My Breeding attempt - Perculas:

[FB]

Dazed,

I don't really think you need to be to concerned with the exact size of the bbs as long as most have the orange tinge. I also use two hatcheries and I use normal eggs and I feed one in the morning and one at night. So mine hatch in 12 hours. If you are using decapsulated eggs they should be hatching faster than mine. 1/2 teaspoon is a lot off eggs. Not sure if you have seen one of these but I previously purchased a cyano product and it came with a dosing spoon which is very small. It is about the size of your pinkie finger nail and very shallow. It probably dosen't even hold 1ml of water. I use 1 or 2 of these spoons depending on how many fish I have.

You can tell when they are starting meta when their tale starts to curve in one direction. Their stomach sort of drops, their heads start to round and fill out and they turn much darker.

Next time I have a hatch I will try and take a picture every 12 hours to show the progression.

 

[dazed]

FB; I am familiar with the spoon that you are talking about and i think i may have one around somewhere if not i do have one of the spoons from an old salifert kit, maybe i have been trying to hatch to many at one time.

I think my hatching time is due to temperature though if you remember my whole setup is in my detached metal garage with no insulation so it kind of swings with the ambient temp outside. Do you place a heater in your hatcheries? I have not.
How much water do you use? i have been using 2 cups of tank water and a half cup RO.?

Last night i did notice a couple of them swimming around with their tails curved sounds like that is a good sign, the larger ones are swimming around "standing up" and appear to be eating the bbs at the surface of the water.

Pictures of the changes would be great because in all of the books and reading i have done they all pretty much say the same thing "after meta......"
a visual would be outstanding i think and it would help some of us who don't know what we are looking for.

I will try and get some pictures of mine tonight & post them tomorrow.

 

[rkelman]

Well I don't believe its that fine of a line to tell you the truth. Especially seeing as you have Otohime to suppliment if you run dry. I decapsulate my own eggs but the ones you are using are great. I only use 1 hatchery. I feed the BBS for 2 days. Anything left over I feed my reef. Just hatch a batch of BBS and put it in a bottle in the fridge. Start another batch. Use the bottle for 2 days and discard / feed the reef. More than 24 hours to hatch seems like a temperature issue. I immerse my hatchery in water so I can keep it at 80 deg. You must be at room temp? I only hatch about 1/8 of a teaspoon at time. Of course depending on how many fish I'm feeding. I use new water mixed to 1.020. (it makes almost no difference how much)

Yes your right about meta. They go from the quick darting movements of a larvae to slow waggy tail clowns. You'll know when they are close to meta because they will get a kink in their tails. Yours are getting close it sounds like.

Here's some pics I took of mine tonight. These are 7 days old.

Pre meta Skinny and Guppy like

Mid meta chubby / slight headband / kinked tail

Post meta chubby / headband / slight middle band waggy tail

 

[dazed]

:thumbsup: Those pictures help me out a whole bunch thank you for posting them; I think i have some that are close to picture #2 although i did not see a headband like in your picture, i will look again tonight when i get home. the majority of them look like the ones in the first picture still; and i can't wait to hopefully see the ones in the last picture.

I will try and get some pictures of mine tonight.

From what you and FB have said i am hatching way to many bbs and i will cut that down a bunch. My hatch time has to be temp. related it would seem, they are in my garage so they are not at room temp, especially during the night, i live close to the ocean so it cools down here a bunch at night.

Maybe i can take my hatchery and place it in a 5g bucket with water add a heater and get better results.

 

[Lifes A Beach]

Dazed, I also use the decap bbs from seahorsesource.com. I use about 1 tsp. to 2 liters of water (presently I'm using an upside down 2 liter bottle for my hatcheries). At 78-80 degrees, mine hatch in about 16 hrs. at 1.024 sg. **Be sure to shake the bottle of decap bbs really well before squirting them out since they settle fast (I keep my bottle in the frig laying down so they settle along the side of the bottle rather than just at the bottom; it will mix easier when you shake it).

I'm feeding alot of fry but you may not need to use as much depending on how many fry you're feeding. I have 2 cultures going, rotating every afternoon so I have a fresh hatch every day. Any extra go into my other reef tanks.

--Barbara
:fish1:

 

[rkelman]

Good I'm glad they helped Dazed. I don't know about the development of Percs. I think the headband thing is universal but I don't know.

"Maybe i can take my hatchery and place it in a 5g bucket with water add a heater and get better results."

This is exactly what I do.

 

[FB]

Mine are not heated. I don't know what the temp is but i'm sure the light heats them a little.

My tank sitter never changed the bbs water for 9 days. You just have to wait a little longer for it all to settle properly. I'm not saying to go that long I'm just saying it has been done. I ussually go 4 or 5 days before changing the water.

FB

 

[dazed]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13109836#post13109836 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lifes A Beach
Dazed, I also use the decap bbs from seahorsesource.com. I use about 1 tsp. to 2 liters of water (presently I'm using an upside down 2 liter bottle for my hatcheries). At 78-80 degrees, mine hatch in about 16 hrs. at 1.024 sg. **Be sure to shake the bottle of decap bbs really well before squirting them out since they settle fast (I keep my bottle in the frig laying down so they settle along the side of the bottle rather than just at the bottom; it will mix easier when you shake it).

I'm feeding alot of fry but you may not need to use as much depending on how many fry you're feeding. I have 2 cultures going, rotating every afternoon so I have a fresh hatch every day. Any extra go into my other reef tanks.

--Barbara
:fish1:

Barbara; Thanks for the information, i am also using the upside down 2 liter bottles. I just do not know what temperature they are at. They are in front of the same light that i use for my phyto so the cultures are lit up for the same photoperiod of 16 hours, they may get a bit of heat from the light but i can't see it being very much.

I do shake the bottle of bbs prior to using them. I also store them in my fridge and do to the space requirements (beer first) the bottle is stored laying on it's side as well.

I think i have been hatching to many for my needs and plan to adjust it over the weekend.

 

[dazed]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13109998#post13109998 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rkelman
Good I'm glad they helped Dazed. I don't know about the development of Percs. I think the headband thing is universal but I don't know.

"Maybe i can take my hatchery and place it in a 5g bucket with water add a heater and get better results."

This is exactly what I do.

Yes they sure did help. I tried last night to get some pictures of mine but none of them came out real well. I really need to get a macro lense.

I was in the garage last night and the thought came to me if i put the bbs culture in a 5g bucket they will not be in front of the light? I thought the light was part of what kicked of their hatching process how do you deal with that?

What camera did you use for the pictures that you posted?

 

[dazed]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13110459#post13110459 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FB
Mine are not heated. I don't know what the temp is but i'm sure the light heats them a little.

My tank sitter never changed the bbs water for 9 days. You just have to wait a little longer for it all to settle properly. I'm not saying to go that long I'm just saying it has been done. I ussually go 4 or 5 days before changing the water.

FB

I don't know the temperature of mine either and i guess that they do get a bit of heat from the light, how much i don't really know.

So are you saying that you re-use the same water for the bbs a couple of times over? I have done this a couple of times until the water started to look a bit milky, at that point i just dumped it and started over.

 

[Lifes A Beach]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13114216#post13114216 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dazed
I also store them in my fridge and do to the space requirements (beer first) the bottle is stored laying on it's side as well.

I put mine behind the beer as I grab more beers than I do bbs! lol :beer:

Try lighting the bbs for 24 hours, you might hatch better and faster. Temp is important too!

--Barbara
:fish1:

 

[dazed]

:thumbsup: I guess as long as we don't get things mixed up then we are good to go:beer:

I am going to try and find out the temp. of the cultures over the weekend and see where they are at. Might try adjusting the time of light exposure as well.

 

[dazed]

I just wanted to Thank everyone for their help & support along the way so far it has been a up & down roller coaster ride so far but i hope that I am headed in the right direction.

A bit of good news last night my wife and i were talking after she had gone out and checked on the babies and she mentioned that if i can get them to change over that she thought it would be cool to bring them into the house while they were growing up, she mentioned it would be cool to see a tank full of clowns and that the kids would love it as well. :celeb1:

Question about the Otohime food?
I ordered the starter pack/sample pack and have been offering it in the am just a small pinch and i think that some of the larger ones are eating it.
In the pack i got the following:
Otohime A (360-620 microns)
Otohime B1 (200-360 microns)
Otohime B2 (360-620 microns)
Otohime C1 (360-620 microns)
Otohime C2 (360-620 microns)
Otohime EP1 (1500-1500 microns)
Otohime EP2 (2300-2300 microns)

I have been using the Otohime A in my infinite wisdom :lolspin: since the letter A comes first, but last night i noticed that the B1 is listed as a smaller size, i can't tell the difference by looking at the packets but should i be using the B1 instead of the A for right now?

 

[rkelman]

Mine are on my stand I made so they are lit.

I don't use a macro lens I have a Canon Rebel Xti. I use the stock 18-55 lens in in aperture priority mode and chose the largest aperture possible and let the shutter speed fall where it wants.. Sometimes if I use the flash I put it in macro mode.

I usually re use the water a few times. Yes if its milky dump it and start over.

We had a growout tank upstairs for a while. It was pretty cool. No room now with the 190 though.

Otohime A is 250 microns use it. Its strange yours says 360-620 but that's B2. As well you listed your others at the same size? Something is wrong there. I don't have those other ones but if they were all the same size there would be no point in having different names

 

[dazed]

Are your 5g buckets clear then? i have the typical salt buckets which are opaque white.

I have the same camera same lens and i could not get a close up picture of them to save my life last night, i did try the ap mode as well how do you adjust the aperture? that must be my problem i tried changing the white balance, the iso setting, the metering mode, and i did not get a nice close up from the top like the ones that you posted.

I am going to have to contact reed and ask them why the packages are labeled as they are, the micron size i listed is what the packages say, the only ones that are easy to tell that they are a larger size is the ep1 & ep2.
i will continue to use the A for now.

oooohhhhh 190 sounds nice do you a have a build thread for it?

and i guess i am full of questions today lol, can i add the sponge filter that has been in my sump for weeks now to the tank? Today is day 11 and i have been doing wc every other day.
I did notice last night that some have a kink in the tail & some were alive but just hanging out at the bottom so i think i have some that are in meta.

 

[agsansoo]

Dazed, the Otohime sizes are noticeably different, from A to B to C. Do they look and feel the same size ? I have the same starter pack. Mine were all very different sizes.

 

[rkelman]

No my buckets are salt buckets same as you. A pictures is worth a thousand words as they say.

In AV mode roll the fingerwheel with your index finger counter clockwise. You should see the display changing the aperture to a lower number (larger aperture size) Don't zoom in move the camera closer if possible.

I did have a build thread but it died lol.
http://www.aquariumpros.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=33948&goto=newpost

I put a sponge in mine yesterday. I would.

 

[FB]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13115588#post13115588 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rkelman
No my buckets are salt buckets same as you. A pictures is worth a thousand words as they say.

In AV mode roll the fingerwheel with your index finger counter clockwise. You should see the display changing the aperture to a lower number (larger aperture size) Don't zoom in move the camera closer if possible.

I did have a build thread but it died lol.
http://www.aquariumpros.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=33948&goto=newpost

I put a sponge in mine yesterday. I would.

What is in the bucket. I see you have clipped what I assume is the brine shrimp hatchery onto the side. Is that your ROTS?

 

[dazed]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13115558#post13115558 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by agsansoo
Dazed, the Otohime sizes are noticeably different, from A to B to C. Do they look and feel the same size ? I have the same starter pack. Mine were all very different sizes.

they look the same from a-c if you have the same pack as me can you take a look at what's on the outside of the package and see what the listed microns for size are? do they match the numbers that i posted?

 

[dazed]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13115588#post13115588 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rkelman
No my buckets are salt buckets same as you. A pictures is worth a thousand words as they say.

In AV mode roll the fingerwheel with your index finger counter clockwise. You should see the display changing the aperture to a lower number (larger aperture size) Don't zoom in move the camera closer if possible.

I did have a build thread but it died lol.
http://www.aquariumpros.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=33948&goto=newpost

I put a sponge in mine yesterday. I would.

lol i have some of those yellow clamps as well the light works even though it is above the culture?

for the camera setting are you talking about the a-dep mode or the av mode?

maybe i will add the sponge this weekend then.