I thought I would start a new thread to update my attempts at breeding my 3-year old pair of ocellaris clowns.
Brief History:
Clowns first laid back in Sept. I, like many before me, was both excited an panicked, as well as totally unprepared. I spent gobs of money, rushed around, and read everything. Tried to extract the pipe they laid on, and hatch via the bubble tank method. They all died, never hatching.
I read more, and tried to get ready for batch #2, which came a month later. These also all died, none hatching. I spent $$$ on live rots and nano, and those also both died.
I resolved to read and take it slow, ordered FAF nano pucks and resting rots, and started those from scratch. After a month I had nice stable rots and nano going. Then they laid again - this time on the glass. I used the "scrape the eggsoff and siphon with a straw" method, and hatched them in a bubbling funnel. They did hatch, and after great losses in the first few days, I had a total of 12 survive meta, and 10 survive to the "little clown" stage. Pics from Jan 4th here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffrey.brinkerhoff/Clownfish#
They have actually gotten quite a bit larger since those pics. Most have their third stripe now. I have 5 "correct" stripes, and 5 misbars.
There have been four other clutches since these guys, of which I have tried to hatch three. The first two of these attempts, I had 99+% hatch, 50% die off on day 1, and the other 50% die off on days 2-3. This last time, I had 99% hatch, and 95% survive to today, which is day 4 post hatch. (I have had about 25 deaths out of 400+ hatch)
The main changes I made with this last batch were:
- increase the "natural food" in the diet of the parents (frozen raw food 1x a day, pellets 1x a day).
- NOT using anything in the fish-bowl krissel post-hatch, just larvae and greenwater with rots. No small live rock as before.
- Increasing the circulation by adding a second bubble tube, keeping both at a rate of about 4 bubbles/sec. Both are on the same side, creating a nice circular current. Seems that some larvae will settle in the stagnant area and die if the current is NOT strong enough. After day 2 they seem to "get it" and its not as important.
- Used ammo-lock (amquel) in the krissel water from day 0.
So far, so good. 400+ little silver bellies. I am already starting them on otohime A and hope to taper rots off by the end of the weekend.
Batch #1 is well into Otohime B2 now, and growing RAPIDLY. My wife has grown so attached to the "original ten" that she will not let me sell any of them. Looks like they will go into a 40 gallon hex or pentagon tank in our living room with some live rock. (Until they get too big and start fighting anyway)
Many more pics to follow, just havent had time to put them up.
Oh, and momma just laid another 500-600 eggs last night. Only 11 days in between now. Good god.... SLOW DOWN momma!
Jeff
Brief History:
Clowns first laid back in Sept. I, like many before me, was both excited an panicked, as well as totally unprepared. I spent gobs of money, rushed around, and read everything. Tried to extract the pipe they laid on, and hatch via the bubble tank method. They all died, never hatching.
I read more, and tried to get ready for batch #2, which came a month later. These also all died, none hatching. I spent $$$ on live rots and nano, and those also both died.
I resolved to read and take it slow, ordered FAF nano pucks and resting rots, and started those from scratch. After a month I had nice stable rots and nano going. Then they laid again - this time on the glass. I used the "scrape the eggsoff and siphon with a straw" method, and hatched them in a bubbling funnel. They did hatch, and after great losses in the first few days, I had a total of 12 survive meta, and 10 survive to the "little clown" stage. Pics from Jan 4th here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffrey.brinkerhoff/Clownfish#
They have actually gotten quite a bit larger since those pics. Most have their third stripe now. I have 5 "correct" stripes, and 5 misbars.
There have been four other clutches since these guys, of which I have tried to hatch three. The first two of these attempts, I had 99+% hatch, 50% die off on day 1, and the other 50% die off on days 2-3. This last time, I had 99% hatch, and 95% survive to today, which is day 4 post hatch. (I have had about 25 deaths out of 400+ hatch)
The main changes I made with this last batch were:
- increase the "natural food" in the diet of the parents (frozen raw food 1x a day, pellets 1x a day).
- NOT using anything in the fish-bowl krissel post-hatch, just larvae and greenwater with rots. No small live rock as before.
- Increasing the circulation by adding a second bubble tube, keeping both at a rate of about 4 bubbles/sec. Both are on the same side, creating a nice circular current. Seems that some larvae will settle in the stagnant area and die if the current is NOT strong enough. After day 2 they seem to "get it" and its not as important.
- Used ammo-lock (amquel) in the krissel water from day 0.
So far, so good. 400+ little silver bellies. I am already starting them on otohime A and hope to taper rots off by the end of the weekend.
Batch #1 is well into Otohime B2 now, and growing RAPIDLY. My wife has grown so attached to the "original ten" that she will not let me sell any of them. Looks like they will go into a 40 gallon hex or pentagon tank in our living room with some live rock. (Until they get too big and start fighting anyway)
Many more pics to follow, just havent had time to put them up.
Oh, and momma just laid another 500-600 eggs last night. Only 11 days in between now. Good god.... SLOW DOWN momma!
Jeff
