My new A. bicinctus

[ThRoewer]

DD has a S. mertensii available now.

That's just 4 inches, about the size of my larger bicinctus. I think that they would harrass it to death before it could have a chance to grow enough to be a suitable host for these guys.

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[Planetmacro]

You have a point. The one I'm getting Wednesday is 4 1/2 inches. My female bicinctus is 5 inches so they're not getting the Merten's. My tricinctus female is also a little too big. I think the ocellaris pair will luck out. Do Merten's host perculas in the wild?

 

[ThRoewer]

You have a point. The one I'm getting Wednesday is 4 1/2 inches. My female bicinctus is 5 inches so they're not getting the Merten's. My tricinctus female is also a little too big. I think the ocellaris pair will luck out. Do Merten's host perculas in the wild?

No, Solomon Island, Papua New Guinea, and Irian Jaya percula are only found in giganteas and magnificas. And as far as I know, Great Barrier Reef percula only in magnificas.
Ocellaris are found in giganteas, magnificas, and mertensi in the wild. The ones found in giganteas and mertensi can have as much black around their bars as non-onyx percula.

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[Planetmacro]

No, Solomon Island, Papua New Guinea, and Irian Jaya percula are only found in giganteas and magnificas. And as far as I know, Great Barrier Reef percula only in magnificas.
Ocellaris are found in giganteas, magnificas, and mertensi in the wild. The ones found in giganteas and mertensi can have as much black around their bars as non-onyx percula.

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My Philippine caught ocellaris will get the Merten's then. If it all works out I'll post a video. I'd like to grow it as big as it can get!

 

[Planetmacro]

It will be interesting to see if the ocellaris darken after a while in the Merten’s.

 

[ThRoewer]

That was fast!

Came home and found my bicinctus spawning:

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Only 69 days after I got them, 25 days after I moved them to this tank.
IMO way to fast for a pair that was just put together. I kind of suspected from the start that these two had been a pair before based on how fast they paired up.

 

[Overboard]

That’s amazing! Great job (and great vids)!

 

[1claire]

The set-up looks amazing that it seems like they enjoy playing. :fish1:

 

[ThRoewer]

I've started to take more aggressive steps to "re-infect" the magnifica with Zooxanthellae so that it colors up again.
About a week ago I "fed" it a tentacle of my RBTA and yesterday I force-fed it a whole Anthelia polyp. I hope one of those Zooxanthellae strains is compatible with magnificas.

 

[ThRoewer]

The set-up looks amazing that it seems like they enjoy playing. :fish1:

That setup was mainly designed to keep the magifica from moving around in the tank. The holes in the large supporting clay pot were drilled with a diamond hole-saw to avoid having a dead zone without flow below the pot. Additionally it was supposed to provide a cave for the fish to seek shelter and they certainly like it.

 

[ThRoewer]

The female seems to be constantly hungry and every time she sees me in front of the tank she comes begging for food...

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Don't clean the front much as the tank is too low to look through it that way.

 

[ThRoewer]

The eggs have not hatched yet and the female is getting fat again. It seems they might spawn again soon, probably only a few days after the first clutch has hatched.

I had a pair of "clarkii" before who often didn't wait for the previous clutch to hatch...

 

[OrionN]

Nice clowns. My Percula pair is doing the same. They lay a new patch before the previous one hatch.
I hope your Magnifica improve with zooxanthalea seeding. Too bad you don’t live near here or else I get tentacles of my Magnifica for you.

 

[ThRoewer]

Nice clowns. My Percula pair is doing the same. They lay a new patch before the previous one hatch.
I hope your Magnifica improve with zooxanthalea seeding. Too bad you don’t live near here or else I get tentacles of my Magnifica for you.

Today I had to move some of my "spare" haddoni around - a green had decided to cozy up with the purple in its basket and they were crowding each other. When I removed the green from the purple's basket it decided to "donate" a few tentacles. So I scraped them off my fingers, loaded them into a syringe with a blunt needle and injected them into the magnifica's mouth. So let's see if this attempt works.

And since the 40B in which I "park" my extra haddoni was too full with 4 baskets I decided to move the purple haddoni to the tank with the bicinctus to see which anemone they ultimately prefer. So the purple haddoni may also release some Zooxanthellae the magifica may pick up.

BTW, feeding the magnifica is a kind of tricky since the anemone is a very slow eater and the bicinctus steal everything they can out of its mouth. Alone for that reason they may be better with the haddoni.

I'm also looking if I can find another magnifica locally (one of my percula pairs needs one) that I could use as a donor.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

That was a quick spawn. It wouldn’t be surprising if their fry was easier to raise like Clarkii and by easier I mean higher survival rate and less finicky eating patterns.
What light is that bleached magnifica under?

 

[ThRoewer]

That was a quick spawn. It wouldn't be surprising if their fry was easier to raise like Clarkii and by easier I mean higher survival rate and less finicky eating patterns.
What light is that bleached magnifica under?

I have a Kessil A360WE directly over the anemone and it is at 100% intensity and tuned to nearly fully white. The anemone gets blasted with light.

In my experience clarkii larva are not finicky eaters at all. The larva from that pair above would eat Artemia naupli from day one and eat like little Pac-Mans. I raised over 800 on the first try and it could have been easily much more had I not killed 400 in a stupid water change accident. Aside from those losses I might have 10 to 20.
I don't think that there is any easier reef fish to breed than clarkii (including Banggais who are actually quite difficult to breed).

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[CoralsAddiction]

I have a Kessil A360WE directly over the anemone and it is at 100% intensity and tuned to nearly fully white. The anemone gets blasted with light.

In my experience clarkii larva are not finicky eaters at all. The larva from that pair above would eat Artemia naupli from day one and eat like little Pac-Mans. I raised over 800 on the first try and it could have been easily much more had I not killed 400 in a stupid water change accident. Aside from those losses I might have 10 to 20.
I don't think that there is any easier reef fish to breed than clarkii (including Banggais who are actually quite difficult to breed).

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I think you read my "œeasier like Clarkii" as "œeasier than Clarkii".
Also, why mostly white spectrum instead of a full spectrum?

 

[ThRoewer]

I think you read my "œeasier like Clarkii" as "œeasier than Clarkii".
Also, why mostly white spectrum instead of a full spectrum?

It's full spectrum. With those Kessil you can't do anything else aside from dialing the white down.
Not sure if bicinctus is as easy to raise as clarkii. So far my impression is that the eggs are a bit smaller.

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[ThRoewer]

The last few days I found the magnifica mostly closed in the morning. It only stayed open on the down flow side where the bicinctus sleep. To clarify, not deflated or contracted but kind of balled up the way magnificas do in the wild. It opens as soon as the lights come on.

 

[ThRoewer]

The female is definitely interested in the haddoni.
I caught her to quickly swipe over it with her belly. Given that the haddoni is inside a basket in a corner of the tank the bicinctus rarely visit this was certainly no accidental contact.

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