My Breeding attempt - Perculas:

[billsreef]

Rot's don't really like fresh mixed water, so I usually reuse most of the rot water after sieving and only do water changes via phyto additions. I typically keep cultures going like for 4 to 6 weeks before restarting the culture and cleaning the culture tank out.

 

[billsreef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12665743#post12665743 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lifes A Beach
Since it's a small tank, why not just place your fry tank in the main part of your house (maybe a bathroom?)

I like the way you think Back in my bachelor days I lived in a basement apartment with a decent sized culture room, err, bathroom :lol: Amazingly my wife still married me

 

[Lifes A Beach]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12672692#post12672692 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by billsreef
I like the way you think

Hey, you do what you gotta do!!! lol With one hatch a while ago, I ran out of rack and table space for a fry hatch tank and ended up putting it on the counter in one of my bathrooms for a few days. I had no idea this part of the hobby would take off the way it has. I'm making space in my 2 car garage to move all the fry/nursery/growout/bbs/rotifer equipment out of the house. But, being in Florida, I'll have to put an air conditioner in the garage! Growing pains, I guess!

--Barbara

 

[dazed]

woooo they hatched last night all but about 10 of them. I took this picture after removing them from the reef:

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I used the info & advice from FB (thanks again) and placed the tile on top of the heater and adjusted the bubbles to what i thought looked ok:

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I used 5g of tank water from my reef. After i had the air adjusted, etc. I added 300ml of phyto to green up the water:

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I did not have much time to get everything done. Unfortunately one of my girls is sick with the chickenpox so free time was not really available last night. For the rotifers i simply dunked my collector into the cultures let it drain and added it to the tank.

This morning when i turned on the light i saw a bunch of them moving about the water.

Some were on the bottom but alive is that normal?

Now that they are in there how often do i need to add rotifers to the tank?

 

[dazed]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12672663#post12672663 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by billsreef
Rot's don't really like fresh mixed water, so I usually reuse most of the rot water after sieving and only do water changes via phyto additions. I typically keep cultures going like for 4 to 6 weeks before restarting the culture and cleaning the culture tank out.

Bill; I am a little confused then
What type of water should i be using then to expand the rotifer cultures?
diluted water from my main reef?

What i have been doing is very slowly via dripping adding new saltwater to expand the cultures.

If you reuse most of the water from the rotifer's then i guess my "swoop & scoop & drain" method from last night is about the same thing?

could you elaborate or post a link to what you mean by restarting/cleaning out the rotifer culture.

 

[dazed]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12673939#post12673939 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lifes A Beach
Hey, you do what you gotta do!!! lol With one hatch a while ago, I ran out of rack and table space for a fry hatch tank and ended up putting it on the counter in one of my bathrooms for a few days. I had no idea this part of the hobby would take off the way it has. I'm making space in my 2 car garage to move all the fry/nursery/growout/bbs/rotifer equipment out of the house. But, being in Florida, I'll have to put an air conditioner in the garage! Growing pains, I guess!

--Barbara

that is funny. But since my wife has already nick named my food station in the garage a meth-lab looking setup i will work with what i have for right now; lol.
Just to inject a bit of humor: How do you know that your wife loves you & supports you? Last Friday when my live culture arrived my wife called me @ 2:00 and said your stuff is here, of course i was at the time at the lfs buying all of the stuff i thought i might need. Tanks,heaters,airstones,etc.etc. Another call @ 2:30 and she reminds me that the box is marked perishable; (of course i am still at the lfs). So I arrive home @ 2:45 and she hands me my box of critters that has been sitting on her desk.

[/IMG]

 

[FB]

If they are on the bottom it means there is probably to much light. You can either reduce the lighting or add more phyto.

FB

 

[dazed]

I should clarify; i noticed some of them on the bottom this morning when i first turned on the light. they were alive just scooting along the bottom and not in the water column like most of the rest. I turned the light on @ 7:00 this morning and will check to see if they are doing headstands at lunchtime. If they are then that would mean to much light correct?

I also turned down the bubbles a bit this morning what should i do about the ones that did not hatch?
The last batch did the same thing in my reef most hatched the first day and the rest the following night.

 

[agsansoo]

Reduce the light until they start swimming again. If they stay in one place, they are not eating. The water looks green enough to me. You want to dim the room lights or place a night light above the tank.

 

[FB]

Dazed, I guess I'm kinda late with the pic but didn't have a good one until tonight. This is how I have them in the larvae tank before hatching.

The buble line is about 1/2" away from the tile. The tile fits nice and snug in behind the heater. The bubble movement causes the eggs to move in the current.

 

[billsreef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12677091#post12677091 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dazed
Bill; I am a little confused then
What type of water should i be using then to expand the rotifer cultures?
diluted water from my main reef?

What i have been doing is very slowly via dripping adding new saltwater to expand the cultures.

If you reuse most of the water from the rotifer's then i guess my "swoop & scoop & drain" method from last night is about the same thing?

could you elaborate or post a link to what you mean by restarting/cleaning out the rotifer culture.

I wouldn't use aquarium water, unless it's been sterilized first. You don't want any contamination of things that might affect the culture, such as copepods. If doing a big step up, or water change, use fresh mix water that has been aged for a minimum of 24 hours . Also try not to use more than 50% new water when doing such. In between, for general maintenance and harvesting, reusing the water after you sieve out your copepods is best. I usually use a large cup (old chinese soup container ) and scoop up from my culture, pour through the sieve with the water draining into a bucket. After feeding off the rots, I return to my culture and pour that drain water back into the culture and feed phyto at the same time. When the culture is going full bore, I usually end up feeding phtyo twice a day. So I keep the culture tank around half full, when it gets toward the top from all the phyto additions, I'll toss some of the drain water to lower the volume a bit, and call that a water change

 

[dazed]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12682428#post12682428 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FB
Dazed, I guess I'm kinda late with the pic but didn't have a good one until tonight. This is how I have them in the larvae tank before hatching.

The buble line is about 1/2" away from the tile. The tile fits nice and snug in behind the heater. The bubble movement causes the eggs to move in the current.

FB; thanks for the picture; interesting i noticed that you do not use an airstone for the bubbles during the hatching process have you found that it works better that way?

I tried as well to use the same method you can see my pictures up above a couple of posts.

 

[dazed]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12684168#post12684168 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by billsreef
I wouldn't use aquarium water, unless it's been sterilized first. You don't want any contamination of things that might affect the culture, such as copepods. If doing a big step up, or water change, use fresh mix water that has been aged for a minimum of 24 hours . Also try not to use more than 50% new water when doing such. In between, for general maintenance and harvesting, reusing the water after you sieve out your copepods is best. I usually use a large cup (old chinese soup container ) and scoop up from my culture, pour through the sieve with the water draining into a bucket. After feeding off the rots, I return to my culture and pour that drain water back into the culture and feed phyto at the same time. When the culture is going full bore, I usually end up feeding phtyo twice a day. So I keep the culture tank around half full, when it gets toward the top from all the phyto additions, I'll toss some of the drain water to lower the volume a bit, and call that a water change

Bill; thanks for the information that really helps clear up some of my questions.

 

[FB]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12684401#post12684401 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dazed
FB; thanks for the picture; interesting i noticed that you do not use an airstone for the bubbles during the hatching process have you found that it works better that way?

I tried as well to use the same method you can see my pictures up above a couple of posts.

I did try an airstone and found that I did not get very good movement. With larger bubbles it displaces more water thus causing a bigger pulse of water movement. The bubbles don't need to be that close to the eggs to get good movement.

 

[dazed]

Well i guess this is morning of day 2 for me & the little ones. I will have to learn as much as i can from this first batch because my female clown surprised me last night by laying another batch of eggs. She has been usually taking one day off after the hatch night before laying more; so i did not have a tile in the reef tank for her so i will have to wait until later for another batch.

A couple of observations & questions so far:

1. I noticed yesterday morning after they hatched that a bunch of them were already dead on the bottom of the tank. (the dead larvae were very noticeable as they were white in color.) From what i understand so far they did not starve in that short amount of time. What are some of the factors to consider?
To much air bubbles during the hatching process?

2. Last night i started a drip of fresh ro/di (1g) to start bringing down the sg (slowly) from 1.026. I am going to try and target 1.020 for the larvae tank. Is this process ok?

3. I have found so far that allot of phyto is needed to keep the water in the larvae tank green. Which is a good thing i suppose because i can see rotifers everywhere, in the water column and they have started sticking to the sides of the tank as well.

4. I plan to do my first water change tomorrow which would be day 3 is that correct?
I do plan on trying to siphon out the ones that have passed already today.

 

[dazed]

Well this marks the start of day 3 for me.
Still have quite a few that seem to be doing well. Some of them do seem to be ahead of others though, i have noticed at least i think so that a good % of them appear to have silver belly's i assume at this point that they are eating. There are a few that appear lighter in overall color still not sure what to make of that?

I have run a couple of bbs test batches and it seems for me that it takes around 36-48 hours to hatch them (probably due to temp). So i plan to start a batch today which should allow me to offer them some on day 5 is that acceptable?
How much of the bbs is added to the larvae tank?

I plan to make my 1st 20% water change as well later on today is that ok?

 

[agsansoo]

Do you have a Seachem alert badge in the tank ? What is the ammonia level in the larvae tank ?

 

[dazed]

Yes i have 1 of the badges in the tank and it still reads that all is safe.

 

[billsreef]

Water changes are always good

 

[jmadison]

More Pics PlZ! So is the only flow in the tank from the airstone then?