply adds "surface area" for reproductive stages of the parasite. They also aren't needed with DAILY water changes on the magnitude I'm performing).
8. Focusing on Selcon Enriched Foods (to up the caloric content). Feeding OFTEN (appetites are diminished, but not gone at this time).
9. There is a Cleaner Shrimp in the tank. I've seen the "female" Allardi visit it once....otherwise not doing much or so it seems.
When I had the outbreak in my OTHER tank (do to stupidity and a non-functioning UV) these methods helped stave it off and ultimately the fish recovered. However, NONE of the fish ever got as bad as the clowns currently are, ESPECIALLY the condition of the Allardi pair (and especially the much smaller MALE within that pair).
That's the news for the moment. I'm at the point where I'm considering breaking down and locating a reef safe medication (i.e. Greenex)...ultimately all the coral life in the tank is REPLACEABLE if it came to that.
Any other thoughts, I welcome them! My hope and optimism are slowly being erroded. It's been a rough couple weeks here!
MP
keefsama2003
In Memoriam
Good luck with that hope they all pull thru. i added a good amount of live rock in my 30 for the black/white pair and a friend gave me a deal on a green bta with nice purple tips so it went in also. things are looking good tonight i will pull apart the canister filter and take out the filter floss and replace it with new leaving the sponge in the filter for bacterial reasons.
Temp is stable now at about 82 degreeseven when it gets a little cooler in the house its staying about there. i also added a seio pump 620 to add a little extra flow as the canister filter only does 240gph
The fish all look excellent and are starting to slowly eat more and are a little more aggressive during feeding time also. im going to try and get a canopy built so i can add my T5's to that tank and take the glass top off for a little more air circulation and what not but thats going slowly
Temp is stable now at about 82 degreeseven when it gets a little cooler in the house its staying about there. i also added a seio pump 620 to add a little extra flow as the canister filter only does 240gph
The fish all look excellent and are starting to slowly eat more and are a little more aggressive during feeding time also. im going to try and get a canopy built so i can add my T5's to that tank and take the glass top off for a little more air circulation and what not but thats going slowly
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