Ocellaris Photo Journal from day 1 to day 30

[ernieq]

I know people are always asking what should their fry look like during the first 30 days. Here are some photos from my journal at various stages. During the first few days, because the water is green, it is difficult to get any detail on the fry, but they are basically pin heads. So the first few days I do not have daily photos. But I think this is a pretty good representation of the growth and development rates of typical ocellaris clowns.

Enjoy.

 

[ernieq]

Day 1, pretty much pinheads.

 

[ernieq]

Day 3. Silver bellies full of rotifers. Head gets elongated. Swimming bladder looks big.

 

[ernieq]

Day 6 just before meta. Their body color turns really dark on some, and begins to turn orange on others. They tend to hang around the edges of the water surface close to the tank's edges.

 

[ernieq]

Day 8 entering Meta. Notice the dark colors on some and light on others. Don't know why this is the case, but some never turn dark. They tend to swim with their head up. Notice orange bellies, these were switched to decap baby brine.

 

[ernieq]

Day 9. Mid-meta. This guy developed his head stripe. Though the color is still dark, it is turning orange. They still like to hang around the edges of the tank.

 

[ernieq]

Day 10. What a difference a day makes. They are swimming around the tank really fast now. They are all pretty much orange at this stage. Head stripes on most by this time.

 

[ernieq]

Day 13. More development. Notice the mid-bar starting to show up.

 

[ernieq]

Day 14. Pretty much the same, they still don't really swim like clowns yet.

 

[ernieq]

Day 16. Here's a shot at one in a beta tank. Notice the fin development and the body is now taller.

 

[ernieq]

Day 17. Almost everybody has their mid-strip now. They are now swimming like clowns with their typical bobbing motion.

 

[ernieq]

Day 19. Close up in beta tank. Notice tail stripe and further fin development. A hint of black on their pelvic fins.

 

[ernieq]

Day 21. Group shot. More white on their tail. Pelvic fins developing the dark black edge. By this time mis-bars are apparent if the fry have had water quality issues. In this batch there were no mis-bars. At this stage I no longer lost any of them. The batch was 71 in total after all losses. There's more debris in the tank now because they are being fed Oto and golden pearls.

 

[ernieq]

Day 23. Pelvic fins now almost totally black. As they grow, the proportion of orange to black will change.

 

[ernieq]

Day 26. Here are two batches, exactly 10 days apart. This is a pretty dramatic photo showing their growth difference in 10 days at this age. Amazing. The smaller guys were the same size as the bigger guys at the same age, they were not all runts. A sponge filter was introduced to help with the ammonia. I now typically put the sponge filter around day 20.

 

[ernieq]

Day 27. Pretty much the same, just bigger and more tail bar development.

 

[ernieq]

Day 29. Just bigger. At this age, it's pretty much juveniles and what happens over time is the development of color in their tail fin.

 

[ernieq]

Day 30. More tail color, other than that, just bigger. Cloudy water due to bacterial bloom. My filter was not totally seeded yet.

 

[Mark...]

I really enjoyed your original thread...you must do another breeding project...

 

[mwilliams62]

At what point do you stop tenting the water green?