They did it!!!

[timrandlerv10]

ok, so my nem is still completely deflated, but color is still good and its foot is still sticky. that's the bad news.

the good news is...


WE HAVE EGGS!!!

sometime between thursday and this morning. sure enough, i stop looking, they lay eggs.

improvements over the last six months:
more MH light over the last 4 weeks--up from a few hours per day to almost 6.
better heat: when the heater died, i upgraded in size (from 2x50 to 1x250)...and even when we came in this morning--the office was 65 because we had the A/C on instead of heat--the water, lights off, was still 78.


SO excited...dont know if i'll be able to raise them--just not ready--but we'll see.

 

[scapes]

congrats tim! keep us posted

 

[timrandlerv10]

ok, so they turned from orange to gray today...not necessarily silver--no eyes, but not orange anymore. i hope its not tonight!

if i leave my office light on, will that help detract them from hatching tonight?

 

[Tomoko Schum]

GSM's eggs should look like this after 3 days:

If you have a camera with a decent macro capability, you can see their eyes and body color much better in the picture than you can with naked eyes.

GSM's eggs look a bit different from ocellaris. How many days have passed since they laid their eggs? They could hatch just after 6 days.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

GSM's eggs should look like this a day or two before they hatch:

 

[timrandlerv10]

you sent me a pic the other day where they were very silver, with a spot (eyes?) at the end.

they were orange, now they're silver, and much...longer?

they were laid sometime between thursday night and monday morning.

my anemone moved--still all deflated and wrinkly--and his foot was no longer on the same rock as the eggs. i pulled them out and moved the whole rock to the birthing tank. i've got a heater, thermometer, and an air hose creating a gentle stream rocking the eggs oh-so-nicely. i also added some nanno, but i've got all the lights off right now.

i want to go check so badly, and its been about an hour

 

[NicoleC]

they were orange, now they're silver, and much...longer?

Longer, yes. They are growing. Sounds like they will hatch tomorrow night.

If you do manage to delay hatching, they are still going to be eating off their yolk sac. The clock doesn't start when they are hatched, it's when they are laid and how much energy the adults had to build them their yolk sac.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Thursday night to Monday morning is a huge time span when it comes to egg development. Mine usually hatched on 9th day, but the amount of time depends on the tank temperature. Eggs lose their orange color gradually over a few days. When they no longer have any orange color left, they hatch. Taking a macro picture helps greatly to see if there is any color remaining.

Good luck, Tim. You can take a quick peak with a dimmed pen light (covered with towel or something) if you want to check.

I would add a lot of nanochloropsis till the tank is murky green so that nano can make a difference in the ammonia level (after they hatch). Do you have an ammonia badge?

 

[timrandlerv10]

That's one of the things I still need to add. I've got rots (thanks Mark!) and nanno (thanks Bob!).

They still had a bit of orange, so it may be another day...but I hope not!

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Larvae normally turn completely clear before hatching. If they still have specs of orange, it will be another day. If you are not going into work to check on the eggs over the weekend, whey not take the little rearing tank home for the weekend? If you are careful, you can move the tank and eggs without a problem.

 

[timrandlerv10]

I'm here, and is close so it's ok. They still have a hint of orange saturday lunchtime, so I expect it to be Sunday night now.

Rot pop is still growing and same for nanno, so that's good too!

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Have you put a good amount of nanno into the rearing tank? It should look dark green like you are culturing phyto in your baby tank.

 

[timrandlerv10]

Put more in this afternoon, but I don't have enough...

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I forgot to mention earlier that you don't have to fill up the rearing tank to the top initially. If you are using a 5 gallon tank, you can keep it to 1/3 full for now. This way, you can keep the rotifer density higher with less amount of rotifers. Newly hatched larvae do not move about too much and they need to be surrounded by rotifers. Another nice thing about it is that you can fill the tank up to 2/3 full instead of doing the 1st water change.

Do you have a rotifer sieve like the cylindrical one sold by Florida Aqua Farm? I use it normally for collecting rotifers, but it came in very handy to vacuum the tank without sucking up the babies [as Nicole told me]. CRA used to sell one and they may still have one tucked away somewhere.

If you don't have one of these, you can use a short section of rigid airline connected to soft silicone airline tubing to vacuum the tank. You can pinch the silicone tubing to reduce/stop the flow when the baby fish gets too close to the rigid airline. If you have a clean large tooth brush, you can cut its handle off and use the head as a vacuuming brush. Drill a hole into the head in an angle and push the rigid airline though the hole like this:

You can brush the dirt and algae off the bottom of the tank with the brush as you siphon water out through the airline into a bucket. You may suck babies out accidentally, but it does not kill the babies usually. Just return them to the rearing tank gently. A turkey baster with a large opening works well for this task. I like the clear one with red rubber bulb that Kroger sells. It has a large hole and the rubber bulb is soft so that you can squeeze very gently.

 

[timrandlerv10]

So this morning there was my first...second...ten! babies in the tank. Most eggs didn't hatch yet--put in rotifers.

Think the other eggs still have a chance tonight?

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Congratualations :celeb3:

I suppose the rest will hatch out tonight.

Do you see the babies lunging at invisible something?

 

[mshelton]

Make sure the tank is totally dark tonight and that the air supply is close enough to the eggs to cause them to move - helps the eggs to hatch.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

It's a standard practice to wrap all four sides of the tank with black plastic/paper in the beginning. After hatching, larvae are attracted to light and they tend to congregate at the glass surface where light is coming from supposedly. Some breeders seem to think that this distracts them too much and babies feed poorly. You want dim light from above the tank. I heard that babies get disoriented if the light is too bright. Some people lay white paper under the tank, but I forgot the reason for it. I found that a white sheet of paper underneath makes it easier for me to spot babies from above.

Since my rearing tank was pretty dark with live nannochloropsis, I didn't use a black sheet of paper in the first batch and they did fine. I used a black sheet of plastic for the following batch just in case. I could not tell the difference in the larvae behavior, though.

If you see a dead larva, just siphon it out right away with an airline, a pipette, a turkey baster or what have you.

 

[mshelton]

Having a white surface under the tank is just to make it easier to spot the larvae and detritus for siphoning. There is no advantage to the larvae that I'm aware of - except not getting siphoned!

 

[timrandlerv10]

they seem to be sporadically (and randomly!) shooting an inch or two all around the tank--hopefully that's them eating!

light isnt very bright, i'll cover the sides tonight so it will be protected tomorrow.

i REALLY wish i'd used a smaller container now!!! yes, i was told, no i did not use one small enough...next time

i tried to count them before, and its nearly fruitless--but there's around 15-20 i'd guess. i would love to have the rest hatch out, but if not, it will certainly make these 20 easier to care for...

thanks for all the advice, rotifers, phyto and advice!

next task: try making bbs!