My Black Ocellaris pair are spawning!!!

[rkelman]

"Awesome Thread !!!

I'm thinking I may have to do a road trip to Belleville."

Thank you. You are welcome anytime. Just pm me. I come to Whitby regularly.

"..If you get two identical tiles and swap egg tile for clean tile you will not stress them so bad."

That is exactly what I was doing until this batch when they laid on the rock. They were exhibiting nesting behavior but I didn't want to disturb them. They hatch tonight and the tile is going in tomorrow. I appreciate the offer of help as well thank you very much.

"my onyx just showed signs of pairing!!! yeah!!!!! anyways, I wanted to know, how do I get them to lay eggs??"

Good for you congrats. Just give them a stable environment and feed them lots is all you can do really.

"my onyx are in my refugium cuss I don't want them in the main tank cuss I won't be able to get them out later for breeding."

Why couldn't you get them out? Clowns are like the easiest fish to catch. I could probably catch mine with my hands if I tried.

 

[jthao]

yeah, I guess you're right. I could put them in my main tank. but in there I already have a pair of misbar b/w clowns, which i'm praying they start laying too, and a tomato clown. also i have a lot of fish in the dt so I thought (when I bought the onyx) it's better to just put them in the refugium that way they're all by themselves, also they weren't really a "pair" yet, so by leaving them in the refugium, I kinda forced them to "hang out" cuss they were the only fishes in there.

I think it's time for some picture updates of your babies!!!!!

 

[rkelman]

That is alot of clowns They hatched tonight. I just finished collecting them. I figure about 200 this time. I'll update with pics in the morning I'm beat.

 

[kerusso316]

Here is a pic of alot of clowns.This is one hatch.We counted over 600.The first is right half of a 75gal the other is the left half. Good luck with your new hatch.

 

[rkelman]

I've seen those pictures before Kerusso316. Man that is alot of clowns. Thanks for posting them.

I had a complete hatch last night of about 200 fry I think. I don't really know I started counting then just said screw it. It was late and I was tired. Keeping count is depressing anyhow. You start with 400 and end up with 150. At least this way I can say I started with some and I still have some. It makes sense in my mind.

I fed them Rotifers this morning then added phyto to tint the water. I didn't see any dead yet so that's a good start.

All the other guys are doing well still and eating Otohime like crazy. They love the stuff. The feeding reaction is much greater than with other food I've tried.

I don't think I ever noted that the second and third batch that are in the pictures below don't have nearly as many misbars as the first. Seeing as I did the exact same process for all of the hatches I would say it was initial egg quality as the reason for the 50% misbars of the first hatch.

I had 7 from the first hatch left (some of which are spoken for just not delivered yet) so I put them in with the oldest of the next hatches in the 15g to free up a 10g for this hatch. There was alot more bickering going on as the numbers got fewer.

Also I got a new display (190) and with the sump setup I have right now there is no fuge so I put a little of my dying chaeto in with the fry and you can see its quite green now and growing like crazy. I had too much flow in my fuge I think causing the die off. I do weekly water changes anyways but it can't hurt the water quality.

 

[Zoom]

Man you need to sale some of them they look good .

 

[dazed]

rkelman; :thumbsup:
Great photos; I sure hope i can achieve something like this someday.

and i really like your way of thinking: "At least this way I can say I started with some and I still have some."

makes perfect sense to me and it's pretty much the way i count mine, example: yeah i have some right now.

 

[rkelman]

These guys are a bit small still Zoom to go to a tank with other fish.

Thanks Dazed. You'll get there. (I'm not sure where "there" is or if i'm "there" either lol)

 

[dazed]

Wait, what.... Who's on first

I am trying to convince myself that small gains are good, after having the one larvae stick around for 21 days, i will be pretty happy if i can just witness meta. at this point.

 

[rkelman]

Small gains are good. These little guys are so fragile it seems even very small things can make a big difference. How many batches have you been through now?

 

[CoralKingdom]

congratz!

 

[Lifes A Beach]

Nice pics....nice job! How old are they now? I noticed yours still have an orange/brown color to them which still gives me hope that some of mine will turn black.

Is that a snail in the upper right corner of the 15 gal? I was wondering if it would be safe to have a cleaning crew in the juvi tanks to help with maintenance!

--Barbara
:fish1:

 

[dazed]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13069098#post13069098 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rkelman
Small gains are good. These little guys are so fragile it seems even very small things can make a big difference. How many batches have you been through now?

you are not kidding there for sure, i was sitting out in my garage last night just watching the little ones chase rotifers around and i thought to myself i don't know how these little guys ever survive out in the big blue.

this is only my 3rd try maybe the 3rd time will be a charm.

 

[rkelman]

Thanks Coralkingdom

Thank you Barbara. The ones in the 15g are I think 4 months. The ones in the 10 are about 3 1/2 months I guess.

Oh they'll turn black. To compare the ones I sold from my first batch at about 5 months were twice as dark as the ones in the pictures. In person even some of the ones in the 15g are pretty black. They all develop at a different rate it seems.

Yes that's a snail. I don't even really know how he arrived there. I think he was stuck to my sponge filter when I transfered it from the sump maybe.. I don't remember. He hasn't caused any issues so I let him stay. There is lots of algae to deal with.

Its funny Dazed my wife and I were just having that discussion this afternoon. The survival rate is less than 1% in the wild as far as I know.

Only 3. Ok no worries man. You don't even know if the eggs are good to start with. (poor eggs = poor larvae to start with) I've been told it takes a while to get quality eggs from the broodstock. I could see the difference as time went on how much bigger / better the nests looked. Now this one was small possibly because of the break they took. Who knows.

 

[jeff209]

thanks rkelman i've been missing your thread thanks for the updates

 

[agsansoo]

Wow that's a lot of clownfish ! They look great ! I also did the chaeto thing a few days ago when I trimmed it out of my sump. LOL

 

[FB]

Awesome job Rkelman.

 

[rkelman]

Thanks guys. I lost about 20 overnight which is to be expected. The water cleared overnight as the Rotifers consume the phyto and I don't think there is 200. Maybe 100. I dunno. There is some.

 

[hiendmusic1]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[sandyc]

When you originally set up your fry tank how did you cycle it? Did you put the sponge filter in the main tank to get it seeded? Or did you just use newly made salt water? I am getting set up for my first try at raising fry and could use some help. Thanks