New batch of larvae (unidentified)

Tomoko Schum

Tomoko Schum

New member
I was trying to catch some more clownfish larvae tonight with my DIY trap, but I ended up catching something else. They are fish larvae for sure, but the clownfish eggs are still stubbornly sticking to the rock. The unidentified fish larvae are much skinnier and possibly a bit longer. Since I lost a few fish during the GFI incident, the only established pair that I have in the tank is the high fin gobies. This is quite a surprise :eek1: They are quite fascinating. I have no SS strain rotifers so they will probably perish within a day or so.

Tomoko
 
Here's a picture of the unknown larvae taken from the top. They are clear with two silver eyes, but they shou up as tiny tiny dots. Some swims in spurts (in a jerky motion) unlike clownfish babies. Clownfish larvae also appears dark from the top.



Photobucket movies don't seem to come out as clear as the one I see on my own computer with a windows media player :( .

Tomoko
 
Do they look like this? The jerky motion does sound like gobies.

day2.jpg


If you want to try, the gobies may be able to take L-strain rots, especially if you culture leans toward the smaller size. Preferably with copepod nauplii mixed in, if you can get it.

I heard recently that B. rotundiformis is the most commonly used species in Japan. When I heard that I remembered the RC member in Japan who mailed me rotifer cysts that he got in a tube at his LFS -- when hatched they turned out to be rotundiformis! He kindly sent me the cysts as a backup to the culture I had, since it was so hard to get here at the time.
 
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Do you have Barry White playing in he background all night? :D Cool Tomoko. Keep us posted on the progress.
 
Barry White?? Dogs barking in the background and the percussion of air bubbles?

My daughter had her friend's My Spapce page up while I was taking video this morning and it was playing some sort of Hip Hop songs. I think it was drowned out by the sound of air bubbles :D.

Here's a still picture of the babies.

Unknownfishlarvae10-5-082010.jpg


They resembles the larvae in Nicole's photo. Yes, they do show the goby like jerky motion. So I guess they are my barber shop's babies.

The 5 gallon larvae tank has a lot of L-strain rotifers. I have no idea if they run small or large to tell you the truth. I started the green water/rotifer combo in it with the parent's tank water (my 120 reef) a few days ago. The batch of rotifers is contaminated with herpacticoid copepods and also with tiggerpods as well. I ended up bringing in baby mysis out of 120 along with the fish larvae again. This time the trap also picked up a couple of 1 cm long worms - one bright red and another brown. I don't know what they are. I hope they are harmless worms.

By the way my clownfish larvae hatched in a funny way. Can you help me figure out what might have caused this?

The last two times eggs hatched all at once. This time they hatched here and there over three days - some Friday night, and some Sunday morning like after 1:00 AM and again after 8:00 AM.

I left the room light on when I went to bed at 1:00 AM to keep the remaining eggs from hatching. Only half of the remaining eggs were still there early this morning. Parents were still fanning the eggs frantically. Then someone turned off the light this morning around 8:00 AM, and then the eggs were mostly gone by 9:00 AM.

There were a few water quality variation lately (first the GFI incident and then erratic water top off a few times.) Tripping the GFI delayed the timer and I was slow at getting the setting back to where it was.

The temperature of the tank is also getting a bit lower due to the seasonal change. The low is hitting 78 consistently, which is 2 or so degrees lower than how it's been over the summer.

Tomoko
 
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Yep, I am calling goby larvae on that picture!

I have heard that when clowns have trouble getting their eggs to attach and the fry hatch too soon, you should add table shrimp with the shells to their diet. Now, if the inverse is true, too much shrimp in the diet and the babies could have trouble hatching? I have no idea if this is true or not; just a theory.

The lower temps might cause a bit later hatching, but over 3 days? That seems odd. You may want to run it by the folks at MOFIB.
 
Thanks, Nicole.

Well, it was actually from late Friday night (near midnight) to Sunday morning by 9:00 AM. So it's more like over 33 hours, rather than three days. The changing temp, and fluctuating day light length and salinity situation might have caused some issues. The GFI incident stressed the parents badly for sure. They did not eat as much, acted skittish and skipped laying eggs for 14 days (one cycle). Who knows, these eggs (the first one after the incident) might have been imperfect. I will see what happens next time. If it happens again like this, I will seek for some help at MOFIB.

Tomoko
 
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The little guys are still swimming this morning. I don't know what they are eating if they are at all. I added some Tetraselmis and rotifers again this morning.

In the dark their eyes shine against my small LED reading light. Just a bunch of silver dots floating in water. I wonder if they were the shiny plankton like things that I was seeing late at night one night...

Tomoko
 
The little guys are still swimming this morning. They appear a tiny bit larger to me although it could well be just my imagination.

I added some rotifers and Isochrysis this morning. When I pour the rotifers and phyto into the larvae tank, the stream of water create a strong flow and the little ones seem to swim toward the flow like they are enjoying the current or possibly finding some new food :).

Tomoko
 
Yes, current stimulates larvae to eat - they get in the current and face it, and the food comes at them.

Setting up water flow to maximize this (without overtiring the fish) is cover in Wittenrich's book. Also he says with gobies - and most larvae - 24 hour overhead lighting with the sides and bottom blacked out for the first few days to keep them eating.
 
Thanks, Nicole. 24 hour overhead lighting is not going to be well accepted since they are in my bedroom unfortunately. I suppose I can move them to the kitchen for awhile...

I recall a number of professional angelfish breeders did 24 hour lighting so that their fry grow fast and they can get their fish to the market much sooner. It's amazing that fish can tolerate having no sleep. I understand that a dolphin sleeps with one half of the brain awake, swapping the sleeping sides periodically.

Tomoko
 
Here are a picture and a video clip of the larvae this evening. Their tummies look a little darker than the earlier picture. Do you think that they may be eating something?
The photo first. I added more water to the tank so that the water is deeper and my camera is focusing on those on top.

Unknownfishlarvae10-7-082018.jpg


The video clip here. My camera tends to go in and out of focus a bit because of the babies are swimming at different depths.

 
They don't have the same bands that my YWG's did, but they do look like they have full tummies, don't they? If they weren't eating, you would have had significant die-off by now and probably all dead by tomorrow. They only have 3-4 days of yolk.

YWG Day 3:
day3top3.jpg


Judging by the rotifers, I'd say yours are bigger than my YWG's were.
 
Thank you, Nicole. It's great to have your support.

Yes, my little ones look much larger than yours and have a different color pattern. They seem to have clear bodies without stripes. When I first caught them, I could tell that they were different from clownfish larvae at a glance - slightly smaller and a lot more slender than clownfish larvae. They also looked like fast swimming bugs from the top - totally clear except for the silver dots for eyes. So far I only saw a few casualties. Hopefully they are eating (the dark tummies may be full of rotifers or the motile phytoplankton) and growing.

Your pictures have a nice green tint of phytoplankton. Which kind were you using? Mine looks rather cruddy compared to yours - oh well, I am using three different phytoplankton with varying colors.

Tomoko
 
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