My Black Ocellaris pair are spawning!!!

[Zylski]

Wow i just read the entire thread. I'm really sorry about your big loss. I see it hasn't seemed to phase you. Congrats.
I just decided it was about time to give my black ocellaris pair a place to lay eggs on and see if they will lay eggs. Any tips or tricks to get them to lay eggs? Ive had the pair for about a year and a half, I have the salinity at 1.025 and the temp around 81.5 (I use a apex too, love the alarm and email/text deal). Anything else I should know?
Again Congrats!

 

[WaffleWalffle22]

Move the temperature up to 83, feed them a wide variety of food, give them great water quality, and give them a nice RBTA (I know you have tons) that they can lay eggs under. I waited too late, and a months or less after I added pots and tiles I ended up with a patch of eggs on the rock. Soon I'll have 50-100 little Black Ocellaris swimming around my rearing tank.
As I mentioned, food is a big deal. I feed small amounts 2-3 times each day. I feed live brine shrimp, frozen spirulina brine, frozen mysis, rod's original blend, and sometimes squid. Check out this thread. It got my clowns to spawn. and talk to Clowns101. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1831263

 

[rkelman]

Thanks. It sounds like you have the temp about right. Really just feed them alot and a variety of foods and give them a stable low stress environment. The apex is great. I love it.

 

[Zylski]

I make my own food cubes its a combination of about 10 different food items, including rods, PE mysis, brine shrimp, krill, squid ... ect. Im still in high school so i don't have the time to feed 2-3 times a day though . About what WaffleWaffle22 said about getting them to host. Right now they are hosting a GSP in the corner of the tank, just there's nothing to lay eggs on right now so I'm going to put a pot in there next to it. I would say it is very low stress its only them and a firefish in the tank.
Also I like what your trying to do with propagating RBTA. I have a "mini farm" that consists of 8 right now. Im going to follow up on what you do with those too. I really love what your doing your thread is a great inspiration.

 

[dirtStar]

The thread is very inspiring....

To see the larvae get a head stripe and even a mid stripe in 8 days is truly amazing!

Rob, this thread should be a sticky!
I love it.


1 Vote for STICKY!

 

[rkelman]

Thanks guys. I think the pot is a great idea zylski. It sounds like the food is great. I feel that a wide variety of foods is ideal. I currently have about about 8 BTA's as well. I have yet to sell any though Its more of a collection hehe. (looks over to see if the wife is reading this) Some day I'll sell some. My Orange pair are loving their tank. There is 5 BTA's in there. 3 green and 2 red.

 

[Zylski]

Haha I would say mines a collection too. Unfortunatly my clowns dont host the BTA's because i dont give them a chance. I raise mine in a basket at the top of my tank. This way i dont have the chance to have them go through the PH and I can easily remove them when I want to split them. One more question is it a pot or a PVC thing?

 

[rkelman]

I haven't had any powerhead issues yet but I'm sure someday... I should use baskets. They are a real pain to get off a rock to split them. To be honest I've slowed down on splitting them because some of them have shrunk since putting them in the tank downstairs. I've been a bit concerned something is wrong with the system / water that is causing this. I've since added a skimmer and I've upgraded to a larger sump and they seem to be getting better.

"One more question is it a pot or a PVC thing?"

I'm not sure what you mean by this?

 

[Zylski]

Im not sure what could be causing your anemones to shrink up. I don't manually cut my anemones. When I want them to split I do a water change and them move them around in the basket it ussually works about every other month.
My question was do you use a clay pot or is it pvc?

 

[rkelman]

Interesting. I've never seen a natural split. I would love to though. I assume you mean are my clowns laying on a pot or pvc? They are laying in a 1 1/2" pvc T fitting. (The orange ones.)

 

[Zylski]

Are the black ones still laying?

 

[Zylski]

I have never been a fan of cutting an anemone so i've tried this process and from what ive read its a quicker healing time too.

 

[rkelman]

Yes the Black ones are still laying. Right now I'm concentrating more on the orange hatches to get my numbers up in growout.

I know what you mean about cutting the nems in half but I look at it this way. Eventually every one I propagate will replace one that may have been ripped from a reef somewhere. Also I don't believe they are in pain. If they felt pain the way we do they wouldn't rip themselves in half to propagate naturally. I don't know about the quicker healing time as I have no direct experience with a natural split. From threads I've read the healing time is similar. Its really no different than fragging corals.

 

[Zylski]

Yeah I agree with you. Its quicker way to make them split and if my ways don't work and they don't split in awhile ill try cutting them. I think my main reason I don't try it is because i'm scared to cut them.
Sorry a few more questions. I got the pvc and put it in my tanks. My temp is around 80.5 should I raise it up or not? and what should my target goal with salinity be? Also is there a certain age clowns should be to breed. Ive had mine coming on a year and a half. They came full grown from ORA for and were at the lfs for awhile.

 

[WaffleWalffle22]

I make my own food cubes its a combination of about 10 different food items, including rods, PE mysis, brine shrimp, krill, squid ... ect. Im still in high school so i don't have the time to feed 2-3 times a day though . About what WaffleWaffle22 said about getting them to host. Right now they are hosting a GSP in the corner of the tank, just there's nothing to lay eggs on right now so I'm going to put a pot in there next to it. I would say it is very low stress its only them and a firefish in the tank.
Also I like what your trying to do with propagating RBTA. I have a "mini farm" that consists of 8 right now. Im going to follow up on what you do with those too. I really love what your doing your thread is a great inspiration.

Make sure none of the foods have ethoxyquin, which is sometimes disguised as "Vitamin E."
It is a preservative and is in dog and cat food, as well as fish food. It can harm the fish and reduce the chances of breeding, and if they have ethoxyquin in them the eggs may be unhealthy. Check the ingredients in all of the foods and if they have it discard them immediately. :thumbsup:

 

[rkelman]

Its not hard to do and I have great survival rates. .

I wasn't suggesting you should put pvc in your tank. I used it because it was easy and held up my frag / shelf up at the height I wanted. I would stick with tile or a pot ideally. Although the pvc does work and my pair loves it. I would aim for around 83 for Black O's. You are starting to risk the health of your corals at that temp though. Keep an eye on them. If you have alot of expensive sps I'd think twice... Yours should be ready and able any time IMO. Mine were i think about the same age as yours when they started.

Yeah I agree with you. Its quicker way to make them split and if my ways don't work and they don't split in awhile ill try cutting them. I think my main reason I don't try it is because i'm scared to cut them.
Sorry a few more questions. I got the pvc and put it in my tanks. My temp is around 80.5 should I raise it up or not? and what should my target goal with salinity be? Also is there a certain age clowns should be to breed. Ive had mine coming on a year and a half. They came full grown from ORA for and were at the lfs for awhile.

 

[Zylski]

Hmm intresting so your saying a tile is better for them? I got pvc because I could get it quicker. I just needed it because I had no live rock near them. I dont really have to worry about coral I have only softies and anemones in the tank.

 

[rkelman]

A tile is better for you! Its alot easier to pull a tile and aerate the eggs than it is a piece of pvc believe me. (more on that below) I don't think the increased temp will hurt the softies or anemones. Just keep an eye on them.

I had another orange hatch last night. They laid the eggs farther to one end of the pvc fitting so I was able to drop a cube airstone through the top hole and have the bubbles floating up creating current for the eggs. Before I was using a long airstone and had to sit the pvc on top of it and some of the bubbles passed by and some hit the eggs. This created some dead eggs and also I think beat up some of the eggs. I was getting a fair number of next day deaths which I imagined was because of the beating some of them were getting from the bubbles. This appears to be the case as this time I have had very few deaths. More akin to my success with the black o's on the tile. I hope my rots hold out. Man there is alot of larvae this time. I'll update as time goes on. So right now this gives me 3 batches of Orange guys on the go. And one batch of black guys on my new larvae setup. My first batch of orange guys are almost ready to move to the growout system so that will free up a tank for the next hatch.

Its been so cold here my rots aren't doing well. I took the heaters out to use them in the larvae tanks but I may have to go buy some more.

 

[birddog486]

Just wondering at what age do you move the fish into your growout system and with the three batches of orange guys will they all be combined once they are old enough or is it bad to combine say 1 month olds and 2 month olds into the same tank?

 

[rkelman]

Really it depends on tank space availability, fish size and my general laziness. The orange guys are about 2 months now. I'll move them over this weekend likely. They probably could have gone last week or the week before on a low flow rate.

Some of them may be combined. You can combine to an extent. Really more successful batches can't be combined because (hopefully) there is too many. I sort by size not age anyways. As long as there isn't a huge size difference its not a problem.