Suddenly eggs

[Tomoko Schum]

Hi y'all,

Tonight I accidentally found clownfish eggs in my 120. My clownfish pair was acting funny lately, not wanting to leave their frogspawn house much. Especially the little male was acting suspicious. So I decided to take a peak at what he was doing, and this is what I found.

I don't know when they laid these eggs. I have been rather busy last few days and hardly looked at my clownfish pair. Judging from the development of their eyes, they were not laid just yesterday, but they are still quite orange. I suspect that they will hatch out in a few days. I am not ready to capture them this time, though....

Tomoko

 

[gflat65]

Not long on those, Tomoko. Here are some from the Cinnamon pair I had in Nashville. I wanna say 8-10 days on every brood, but can't remember exactly. Once they started laying, they did it consistently. My lights went off at ~11:00, so by 1:00-2:00AM, they were everywhere (starting around 12:30).

 

[NicoleC]

Those look about ready to hatch Tomoko, congrats! Maybe Wednesday night.

That's a mighty fine looking nest for a first one.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Thank you, gflat and Nicole.

The eggs are still there this morning. These could well be the first clutch that I noticed but not the 1st they laid . I almost did not see them since they are tucked under my frogspawn in the shade.

Tomoko

 

[MaryBebo]

Ahhh , I hope some make it

 

[wareagle35031]

looking good guys

 

[stephish]

Tomoko this is very exciting!

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Thank you everybody

My light goes off at 11:00 pm like gflat's. If my clownfish eggs follow the same schedule as his, then I will be up really late to witness the event :eek2: I wish they could wait till Friday night....

Tomoko

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I found some pictures (a daily log) of clownfish egg development. The look of my eggs (yesterday's) resembles "day 5" pictures. The majority seems to hatch out on day 7. Eggs from day 7 are all silver colored like gflat's last two pictures. If everything goes well, I may get to see a bunch of tiny larvae late tomorrow night

To come to think of it, a few weeks ago I saw a small orange blurry spot on the same rock in passing and thought that an orange algae or sponge developed on my rock (and that I needed to get my contact lens adjusted). Little did I know...

Tomoko

 

[8BALL_99]

Pretty kewl. Good pictures of them

 

[kiran523]

Congrats Tomoko,

I'm not sure if this is the thread you mentioned but I thought I would share it. Nice breeding journal of ORA Picasso clowns. You'll love the pics.

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/livestock-breeding/32474-rearing-picasso-percula-clownfish.html

 

[Mariner]

Tomoko,
That's a really awesome pic!
Have you got plans to raise some in the future?
Mariner

 

[gflat65]

We dumb lucked into finding ours. We were having the last MTRC meeting of my tenure there when I noticed that the male clown was acting funny. I started watching and when the anemone rippled away from the rock, there they were. I tried saving them a number of times, but wasn't successful (and in the middle of a move, so it wouldn't have done me much good anyway). If you decide to catch some, turn off flow and shine a flash light into the top of the water from below (I went in from the side at a sharp angle to get the light close to the edge of the tank). They start to group near the light. I've got 5 pairs of clowns now. I can't wait for one of them to start spawning again. Ain't reefing fun.

 

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13236931#post13236931 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NicoleC
Those look about ready to hatch Tomoko, congrats! Maybe Wednesday night.

That's a mighty fine looking nest for a first one.

Hi Nicole, sorry to bother you, in public but we would like to talk to you about using some of your wonderful photos in Reefkeeping magazine online. If you could please contact me, Peter, or Marc (melev) at webmaster@reefkeeping.com we would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you for your time.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Hi y'all,

I stayed up till 12:30 am last night hoping that I might see them hatch. They did not come unfortunately, but I saw tons of copepods and tiggerpods swimming around in the beam of a small pen light I had for attracting clownfish larvae. I also saw a small pod eating flatworm that looks like a Casper the ghost in action. Some of my pods shine in the pen light. It was really something to see all these tiny creatures.

Mariner - I don't mind raising a small batch of fry in the future. I am set up pretty well to raise any easy fish with large larvae like clownfish. I am not set up to keep raising a large number of them, though. I don't think I want to have so many grow-out buckets sitting around the house. It would be a nightmare to do so many water changes, too :eek2:

Tomoko

 

[NicoleC]

Peter,

I tried to email, but I was bounced as spam. You can reach me at fishyenta AT gmail DOT com

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Hi y'all,

They hatched tonight! I fell asleep on the couch and got to my tank almost too late .

They must have hatched as soon as the tank light went out (at 10:50 or almost 11:00 PM) because I got to my tank shortly after 11:00 PM.

I first checked the nest and found no eggs there :eek2:. I immediately turned off everything and started searching for anything that looked like tiny fish larvae. Then I found about a dozen or so larvae hanging out near the back corner of the tank where the left overflow box meets the back glass. They appeared milky white in the thin beam of my pen light. Some moved fast and others were very slow.

I managed to save a few little guys . It was not easy to scoop them out gently with a cup, trying to shoo off my cleaner shrimp at the same time. I probably have a 10 or so little ones. I made a make-shift larval tank out of one gallon jar and dumped some phyto and rotifers this morning just in case .

I hope a few makes it till tomorrow morning. We'll see....

Tomoko

 

[NicoleC]

Congrats!

They do bust out almost the instant the lights are out. I don't know how you'll fare with only 10, but you don't have to mess with rotifers for long -- they are on BBS before you know it.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I still have most (if not all) of them alive this morning. I tried to take some photos of them, but they won't sit still long enough for me. All the photo are somewhat blurry like my head this morning.

Tomoko

 

[kiran523]

Congrats Tomoko, I hope they make it. In any case you should have thousands of eggs to play with in the future.