Diary of a failed breeder

I am currently having the same trouble with my latz fry. Whatever I catch is dead after 12 hours....

Frustrating for sure
 
Sorry about the loss.... The egg's that are left, can you get a real close look at them to see if there is a yoke sack? may tell you if it was parent nutrition or not. One this to keep up on is parent nutrition. Variety in the diet works wonders for egg quality and fry survival. When I was feeding flake only I could only get a few from each hatch to survive. Could also be if they were damaged in collection or something in the water. I add a few drops of amquel plus and a drop of water conditioner in my larve tanks. Seems to work ok.


I am not so sure a small temp issue would do them in like that. Recently I got 50-100 Ocellaris fry and the temp went from 82-3 in the parents tank to 76(Didnt realize at the time) in the larve tank. I had to adjust the heater to bring it back up to normal temp. So far I have not lost any from this batch...
 
Well today is a little better. I lost about half of them. I still have four at the moment. The yolk sacs look OK to my untrained eye. They're in a ten gallon. I'm loosely following wilkersons larva tank recommendations.
 
Well, I did a quick syphoning just before lights out and found an additional larva. So It looks like there are five survivors at the 23 hour mark. I think I will slowly lower the SG to about 1.018. It looks to me as though their stomachs are turning from yellow to silvery white.
 
I am currently having the same trouble with my latz fry. Whatever I catch is dead after 12 hours....

Frustrating for sure

I have read a lot of your post & it sounds like your very good at what you do. But correct me if I'm wrong, you catch the fry after they hatch & transfer them to another tank.
I have always moved the eggs pryor to hatching unless they were on the side of the aquarium.
Letting the fry hatch is better than moving them & a lot less stressfull. B.T.W. I am raising 1000's of Ocellaris & 100's of blacks.
Bob
 
The problem is that you can't always gt them to lay on a tile. In the case of latz its a whole other ballgame to just get them to stay alive long term. Several of us figured out the hard way in the last couple years that it becomes a whole lot easier when you have an anemone and a chiller. If he gets them to lay on a tile it will be easier to transfer the clutch. For now he's probably concerned that disturbing them by placing a tile over their nest site would prompt them to stop spawning. I know that would be my concern.


BTW I still have the five from last night. It looks like their bellies are fully developed.
 
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I still have the five from last night. It looks like their bellies are fully developed.

:) Fantastic news Walt! Silver bellies are happy bellies. Did you lower the salinity as you mentioned earlier? Curious how that worked out for you.
 
The problem is that you can't always gt them to lay on a tile.....
.....For now he's probably concerned that disturbing them by placing a tile over their nest site would prompt them to stop spawning. I know that would be my concern..
Yes and Yes!

I have a nice gentle snagger that I built but for the latz I am simply siphoning them out with 1/4 inch airline tubing. I've had success using this method on Tomato's and Percula's. I got a hatch coming this Friday so I may even try scooping them. They are attracted to red LED light the stink on .... They will literally swim to the surface and sit in one place, could probably grab them with chopsticks Miyagi-style.

:) Kurt
 
:) Fantastic news Walt! Silver bellies are happy bellies. Did you lower the salinity as you mentioned earlier? Curious how that worked out for you.
I decided not to do it on this batch. I didn't want to introduce any new variables this time around since I already killed 50+ of them. It would be smart for me to try that with a subsequent batch and see if my numbers change.
These fry will all be dead on Friday (when I leave) anyway. I just want to see if I can keep 'em goin till then.

In other news, I did introduce a couple tiles and added a different flower pot to the system. They are now on the other side of the tank inhabiting the flower pot. I hope this does not disrupt their spawning.

I could probably grab them with chopsticks Miyagi-style.

LOL!
 
As suspected.... I got home yesterday and the remaining fry were dead.

Not as I hoped.... There was no clutch waiting for me.

As I feared.... Something went wrong while I was gone and two of my tanks were disconnected from the main system. My brother called me twice for this and I walked him through how to rectify the problem twice. Apparently the second time (24 hours pre arrival) he forgot a step and the flow was stopped again. Nothing died, but some anemones are not real happy in one of the two affected tanks... though, that may be attributable to the CBB. I'll have to see how they look tonight.

I'm hoping that the melanopus will lay again once the parameters and feeding schedule return to normal.
 
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