system logistics...

[Kathy55g]

So,
I have clownfish that are 3 months old, and almost big enough to sell, some that are 3 weeks behind these, and some that are almost 1.5 months old. These are all from my friend's spawning pair of A. Ocellaris. Night before yesterday, my own pair of what I think are Ocellaris blessed me with a large hatch of what are now 2 day old larvae, and just today, they spawned again!

It took them 3 years to get around to spawning, but now that they are, they are doing it every 11 days! If they keep this up, and I collect and raise every hatch, I am going to need more tanks! If it takes 16 weeks, or 112 days to get to salable size, and they spawn every 11 days, I'll need at least 10 tanks to have one tank per spawn. These guys do not seem to put out small nests, so I can't consolidate the hatches too much. I only have space for 8 tanks on my system if I replace the 20 gallon tanks with 2 tens each. Or I could just consolidate 2 hatches into one 20 gallon tank and free up the 10's as I go.

I probably should set up another system with the 20 gallon tanks for further grow out. Not all the fish will be ready to sell at 16 weeks.

How do you all do it who have more than one spawning pair?

 

[Kathy55g]

My littlest babies are looking very well, I just hope I can grow enough rots to keep them going for another day or so until I can start brine shrimp and dry food. I was not successful keeping the rots in the fridge this time when I went away for a week, so I got some from my friend at the university, but these healthy larvae are eating them so fast that the rots have not been able to consume the live greenwater I put in there. I cannot see the bottom of the tank, but there are very few rots left after only a couple of hours, and the larvae are fat and silver bellied.

In previous attempts with my friend's clownfishs' hatches the larvae did not do the J or S curve hunting method described in the Wilkerson book. These new larvae are doing it, and have been since day 1. Now on day 2, they have the peanut shape, and are looking really good and robust. I started out not knowing if I could capture them, and not knowing if they would survive, being produced from one of the first nests of this pair, but now I have high hopes for them.

 

[Kathy55g]

And just to muck things up, my sump has a slow leak in it. I will have to replace it with a rubbermaid until I can drain, dry, and patch it. Arg.