Ocellaris Diary

[Sparty00]

My Ocellaris Clowns have been spawning for probably 6-9 months never really thought about attempting to breed any until I began reading Rkelman's thread. This motivated me to go ahead and give it a try, so over the last month I began reading and asking a lot of questions. Big thanks to Rkelman for answering several of my questions!

I began preparation two weeks ago to give it a try since my clowns had laid eggs again. I ordered Rotifers from Reed Mariculture, and began starting my culture. It was amazing how fast these things multiplied, and within two days I started a 2nd culture for backup.

On hatch night I shut off all pumps, and waited 30-45 minutes looked for larva nothing was observed. So decided to try again the following day, the next morning I noticed that 70% of them had hatched over night :mixed:.

Later that evening I tried the process again, and actually had seen several larva in the water. Using a flashlight and container I was able to get 5 larva from the tank. Not a great catch, but decided to go ahead and give it a try.

I actually lost one of them around day 2, however the remaining four now have lived for 8 days. Two of them reached Meta yesterday, and the other two appear to beginning.

Unfortunately I do not have a great camera to capture pictures of the fry, however I was able to take several photos last night that look ok, and I will post them later today.

 

[Sparty00]

Quick question to throw out there I have noticed that my two clown that have past meta now seem to be more sensitive to light or something? When I have the lights on they are just sitting near the top of the water, when I shut the lights off they start swimming around.

Any ideas what is going on here, I have a basic shop light with only 60 watt bulb, they were fine before when this light was on.

Any suggestions about this behavior?

 

[nauticac4]

Not quite sure but that seems like an aweful lot of light for a rearing tank. Leaving the light on in the room might suffice for the time being. I would try a lower wattage bulb.

 

[jplace003]

Wow that is so cool to see these little guys swimming around.

 

[rkelman]

Hey Sprarty00 I'm glad you got some use out of my ramblings. 30-45 mins is not long enough. Maybe wait an hour or so then see if they are hatched. They usually hatch not too long after lights out. I agree maybe a little less light would be beneficial. Good luck!

 

[Sparty00]

Update Pic's of 4 Clownsfish

Update Pic's of 4 Clownsfish

Thought I would post a couple updated pic's one of them is starting to get a 2nd stripe.

 

[Sparty00]

Unsuccessful Catch

Unsuccessful Catch

Well...I tried on two occasions to catch my latest hatch with no success :furious:

Not sure what I am doing wrong here....Both nights I turned out the lights waited for over an hour, and when I checked nothing had hatched. After the first attempt I checked the next morning, and probably 25% hatched over night. After the 2nd attempt the next morning, there were still 50-60% of the eggs. During that day they either all hatched or the parents ate them, because by the time I got home early evening they were all gone, and all the lights were still on in the tank.

Any thoughts as to why this is happening?

The 2nd evening I waited almost 1.5 hrs. before I checked, and still nothing had hatched.

Thanks for any kind wisdom or assistance.

 

[rkelman]

I don't know if this is wisdom or not but I agree they are being eaten. Are they laying on a tile? If not you'll have to get them laying on one and pull the tile a day early before they are eaten. I had to do this for a while with my black ones. They would only eat them on hatch day...

 

[Sparty00]

No I wish it was on a tile, they are actually laying them on my Overflow, and it is usually middle to top of the overflow, so getting a tile somewhere near that location is going to be difficult. Only thing I could think of was to epoxy one or somehow hang it

 

[cbau45]

You could use a piece of slate or clay pot and a little bit of superglue. Once the eggs are about ready to hatch that piece of slate or clay pot should pop right off and you can relocate it to a hatching tank. I used to use a similar application when I was breeding FW angels. It's the same general concept. Just my two cents. Good luck with the new guys!

 

[rkelman]

Well you do what you gotta do ... Epoxy won't work though. Being able to remove the tile is the whole point remember? The glue might work though. I drilled a hole in my tile and hung it with fishing line...

 

[Sparty00]

Updated Pic's

Updated Pic's

Hi All,

Thought I would share a couple pic's of my original 4, they are now 17 days old and going strong. I could only capture two of them, as the others were camera shy I guess.

Interesting Misbar's

 

[rkelman]

Nice. They look great!

 

[crooks]

Are the parents missed bar?

 

[clnfsh]

Just turn the lights off 2 hours early, so now you have 4 hours to wait. DONT DONT DONT shine a light on the eggs. Just turn out all the lights in the room, all the pumps, and wait. If you've timed the night right, they all should hatch.

 

[Sparty00]

Are the parents missed bar?

Sorry have been really busy, no the parents are not missed bar. I need to get a camera so I can get some updated pics hopefully I can borrow my friends so I can update. Tomorrow will be 28 days, they are all doing well. Only thing is the mis-bar clown is getting extremely aggresive towards the other 3.

I am still feeding them primarily Otohime A, when can I go with other foods, or foods that are larger?

 

[Scma]

I begin feeding mine pulverized flake food at about 3 weeks old.

 

[john68camaro]

I would move up in otohime sizes by now. I also grind up flake/pellet food and usually feed them that with the otohime mixed in.

 

[Sparty00]

New Hatch

New Hatch

Last night had another hatch, this one was a lot larger. Thanks to all who advised me regarding the wait time after lights go out. I waited approximately 2 hrs. and I was able to get approximately 65 larva. During this time I had to battle with my Cardinal fish, as he was trying to get a midnight snack. I know he was successful in getting quite a few, but ultimately I prevailed in directing him away from the fry.

Here are some pic's of the catch last night.

My original fry are still holding strong, will get some updated pic's of them later tonight.

 

[Sparty00]

Update Pic's Original Fry

Update Pic's Original Fry

I was able to find a couple of pic's I took a couple weeks back, but forgot to post, once I get my hands on a better camera I will get current pic's as they have grown quite a bit in the last two weeks.

Unfortunately I did have one loss, 10 days ago so I am down to three from the original 4. I had placed a breeder net in the tank in order to separate out the bully from the rest. Well one of the smaller ones got caught between the net and the glass and died.