Clownfish Experiments

[clownfish75]

HI all

I know someone who is lookign for ideas for experiments on clownfish larvae/Juvs.

I am looking for surgestions or ideas on things that might be of value to anyone.

COndition are, short duration 3-4 months, low volume trials (no more than a normal size clutch would yeild, ie you cant experiment on 1000 fish) and it has to be on a commerical species, most likely ocellaris (black or orange) or percs.

Link here for some ideas too

http://www.rareclownfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=123

Christian

 

[Lance one]

How about comparing light and dark cycles to see which grow faster. 20 hours of light compared to 12?

I know people would be interested in this one. Compare diets, roto's for both to begin with then one batch on brine and then the other batches on different dry foods such as powdered Formula1 vs Otohime vs any other dry foods. Compare the results for size, color, and behavior.

 

[bbfatty49]

also try using the frozen rotifers to see if the clowns will eat them as readily as live rotifers

 

[jnowell]

BB, that's an easy one, they absolutely positively will NOT eat dead rotifers (or at least not enough to keep them alive)...been there, tried that, as have many before us.

I'd like to see some data on lighting periods in the first few days. Maybe split into 3 tanks, do one with 24 hour lighting from the moment of hatch, one with 16 on 8 off starting at hatch, and one that gets to sleep the night of the hatch, and then goes to a 16 on 8 off the next morning. All fed rotifers of course, and then measure die off and apparent health/size of the fry from each batch daily.

I also second the larval foods comparison. Otohime, Formula One, and Cyclop-eeze are all good choices. It'd be great to see six seperate sets, 3 fed brine for 3 days, then switched to ONE of the foods about each. Then another 3 sets with no brine at all. Ed has proven that Brine shrimp is important, but it would be interesting to see how much of a difference it makes in your study.

I assume this is for a college lab or something? I hope you are making the provisions to ensure that all of the tanks remain exactly the same in all other parameters?

 

[clownfish75]

Yep all the setups should be done properly, light has been done before, and i think it showed no difference, it is also probably the most expensive thing to test, because of the setup to keep lights seperate etc, but it is a very good idea, i once considered 6 On 6 Off 6 On 6 Off, but that will wait for another day.

Can people list the most useful diets, please

Christian

 

[JHardman]

For whatever reason I can not get to rare from where I am at now...

Anyway... Light does make a huge difference and has been studied before. You want 16 hours on.

 

[Lance one]

Good ideas Jason.

Christian,
A Diet that is currently working for me with false perc's.

Days Diet
1-5 Roto's
6-9 Roto's still available, Live baby brine shrimp added
10-14 50% Live baby brine shrimp, 50% Formula 1 (crushed to a powder)
14-25 Formula 1 (crushed to a powder)
25- Formula 1 gradually becoming bigger pieces as fish grow

I haven't followed this exactly, but pretty close. about the only thing i do differently is adding BBS after day 14 if I have some extra.

I think this diet could also be followed, but changed, using any other dry food or exclusively bbs instead of formula 1 after day 6. Depending on the fish you may want to wait a few days later before you switch from Roto's to brine or any thing else.

My Otohime should be here today so the larvae that will be hatching tomorrow will be started on the same diet except Otohime will be substituted for Formula 1.

Lance

 

[Lance one]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6816131#post6816131 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JHardman
For whatever reason I can not get to rare from where I am at now...

Anyway... Light does make a huge difference and has been studied before. You want 16 hours on.

Thats good to know.

My last group only had 13 hours on, I bumped up my current group to 16 to see what would happen, and they seem bigger, sooner and have nearlly caught up to the batch that is 13 days ahead of them.

I would like to see the info if you come across it.

 

[NicoleC]

John, how long do you keave them at 16 hours? I dropped mine to 14 hours at about day 30, thinking that they only needed long days while hunting live food -- was I correct?

 

[JHardman]

Do a search in this or the clownfish forum. There was quite a bit of talk about it and someone finally did a real study and found 16 to be optimal.

I keep mine on 16 until they are sold, just easier than anything. But I would guess that it would be of benefit to most stages of growth.

 

[ediaz]

Did you said search in RC?


I seen that study also, they concluded 16 hours to be best versus 24, 12, I think, I do 14 for all, my brood is in the same room and don't want to have them on for so long.

Ed

 

[FuEl]

Spawning frequency and how fish maturity plays a factor? How clutch size affects subsequent larval quality? Feeding density experiments? How stocking density affects growth and health of larvae? Growth performance based on Non-enriched rotifers/Artemia vs enriched rotifers/Artemia (Selco, microalgae, etc)?