My Ocellaris breeding thread

[ernieq]

What he ^^^^^ said.
I use 3 layers of just plain 20lb copy paper on the light. The light stays on for 24 hours. Straight, then 15 hours on, 9 hours off until after meta. I have the tanks convered with black plastic garbage bags in all sides except the top. After they get past meta, I remove the front one, and then after 20 days I remove the rest.


For the Temperature question for Marcin. Temperature is exactly the same as in the hatch tank, 82 F. Once they are in the hatchery, I try to keep it around 82 for good growth, but it fluctuates +/- 2 degrees and I have no issues. Cooler temperatures will delay meta and growth. You need to make abosolutely sure you keep the salinity and other parameters as stable as possible until after meta. No massive water changes. I do about 10% every 3 days and I drip in the water from the hatching tank. I usually do a fresh RO water drip to compensate for evaporation. About 1 drop every 5 seconds in my case, but you will have to experiment depending on your conditions. I also dose with chloram x to keept the ammonia under control, that is probably the biggest killer other than total negligence.

 

[ernieq]

Moved the clowns into my new house. What a mission! I figure splitting the 150 or so clowns I have left into 3 buckets would do the trick for the move from the old house. I totally underestimated the oxygen needs of about 50 clowns in a bucket. Within 5 minutes they were gasping for air and looking very lethargic. I quickly changed half their water and put an airstone in the buckets. After about 10 minutes things started to look up again, so I added some amquel for good measure. Moved them into a cooler with about 10 gallons of water, then had the airpump connected to an inverter in the car so I could drive the 20 minutes to the new house. All in all took me about 4.5 hours to take down the tank in the old house and finish at the new house in their new fish room. The water on the photo was a bit cloudy when taken, it was crystal clear this morning and the clowns were all over the place look no worse for the wear. With the added space in the fish room now, I am going to split them up into two 55 gallon tanks. Things are cramped in the single 55.

 

[mwilliams62]

Wow that was a lot in that bucket. Glad all turned out okay.. do you have pictures of the fish room yet?

 

[ernieq]

Not yet, I haven't done any of the plumbing, just need to move the fish over out of the old house. I purchased a pair of 75 gallon water tanks (one for RO water and the other for saltwater). I'm going to plumb it all together and install a utility tub in the room for water supply and water disposal. The room gets kind of hot as the ac vent is kind of small and the room doesn't really vent well. The room was converted from 1/3rd of a 3 car garage, so it has weather proofed doors and it prevents proper venting for the a/c vent. I will have to install chillers for the coral tanks as the water temperature with only the 55 gallon tank gets to around 82F.

 

[wahyu_pb]

Reading from page 1 until finished, nice posting Ernieq.. well done.
I have question about my batch. in 17 DPH i lost all my babies it's like 200 of them in one night. they all have fresh brine shrimp, i think it's not about the water parameter as i change about 20% water from my sps tank twice a day. they already have stripe in their head and orange body. why they can's survive after 17 DPH?

 

[ernieq]

Strange at 17DPH they should be pretty hardy. Did you manage the ammonia? even 20% water changes with 200 fish is not enough. Did you have some sort of filtration going on, like a sponge filter? How about aeration, did you have a couple of airstones going full blast? Massive die offs like that are usually ammonia, lack of enough oxygen or introducing a pathogen. What is the source of the water from your SPS tank? You don't need to make water changes daily (you really shouldn't anyway), just manage ammonia with amquel or chloram x. Was your water temperature steady (within 2 or 3 degrees F)? Did you dump any of the water from the brine shrimp hatch water into the nursery?

 

[Bielaz]

this is really helpful and interesting, thanks so much for contributing this to me and the rest of the community.

 

[knukles55]

amazing I must say there so much bigger now

 

[ernieq]

I've been trying to debunk or verify that tank raised clowns refuse to host anemones in a timely manner. So far I've tried 12 pair of clowns from my batches and they have ALL hosted the pair of bubble tips in my coral frag growout tank. Some have taken longer than others, but none have passed 21 days, with most pairs taking to the anemones within 10 days. The tank is small 10 Gallons, so that might play a factor in it, not sure. Would have to try it on a bigger tank to verify. But in general bubbletips are not even on their preferred list of anemones.

 

[ExpertMarine]

Man, thats alot of clowns...

 

[ernieq]

Here's an update on my grow out situation. I've sold a few more, I am "down" to around 140 or so clowns. My female passed away of old age, I assume, as she was looking kind of lethargic the last couple of weeks before she passed. I had her in the tank for about 14 years. Now I've split the clowns into 3 tanks. I moved about 40 to my 125G display tank which is housing an adult emperor angel, a coral beauty and blue Hippo Tang. I moved another 35 or so to my coral frag tank, and the rest stayed in the original growout tank. Here are some pictures of the fish room, and the clowns. Some are well over 2 inches already.

<a href="http://s1271.photobucket.com/user/eq2/media/Clownfish%20Diary/1F0D9912-E5B7-4795-B983-5022D130C208_zpsytufu0a3.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj635/eq2/Clownfish%20Diary/1F0D9912-E5B7-4795-B983-5022D130C208_zpsytufu0a3.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 1F0D9912-E5B7-4795-B983-5022D130C208_zpsytufu0a3.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1271.photobucket.com/user/eq2/media/Clownfish%20Diary/C9AE4A11-8310-44D8-B262-53EE89C17041_zpspa0s7t0t.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj635/eq2/Clownfish%20Diary/C9AE4A11-8310-44D8-B262-53EE89C17041_zpspa0s7t0t.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo C9AE4A11-8310-44D8-B262-53EE89C17041_zpspa0s7t0t.jpg"/></a>

 

[ernieq]

A few more
<a href="http://s1271.photobucket.com/user/eq2/media/Clownfish%20Diary/3D804AA3-C144-4F1C-B6A4-73FE188F2E81_zpszd7ihlps.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj635/eq2/Clownfish%20Diary/3D804AA3-C144-4F1C-B6A4-73FE188F2E81_zpszd7ihlps.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 3D804AA3-C144-4F1C-B6A4-73FE188F2E81_zpszd7ihlps.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s1271.photobucket.com/user/eq2/media/Clownfish%20Diary/A152103C-346F-4E9B-AD12-203B94F8FB88_zpstciuajva.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj635/eq2/Clownfish%20Diary/A152103C-346F-4E9B-AD12-203B94F8FB88_zpstciuajva.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo A152103C-346F-4E9B-AD12-203B94F8FB88_zpstciuajva.jpg"/></a>

 

[ernieq]

And the last two full view of the dual 55's that are housing most of the clowns. Eventually I will move another 20 or so to the coral frag tank, and add a few more anemones from my other display tank. Unfortunately I can't move some clowns to the other display tanks as it houses a 7 inch Saddleback clown that would probably kill these little guys.
<a href="http://s1271.photobucket.com/user/eq2/media/Clownfish%20Diary/021EEC5F-A549-4F80-8AE6-B7B276C0D9E4_zps3jaqlvsi.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj635/eq2/Clownfish%20Diary/021EEC5F-A549-4F80-8AE6-B7B276C0D9E4_zps3jaqlvsi.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 021EEC5F-A549-4F80-8AE6-B7B276C0D9E4_zps3jaqlvsi.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1271.photobucket.com/user/eq2/media/Clownfish%20Diary/D48F0074-5DA0-48AF-8D88-BC99A9BD2F19_zps09pdu4zt.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj635/eq2/Clownfish%20Diary/D48F0074-5DA0-48AF-8D88-BC99A9BD2F19_zps09pdu4zt.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo D48F0074-5DA0-48AF-8D88-BC99A9BD2F19_zps09pdu4zt.jpg"/></a>

 

[PeterHall]

Do you think its possible to collect eggs from a display tank?

 

[mwilliams62]

Nice update Ernieq sorry for you loss. That is a long time to have a fish 14 years. Glad to see you are still around with breeding clownfish... Will you be buying a new female to take her place? I sold my breeding pair of True Percs a few weeks ago and hoping that my snowflake & phantom would hurry up and start breeding. I know they are at least 2+ years old and I thought that the Occelarious started breeding sooner then Percs do.

 

[ernieq]

I'm going to get a pair of "fancy" breeds. Not sure if Wyoming whites or snowflakes.

Yes, you can harvest the eggs from a display tank as long as your clowns lay them on a removable surface. Mine always spawned on the glass, so it was not an option. Most people remove the eggs 7 days post hatch and let the young hatch in a nursery tank. I let the eggs hatch in the display tank and harvested the fry right after that.

 

[PeterHall]

How hard is it to collect fry? My percula pair lay on the back wall a few inches next to the overflow every 2 weeks or so. I would love to be able to collect them and try growing them out. Is it possible to siphon them off?

 

[ernieq]

How hard is it to collect fry? My percula pair lay on the back wall a few inches next to the overflow every 2 weeks or so. I would love to be able to collect them and try growing them out. Is it possible to siphon them off?

On the 7th night after spawning with a water temperature at 80F, the eggs typically hatch a couple of hours after lights out. This is how I did it.

1. Turn off all filtration after lights out. (you can use an airstone if your tank is crowded and you don't want to take a chance). My room was completely dark, not night lights, etc. If you have a heater in the tank, make sure you cover the pilot light, otherwise, the fry will gravitate to it and die due to the heat.

2. Wait 3 hours and then take a small flashlight (I used a small led flashlight) and put it in a corner of the tank where you can scoop out the fry. Let it sit there for 20 minutes or so, the fry will be attracted to the light.

3. I used a brine shrimp net to quickly transfer from there to my waiting nursery tank which had been pre-filled and temperature matched, a few hours before lights out. In my case it was a 10 gallon tank with about 3 gallons of water from the hatch tank. I always use water from the hatch tank until after the fry go through meta for all partial water changes. Also use a drip of RO water to replenish the loss due to evaporation.


You need to have the following ready for the fry.

1. A ROBUST colony of rotifers that you can harvest twice a day for at least 5 days and Phyto to feed the rotifer and keeping them going.
2. Brine shrimp eggs to hatch and transition them at around 5 days old. Decapsulated brine works best as the nauplii from decapsulated eggs have more nutrition since they use less energy during the hatch process.
3. Chloram-x to dose daily to get rid of ammonia buildup.
4. An ammonia badge to make sure you don't have build up.
5. An airstone in the nursery running, and a heater to keep temperature constant. I usually would put the air stone so that the air bubbles would flow through the heating element to keep the fry from getting fried.

You can read the first few pages of my thread for the rest of the information, but those are the very least you need.

 

[clownfish123321]

When you breed the Wyoming whites or snowflake i might buy a couple from you since i live in Lakeland Florida

 

[gatorruss]

Awsome journey

Awsome journey

really good job. Thank you for the well document job of breeding your clown. Give me a great start when my clowns start laying eggs. Thanks again.