Flame Angelfish Breeding attempt

[fla2341]

Luis A M: I've started back up my T. Iso cultures last week.

indyjaco: Not much past where I've been

glennvandyke: The only reccomendation I can make is read every reported success no matter how far it's gotten. You can then develop your own methods from that.

My illness has peaked the past several weeks so I didn't get too much done. However one item of note is the lowering of eggs each spawn and greater infertility rates. Each night's spawn have only been 200-300 and 50% are infertile. Nothing has changed other then the ambient light-which is very limited- has been reduce by the changing season.

The 10 gallon has proved to be a bust so far. I will continue to keep the 10 gallon going until I can identify the first foods. Limpets, copepods and starfish thrive in it so I assume it's not the environmental conditions.

To summerize: To date the furthest I've been able to get was 8 DPH. I have tried using my plankton net 3x's and each time I've gotten a large sampling of plankton. After sorting by size and feeding 2-3 DPH larval fish the plankton which passed thru a 120 micron seive I've seen eating behaviour, however either due to some failing in the food or in my methods the larval fish do not proceed past the 8 DPH.

Plan: I plan on going back to the ocean and doing a plankton tow in the next 2 weeks. At that time I will have several gallons of T. Iso and Nanno cultures to use.

Community Identification/opinion:
What I believe are cillates? There are two primary forms: Long/thin and round. Both are rapid eaters of both forms of algae. This is at 230x's magnification.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XaajXJz51k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI3qAzkbFBM

 

[billsreef]

Definitely look like ciliates to me with the way they move. The long thing is probably a paramecium. Not sure about the smaller one.

 

[nathan_krauss]

Reef Hobbyist Magazine had a good article on breeding Flame angels, you may be able to check that out and maybe get some good ideas.

 

[fla2341]

Interesting updates

Interesting updates

The Rising Tide Blog has two updates for August which are interesting for those who have not yet read them.
One focuses on Ocellated dragonets the other on potential prey item (Oithona colcarva copepod) for bannerfish.
http://risingtideconservation.blogspot.com/

 

[Luis A M]

Reef Hobbyist Magazine had a good article on breeding Flame angels, you may be able to check that out and maybe get some good ideas.

Do you have a link for that?

 

[fla2341]

nathan_krauss: Thanks for the heads up. Was it this? http://www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com/archives/vol_5/issue17/pages/24.htm If so I'm still waiting on pt 2.

Plankton update:
Last Thursday I made it out to Ponce Inlet and collected copepods from out on the rock jetty. I collected from both sides of the inlet on an incoming tide. I seined out just as many and of the same varieties of copepods and other plankton from both sides of the jetty as I did at the previous attempts at the Halifax River Boat ramp ( 5 miles from the inlet). One thing of note is I collected much more from the inlet side then the surf side. The types of copepods and their size ranges were from full adults to nauplii.

 

[Luis A M]

Amazing link!.I never heard of Richard Reynolds,is he from Hawaii?.Karen,you know him?
Has been 2nd part ever published?

 

[fla2341]

I'm still waiting on pt 2

I looked thru the subsequent issues on line and didn't see where pt. 2 has been published.

 

[fla2341]

Plankton from Ponce Inlet, FL

Photos - RC Community Opinions?

 

[fla2341]

More Picts

 

[billsreef]

That first one is some kind of crab or shrimp zoea.

 

[fla2341]

This is the first time I've seen this. These photos are of 3 DPH larval fish. The sunlight came around to my desk window and blasted the jar with the larval fish with full on sunlight and more then half floated to the top with hugh bubbles in their stomachs. There are still 15-20 left in the jar which did not bloat up like this. After I moved the jar out of the direct sunlight some of the bloated ones bubbles shrank and they returned to normal. The rest died. Interestingly though the temp did not raise in the jar. The jar had been exposed for 1 1/2- 2 hrs before I noticed anything out of the ordinary.

Hypothesis:
Does direct sunlight, in a glass jar from all sides = bad plan.
Top down - maybe.

 

[billsreef]

Sounds odd. Unfortunately the pictures aren't loading for me right now

Only thing I can think of, maybe some phyto in the gut going into overdrive and filling their stomachs with O2.

 

[fla2341]

Stomach bubble photos from two different larvae. Is this Poss. hyper inflation of the swim bladder?

 

[billsreef]

Definitely bizarre. Possibly hyperinflation of the swim bladder, but again it comes down to why and how

 

[Luis A M]

Yes,swimbladder is hyperinflated.

 

[fla2341]

billsreef, Luis A M: So do you think that too much direct sunlight might be to blame as some deflated after I removed the jar from the direct sunlight? Prior to this the amount of sunlight was oblique and diffused by trees. However, since then the position of the available sunlight has shifted to a more direct head on illumination into the window with no trees for 3-4 hours in the afternoon and I removed the 10 gallon which was blocking the light. This is the 1st jar of larvae to be so exposed.

 

[Luis A M]

It is very hard to guess.Seahorse fry frequently experiment the same condition.

 

[GreshamH]

Amazing link!.I never heard of Richard Reynolds,is he from Hawaii?.Karen,you know him?
Has been 2nd part ever published?

No it was never published

He was originally doing this in California, but has since shut down that operation and has moved to the midwest. He and his GF bought some of Joel L's broodstock, a lot of it IIRC.

You've spoken with him under his handle, of which of course I have forgotten. He used to post here.

 

[Luis A M]

His handle?,IIRC?
So he left us without the juicy part of the story?:hmm6:If that was a show,I´d ask for my money back!:hmm5:
I remember some report of CB flames hitting Cali market...