My Ocellaris is spawing

D

dirtStar

New member
I had an occ with an anemone when I bought my tank about 7 months ago.
Unfortunately, the nem died shortly after setting up my tank (I bought it up and running) So my big (3+inch) Occ was just left lonely.
I decided to buy 2 juvi's that we about 1 inch in December.

Since then, the two juvi's are hosting my devils hand, and the large Occ made a nice home in a large cave.

One of the Juvi's grew a bit larger than the other.
The original Occ has had a full belly over the last 7 months a few times, and now I know why.

Two fridays ago, I came home to see the ending of their first spawn.
About 200-300 eggs. They fanned them for 8-9 days and I waited to see em hatch and to maybe rear some.
Well I think they hatched after I went to sleep, lol.

Now, as we speak, it is Sat, which would be 14-15 days after the first spawn,
They are spawning again. About 45 minutes into it. I got a few minutes of blurry video and few pics.

I already bought rots and also did a first batch of bbs to see if I could do it.
I will try to raise the bbs to adult size to feed to the tank.
So I am ready.
The only thing I did not do is put in a tile, but that will be going in in a few days or sooner ( I might wait until after this batch hatches, maybe not )

My rots came yesterday, so a bit early, but I am starting a batch (1/2 of the culture)
I also got tigger pods for my red starry dragonet, and I am culturing half as those as well.


The only thing that I am scared of is, my yellow tang and flame angel are all over the cave and my tang is trying to tail my Occ's.

I am going to try to have fun with this journey!
Wish me happiness, lol

I will be updating as much as possible.

Thanks,
Rob
i will
 
A day later....

And the two parents are proudly defending their eggs.
The other fish arent bother them as much, it is kinda normal now.

They both cleaned the batch out really good and now the egg count is around 500+
down from the 700+ that was after they were finished.,
The male also picked and cleaned the batch as they were spawning.

I will have to find an avenue to post the pucs and video, as it isn happening with an attachment.

I just started a small batch of rotifers to prepare, and I will start another in a few days, so that I have a few seperate batches, incase of a crash.

Does anyone know of a good time to put the tile in?
Should I wait until after the hatch or before?

I will have to fish the larvae out at night when they hatch.
Until then, I have a good week.

I keep my tank 79-82F, do you think I should raise it to 83F for the chiller to come on?
I thought it would help with the electric bill and with the hatch along with the time between spawns.

Any help would be apprieciated.

Thanks,
Rob
 
Breeding Ocellaris

Breeding Ocellaris

Congratulations to the new parents!

I've had some success raising baby Ocellaris clowns, to the point where I have a few hundred juveniles now and no good stores to sell them to!

I highly recommend Clownfishes by Joyce Wilderson:

http://www.amazon.com/Clownfishes-J...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272302186&sr=8-1

This wonderful book has plenty of advice on everything from tank setup to culturing food for your new babies.

I can tell you you will need a lot of rotifers. I use a system of five two-liter soda bottles with bubblers for culturing green water to feed three two-liter bottles of rotifers. A healthy rotifer population can double every three days, so when I'm feeding I feed half a bottle to the fry every day. You'll be feeding rotifers for at least two weeks, probably three or even four before you can move to feeding exclusively freshly hatched brine shrimp. Enriching both the rotifers and brine shrimp with Selcon seems to increase the speed at which the fry grow. To enrich the rotifers I add a milliliter of selcon to the culture the day before feeding. To enrich the brine shrimp I add the same amount an hour or two before harvesting.

I raise my fry in a ten gallon tank with a cut up black contractor's trash bag (the big, thick kind) taped to the sides of the tank to keep the walls dark. Clownfish fry are phototropic, meaning they are attracted to light so if you do not do this they will damage themselves by continually swimming into the side of the tank. They are incredibly small and fragile when they are in their larval stage. I keep the tank just halfway filled for the first week or two in order to increase food density. For larval clownfish high food density is much more important than good water chemistry. I just use an airstone at a moderate flow rate for water circulation and aeration. Whatever light is in the room will probably be enough, they don't need much, just enough to be able to hunt (they hatch with very well developed eyes and rely on their vision to find the rotifers they catch).

The night of hatching, which will usually occur 7-9 days after the eggs are laid, or a day or two after the eggs develop reflective eye spots, you'll need to be ready to catch the fry if you're going to let them hatch in the parents tank. Everything likes to eat baby clownfish, including but not limited to the parents' host anemone. You can encourage them to all hatch at nearly the same time by making the tank as dark as possible. I usually turn off the moon lights and cover the tank with a couple of towels (my parents are in a 25G tall tank, so it's easy to cover with just a couple of towels). You'll want to turn off all the pumps and the skimmer (if you have one) as well. When you check to see if the eggs have hatched resist the temptation to shine a flashlight on the nest spot, as this will discourage hatching. Instead, aim the flashlight upwards at the top of the tank and look for the tiny, tadpole like fry.

Once the fry have hatched, you can use their phototropic nature to your advantage by shining a flashlight into the tank. The fry will slowly congregate around the beam where you can easily scoop large numbers of them up. I use those red party cups, the kind you might imagine frat boys swilling cheap beer out of, to gather up as many fry as I can. I can usually catch 50-100 fry in the first few cups. You'll want to do this very slowly to avoid fast water movement as this can damage the fry. Likewise when you're transferring to their nursery tank you'll want to raise the water level in the tank to about the height of the party cups before emptying the cups by submerging them into the water and slowly tipping them out. You can't just pour them onto the bare glass as this will surely kill them.

My first three attempts at rearing larval clownfish were complete failures. On my fourth try I managed to get three past metamorphosis. Eventually, though, I was successfully rearing 100-200 babies from a single nest. I haven't been raising any in a while because I have ran out of space for all the juveniles I have now! If you're lucky you'll be able to sell some to your local fish stores, but don't expect to make a lot of money doing this. I had a store that I was selling regularly to before it went out of business at the height of the recession and they would only take 20 or so fish every couple of months, for $4 cash or $8 store credit per fish. I got some nice corals and a couple of expensive fish out of it.

Best of luck!
Blake.
 
Blake,

Thanks for sharing your experience.
Sounds like you spent alot of time with headaches and joy.

Being that the clownfish is so popular, it is great that they are able to spawn in tanks.

the only LFS I have around me is That Fish Place.
Not sure if I can sell them there, but I will give a try if I get that far.
I would have to drive very far to a small outfit or start a online webstore.

I have 5 gal buckets for rotifers and copepods (for my mandarins and cbb)
I also have the bbs growing to adult size for my tank.
I think I may switch to decapsulated brine for hatching for the larvae.
 
i would assume you should add the new breeding substrate after you collect the next batch of larvae, before they spawn again. would you mind posting your bbs, rot., and pod culture setup specs and maintanence?
thanks,
nate
 
nate,

I was thinking that. That would allow them to see it when they are "available" to spawn.
Right now, they are busy taking care of their nest.
Makes sense.


As for set-up, I am new to the culturing world so I just got a brine shrimp hatchery (the kind you screw in a 2 liter bottle, and hook up an airline) that includes the 3 packs of premixed. I started one batch to test. I also got some extra packs and tube of eggs.
I will let this batch grow to feed my display, as frozen BS is in my normal feeding routine.

I ordered from reed-nutrition the started kit of rotifers and a seive from ebay 53um.
I started about 50ml of the rots to .018 SG of new SW.
I just give about 5-10 drops to the culture (it has been about 3 days since starting)
when time to harvest, I will feed to my display until the hatch.
I have an airstone in the 5 gal bucket
bucket is about 1/3 fullI will also split the culture in about 2-3 days, to prepare for the hatch.

I also got the tigger pods, which I used about half the bottle to start (kept the other half in the fridge) in a 5 gal bucket with 1 gal of water.
I started with no air, as I have read many places.
In 1-2 days, it looked like they were actually multiplying.
Well, last two days, I put some air in, and they actually look like they are decreasing in numbers.
It may have that illusion, since the water is a bit green from adding in some rotifer diet.
I stopped the air to about 1 bubble per 10 seconds, to see if that helps.

Thanks
Rob
I have been dosing rotifer diet and crushed flake food.
 
I just gandered at the tigger pods, and they now appear to have increased from yesterday.
Not sure if they grew from the start, but they seem to not have died off as I thought.

I will keep the air OFF until I can have a few batches of pods in 5 gal buckets.

I was very inpressed with the arrival of them in the mail.
The bottle had a stocker that said "double density 1000-2000 pods"
and I dont think there was even one dead one in their.
At $20 a pop, fairly cheap source.

I have a buttlerfly that eats only frozen mysis and brine, and picks off the rocks throughout the day/night.
Sfter getting the starry dragonet, 10 days ago and the green mandarin 3-4 days ago,
I need to keep a culture to increase my pod population at a steady pace.

Not sure how long until the mandarin eats frozen, (if ever) but my WC butterfly was eating frozen in less than two weeks!

I have been preparing for the mandarin for some time now, and have read alot of info.
I have nice tank pods, but need to supplement for now.
I would also like to get some other forms/species of pods.
Any thoughts? I think their is ocean pods and some on ebay for reasonable prices (someone has 100% feedback too)
 
thank you, very informative. where did you order your pods? and where have you found information on pod cultures? do you have photos of your parents and eggs?
thanks,
nate
 
I do have a few photos and some nice video, but I need to find a place to host them...maybe youtube.

I bought the tigger pods from reef nutrition HERE along with cloram X and the rotifer basic starter kit.


I am seeing the first signs of the silver eyes.
Should be 2 more days until hatching.

I have two buckets of rotifers going.

I bought a commerical grade heavy duty shelving unit to hold my tanks and rots.
So far a 10 gal tank that I will fill maybe halfway or so of 1/2 display tank water 1/2 new SW.
I will put in the rots and rotifier diet to make a nice green water for the hatch that I catch.

I think I will be looking for a good source of decapsulated bs eggs, so I dont have to worry about the shells.
I will also get the starter pack of otohimbe food.

Should be Sat evening or Sunday.
 
Thanks, I use photobucket.com to host my photos. It's free and easy to resize images for posting. Is the culture maintenance similar to rots? Do you know of a good source of quality information on pod cultures? Keep the informative updates coming.
Thanks,
Nate
 
Well, they hatched last night!

It was a major PITA to scoop these babies out.
I covered the tank at lights out 9PM. I shut off the pumps 1/2 hr into it.
I tried taking a glance then and had trouble seeing, so I shined the flash light in.
There were the larva busting out of the eggs!

I had my girl shine the flash light at the top and I started collecting.
They were all over. About 1/2 hr into it I had about 200 easily.
I took em down to the tank. I came back up to get about 50 more out.
I shined the flash light into the display to see about 100 more in the bottom corner!
I spent another 20-30 minutes trying to get them, but they were not coming to the surface.
I was able to pick about 300 all together. About 100 Z(guessing) were dead in the
larva tank by time I went to bed.

I woke up this morning to see alot of good swimmers in the larva tank.
But, unfortunatly there were some that didnt make it.
With rots and diet in the tank, it is hard to see and count them.
I would approx say there are about 100+ that are doing just fine.

I am having trouble with my 50w heater (hydor theo) as it is set to 87 or something, just to get it to 80F. Not sure what that is all about, but waking up and checking the temp was down to 76-78. I clicked it up one more notch, just try for it to hover at 80F, and if so, it should be all good.
I have two digital therm, two open airlines, and one airline with a stone on it.
All giving good waterflow and small amount of bubbles.
 
I will add that I observed something last night and even this morning.


When I had the all the larva in the their tank, they were all at the bottom of the tank looking like they were not going to make it.
When I would shut off the light, they came up off the bottom and started to swim.
So to keep the same light cycle, I shut off all lights.

This morning, I turned on a few ambient lights, and 20 min later I turned on the flouresent tank light.
What I saw was beauty....The little 8 hour old larva were swimming really well.
They all came to the center of the tank and glided around (without darting)

Not sure if the light was too bright at the time, or if it threw off their schedule last night, but it was weird.

I added a few drops of rot diet, just to make sure they dont swim into the glass ( I didnt blacken the sides)
The rots are so thick, I may not even have to add any for the next few days.

Later today/tonight I will siphon off the bottom and change a bit of the water and try to get a good survival count. Looking about 100. not bad for the first catch/batch.


Luckily, I got the tile/stone that I wanted, and I will put a slab into the parents cave tonight. Hopefully they lay there either next spawn or the following one.
Although I may DIY a larva catcher, it will forsurely be easier to scoop up next time.
 
Update:

Bad news.
Checked on them this morning and only about 10 are alive.
I have come to the conclusion that my little 4x4inch filter floss pad in the corner for the rotifer detris killed them.
I dont understand why I put it in there, other than to help with the dirt, but they must have all got stuck and died.
Lesson learned.
The temp seems ok, the ammonia badge is tinted slightly but is prob about .02ppm, which should be fine.
It was a dumb move, but I took it out and now will have to care for the 7-10 that made it.
It may even be harder, as the rotifers will prob take over. I will have to seive some out, I am sure.

I did put a 3x6 real stone tile in the parent tank, it is in a wierd spot, as the cave is small to stand it up.
Maybe I will take a pic and show to get any feedback.
 
The parents are already twitching and cleaning off the same rock branch that they have been laying on.
The rock is like a beam that is hanging overhead their cave.
I put the tile lengthwise at the entrance into the cave, and it did upset them for the day, but after seeing this behavior, they must be in comfort again.

So you think I should move the tile to try to cover the regular laying spot?
i dont want to disrupt them, as fishing with the cup and flashlight will be fine for another time or two.
 
They were too young to do a water change IMO but the filter floss could be the culprit as well. Don't have anything in the tank that is not required. All you need is an airstone and a heater. Everything in the tank can and will become a trap. Heaters / airstones should not be laid flat on the bottom as they will trap the larvae as well. Having them hanging from above and not touching anything is best. I've had to sieve out of a larvae tank.. What a pain. I would cover up the spot they are laying with the tile. That's what I did with my black pair. If the female is very gravid I would wait until next time to do this. Anything you do may disrupt them but its worth the risk.
 
Thanks Rob.
I am learning every day, even after reading you 30+ pages plus every article or write up.

I had the floss in there for When I only had the rots in (waiting on the hatch)
I overlooked it the first night of the hatch, since I was focused on the gathering at hatch night and then was tired.

I put the tile in yesterday, day after the hatch.
I will wait to move it until the next hatch, who knows, they might decide to use it this hatch anyway.

The mother is more plump than 2 weeks ago after the first hatch, maybe her spawn will be larger or it will happen sooner.
I did raise the high end temp up to 84F as my chiller cant keep up with 82F
Even at night, the temp doesnt even drop below 81F
It has been super hot here in PA
 
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