My Ocellaris breeding thread

[saltymix]

oh and great job btw, I think you are one of the best on here when it comes to feeding fry!

 

[mwilliams62]

My Ocellaris breeding thread

Both. I use buffer one day and water changes the next, 30% with fresh instant ocean/RODI water.

I normally do 30% water changes weekly in growout. I really ought to just go and get some natural seawater during incoming tide in the weekend, but I'm afraid of introducing pathogens into growout.

I am a little confused here since you said you were using the RG Complete which already has a buffer in it why would you add the buffer?

And what kind of buffer are you using?

And at what stage (dph) are you starting to add the buffer in there?

 

[ernieq]

The buffer is for growout and for the temporary tank I use before I sell them to get them acclimated to the higher PH. Having a couple of hundred fish in growout means a lot of bio wastes and it is nearly impossible to keep ph in the 8 range which is what my LFS keep their water at. I don't use buffer while in the nursery other than RGComplete, I only add chloram-x for ammonia control.

 

[mwilliams62]

Ok thanks that makes sense.

 

[ernieq]

For the first 5 days I add rotifers in the morning and in the evening before lights out, that way the rotifers get a chance to multiply during the evening and I have to use less. I strain enough so that when I flash a light in the nursery, I can see a good density (to the naked eye, it would look like a rotifer every 2 to 3 mm in distance between each "dot"). After 5 days I use newly hatched decap brine twice a day and before lights out I add about 1/8 the previous rot density which gets phased out after day 7 So if there are some left that don't eat brine, I will take some losses, but usually they just learn to eat it by then. I don't like introducing OTO before meta, because it means I have to clean out the un-eaten portions so they don't foul the water. I usually introduce OTO after meta once I put in the sponge filter. After meta I start with OTO A and do brine once a day, and then brine every other day after day 15 or so. After 25 days brine is totally removed and they are all basically on OTO (or TD OTO). I also start feeding frozen cylopeeze once a day from day 25 forward. This is the stage when my wife would feed them every 3 hours or so, a "pinch" which would be consumed in less than 20 seconds.

After they are moved to growout, they are fed twice daily either NLS 1mm pellets or Ocean nutrition 1mm pellets. At lights on, and around 4 p.m. In the evening they get their cyclopeeze.

Now that they are "really old" (10 months), I've been substituting gut loaded Mysis shrimp for the cyclopeeze every other night. And from time to time, I give them some frozen brine, mainly because that is probably what they will be fed at the pet store or whoever takes them home. Just so that they now it's food and they will readily accept it. In all honestly, anything I put in the tank, they try to eat, so I try new things from time to time, like squid, shrimp, and even some bits and pieces of fish meal (basically bits of fish that I remove before it's cooked for dinner)

 

[ernieq]

Another 12 were dropped off today. The owner told me he took a pair and put them in a tank with a carpet, and the little guys were hosting within 30 minutes!!! He sold them as a set with the carpet for $90!!!! He told me he has had zero fatalities, so it's worked out really well. After removing 51 clowns, the tank still looks full!!!

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[ernieq]

Here's a look at the guys this morning before they left to the LFS.

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[mwilliams62]

When do you start using fresh saltwater mix in the fry tank instead of the broodstock tank water?

 

[ernieq]

When they go to growout. Typically 60 DPH. Although in one batch I experimented at 30 DPH with a 20% water change and there were no negative consequences. I made sure the temperature and salinity were the same.

 

[ernieq]

Here's a look today. 10 days short of 11 months for the oldest batch.

 

[mwilliams62]

Can you explain your process for decapping the brine shrimp eggs, your hatching procedure and how you prepare them when it is time to feed to the fry?
The procedure that I found online you are using regular (iodized table salt) and I know this would not be good for the fry.
So I would like to know your procedure for this step.

 

[ernieq]

i buy the decap shrimp from aquaculture nursery farms. I just use water from my display tank. I siphon off a 5 gallon bucket and use it throughout the week. The hatchery is a couple of 1 liter coke bottles inverted filled about 1/2 way. I then shake the decap eggs in their bottle and measure out 3mm with a syringe. I have 2 batches 24 hours apart so I always have a fresh batch. when you receive the decap eggs, they come in either a 4oz or 8 oz bottle. When they settle it looks like 1/8 of the bottle has eggs, the rest is water. This is normal, decap brine takes a lot less space and the 3ml measurement after shaken will provide enough brine to feed about 250 to 300 15 day olds enough so they have bulging bellies. I try to split the feeding into two. after I sieve 1/2 the baby brine,i put the rest in the fridge for the nightly feeding.

 

[mwilliams62]

Have you ever seen baby clownfish swim upside down??? Is there particular reason why they do this?

 

[ernieq]

Upside down, I've only seen that behavior in some lfs tanks that have those displays with little cubicles where there is multilevel lights, so the clown doesn't know which way is up based on light. In growout sometimes they hang around in a vertical position as they try to protect whatever little space they have claimed for themselves, but never upside down.

 

[mwilliams62]

Ok thanks..

 

[ernieq]

Another 15 leaving their birthplace tomorrow. They continue to be bittersweet moments for me.

 

[mwilliams62]

That is awesome and I can understand about the bittersweet moments... I just hope mine turn out as pretty as yours...

 

[grimjaw]

cute little guy

 

[SaltWaterAdam]

alright... what is OTO and TD OTO?

 

[ernieq]

Otoheim and Top Dressed Otoheim. It is larval growout feed, basically really small fish pellets. The Top Dressed Oto has astaxanthin added to bring out the orange/red color on clowns.