Clarks Clownfish - 2nd attempt

jnowell

jnowell

New member
Had a great hatch last night, got about 200 this time. The larvae still don't look as plump to me as the first batch, but we'll see. I'm calling this the second attempt, because I never got a chance at the actual second, they all died within 3 days, and had little to no yolk sac present.

These have a yolk sac, and I've observed many of them hunting rotifers this morning. Had a fair amount of die off last night, I'm guessing about 30. 85% of the last hatched parished on night 2, so we'll see how things look tomorrow morning. Right now I'd guess that I have 150 or more.

Added rotifers to a very good density last night, and already had to add more, so they are definitely eating. Maybe I can get more than 8 through metamorphasis this time.

Jason
 
The only thing I plan to do different is kill less of them :D At least this time I am starting with good phyto cultures and great rot density, so early nutrition won't be such an issue.

The main changes I am making are using ambient room lighting for the first 2-3 days (had a 15W lamp above the first set on day one). Using black poster board to cover the sides instead of brown cardboard, and only co-culturing with Phyto, no Roti-Rich in the larvae tank this time.

Just having enough food for them will probably do wonders for this hatch, but you never know. The yolk sacs on these are smaller, so they'll have to learn to hunt faster.
 
Jason,

Good luck and keep the updates coming. I cannot wait till the clowns start to lay.

Steve
 
Well, it's the end of day 2 with this bunch, and they are doing well. Very active, and getting plump. I can only spot 4-5 that don't appear to be eating yet, but there are so many that I'm sure I missed several.

Overall, the tank has been much more stable, probably because I am only culturing with live phyto, and not adding roti-rich this time. They are clearing the rot population very quickly, my culture seems to be holding, but it amazes me that I can over-stock the fry tank at 7:00am, and when I get home for lunch, it's maybe 3 per mil (and yeah, I pulled a mil and counted, 4 of them actually).

I'm starting to get hopeful for this batch, if they make it through tonight in quantity, I'll feel really good about them. Here's some pics to give you an idea of the numbers so far.

hatch2.jpg


hatch2_2.jpg
 
Thanks Gals!

Kathy, don't feel like you are the only one, I killed two of my older ones last night by moving the tank and changing 50% of the water. Had just done a 20g change in my display before removing water for the fry tank, and it caused enough of a pH spike to get two of the smaller ones.

Speaking of, one of the casualties never developed white in his stripes. His black was split up properly, but he was clear where the others had white. Anyone know what causes that? He wasn't the smallest one, so it confused me.

Hopefully I'll wake up to good news in the morning...if a lot of them make it through day 3, I'll put up a short video tomorrow night. For now I have to get some sleep, long day tomorrow.
 
Jason,

great pics. I am curious, however, what runs diagonally across the first pic?

Keep them going.

Steve
 
Only a few losses last night (5-6), so I still have lots of babies...on to metamorphosis....I hope. These guys are growing awefully fast, I may start them on artemia on day 5 or 6, a few of them could eat it now I think. Last time I waited until day 8 and think I lost quite a few due to nutritional issues, but that's a guess.

Steve, optical illusion. That pic is of the corner of the tank, at the top of the water. The two diagonals you see are the top of the water against the blacked out glass. :D

Jason
 
You may be right Kathy, they were all still kickin' when I got home today! You were commenting on how big these looked for 2 day olds yesterday, and they are quite plump. I stumbled onto something the other day, and wanted to test the theory before I posted here.

On day one, I was feeding some powdered dry food to the older babies, and blew some into the fry tank next door (by laughing at the bigger ones through my nose). Not much food went into the new hatch tank, but they apparently smelled it, and went nuts! I had been enriching some rots for them anyways, so I went ahead and added them, they ate like I've never seen before.

Yesterday I added rots in the usual manner, and got no feeding response at all, they ate them, but not in a frenzy like day one. So this evening, I dropped just a tiny bit of powdered Formula One in there tank, and again, they went nuts. I added rots, and they literally followed the "rotifer ball" around with the current eating like mad. Not sure if this explains my fat babies, but it might be worth experimenting with, I'd be interested to hear if others fry respond the same way. Plus developing a "Pavlov style" feeding response with dry food could be a good thing later on.

Anyhow, since these guys have made it through most of day 3, I thought I'd honor them with a little video. This will also give a better idea of the density and size, tonight at 9:45 will be three days exactly.

Clarks Clown Video - 3 days old
 
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What kind of dry food are you useing, and how do you grind it up?
Again, those fry look huge to me, you may have something there.

What temp are you keeping them, and what volume is that tank?

Thanks,
Kathy
 
The tank is 10 gallons, sitting at 78 degrees F. My heater on this one is very touchy, and my choice was basically 84 or 78, I chose the latter.

As for food, I use 75% Ocean Nutrition Formula 1 to 25% Formula 2, with a little Aquadyne mixed in (simply because I had a big bag of it, and there was a bunch of powder left over in the bottom).

Now I have to fess up, I don't even own a mortor and pestle, I do the following. I put the mixture in a zip lock bag, and crunch it up with my fingers as good as I can. Then I lay the bag on the countertop, and tap the food for several minutes with the butt of a big kitchen knife that has a rounded end. The fry let a few bigger peices go for the first few days, but quickly grow into the size I make for them.

I did the powdered food pre-feeding again this morning, and now I'm certain now that it does induce a better feeding response (at least temporarily). The biggest advantage to this is that even many of the side dwellers leave the sides and hunt in the open. The size difference is diminishing with this hatch, leaving me to believe that they are all eating well.

I didn't want to say anything about this, for fear I would jynx myself, but I haven't siphoned a body off the bottom since the first morning. I don't think the pre-feeding is the sole reason for this, but when combined with Phyto only co-culturing, my rigid airline syphon tube (which is much more efficient at cleaning the bottom than my bigger store bought version), and a little more experience it seems to be working.
 
Jason, every time I read one of your posts, I also read the signature line, and I am reminded of its truth. Every thing is going well for you, so WATCH OUT! JK.

You are doing great, and this priming the feeding pump is a novel idea. I am definately going to try in on the next hatch.
 
Just looked at the video again. They do look huge, active and they got to be healthy! And there are so many!

You are doing very well, my friend. Congrats!
K
 
Aww, thanks Kathy. I do have high hopes for these guys, but also know that my stupid gene could pop up at any moment. I'm trying REAL hard not to screw this one up, it's got such a good start!

I bet your next hatch is the same way. If we keep learning from each others mistakes, we'll have this down to a science in no time :D

Jason
 
Thanks Steph, and Welcome to Reef Central. WOW, I feel priviledged that my measly thread got your first post. Kathy will be along shortly with her nice welcome graphic ;)

All of them are still doing fine, but we didn't get to leave for lunch today either, so I know they are probably out of rotifers already. I may try to cut out a little early today to make sure they stay fed. It's day 5, and I plan to switch to BBS tomorrow or Saturday. I swear a few of them are already starting to change shape a bit. I think last time I waited too long to offer artemia (day 8-9 I think). I will try a little on the night of day 6, and then being regular BBS feedings on day 7.

We'll see how that works out..OK, back to another meeting...this is getting old, don't they know i have threads to read on RC!

Jason
 
You mean this one?
Hello AquaSteph and
<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central, The Fish Breeding Forum!</b></i></big></big>
 
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