Time for some Clown Questions :)

Well long time since last update. Last nights hatch went great as far as hatch rate with the new airstone bubbling technique. Thanks Mitch. I had transferred the egg Phyto the larval tanks with parent water sanitized trough the Kathy suggested chlorinate/dechlorinate technique. Thanks Kathy :) This took place at 4:00pm. Past hatches have been difficult to try and watch the way the lighting in the room is never really DARK until 11:30pm or so with growout, aquatics, MH, Lunar lights all going off at different times. So what I experimented with last hatch, and did very successfully this hatch was, as I stated, covering the larval tank with a towel with just the mini mag with pinhole on the top of the tank to try to keep the larva away from the turbulence of the air bubbles.

This technique worked great, with my new MH balest the parent tank temp. stayed at 82, and all but 18-20 eggs hatched within one hour. So the total dankness, even if earlier than normal light cycle, sufficiantly stimulates the hatch in my experience.

Problems arise after I contemplated pulling the plate and lowering air flow with the 18-20 still unhatched instead of playing the possible two day hatch game and I thing it cost me 50-100 larva. Not great thinking, but hay I tried. :) Next issue was with leaving the towel on the tank until morning, so I could sleep in a little and not get up at 5am when the growout lights come on, then give them phyto and rots for their fist meal should have been done the night before as Matt suggested in his thread. That way when the lights came on they would have been set with a meal. I really wanted to double check the light intensity because that was a possible suspect of a previous issue. However, the 4 ft. 2-40w bulb set up 36 in above the tank is fine.

As mentioned earlier, the towel around the tank also affected my tank temp[ raising the temp from 82-84 by morning. I'm not sure if that was the cause of some loss, but in the morning when I went to feed phyto and rots lost another 100-200 :( so guessing if the Phyto and rots were added the night before so the towel could be removed losses might have been less.

Another cause of the losses was changing the SG. I have read slowly lowering the SG helps. Well, I added 3/4 of a gallon of RO/DI water on a slow drip last night before bed. I should have stayed up to monitor, because I think that was a little too much. the SG went down from 1.022 to 1.0175 in 5 hrs. Too low, too fast I gather. another contributing factor to my losses.

To make a long story short, I have to say "Do you want the Good news, Or the Bad news." The good news is: The new hatching air method gave the best hatch to date, thanks Mitch.:) Witch seemed to be my major problem in the past. The good news is: I learned a lot again!! :) The bad news is: I'm down to another 21 fry batch. Better than a poke in the eye I guess. It just gets a little frustrating when your so close, yet so far.

Thanks again for all the help Matt, David, Kathy, and Mitch. Any further thoughts of input will, as always, be greatly appreciated. Hope some of my faults help someone else...Carl
 
21 dead. Total loss...you'd think I would learn something over nine batches..guess not. I can kill anything if given the chance. Guess I'll chalk this one up to osmotic shock. Who knows!!!
 
Well, redid some landscaping and loots like papas a little spooked. overdue for spawn by six days. Mamma had her tube down last two days..Looks like papas not in the mood. Hope that changes.

Got a pic of the Halloween batch at What?....96 days of so. One guy is starting a third stripe.

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Got the Basement walls torn apart and am doing the Electric to create separate circuits for the brood stock system and Larval/growout section.
 
I am semi intersted in breeding clowns...i am just waiting on my false oscellaris to pair up...Quick question...how are you keeping your pH and water quality high in such a small tank with no gravel/sand or live rock? Do you have to resort to using some sort of pH adjuster?
 
no ph adjuster needed...just some 50% water changes once or twice a week. :) Hope this helps...Carl
 
Ok, cool...yea I can't wait to get started...its no fun waiting around till my clowns decide to pair up...any idea of how long this takes? I got them both when they were the same size and now one has grown slightly bigger than the other.
 
Good sign...could be over a year so patience is a virtue. :) Work on your cultures to get used to that ordeal...if you get too impatient, buy a spawning pair, While you wait for the others. Best of luck.....Carl
 
I guess I can due some updates, since the thread is up....

Construction is on the way...Electric is in the works for a separate circuit for this area...

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Ran across a great deal on live rock, so I could pass since my tank was lacking. I have read that moving stuff around can delay spawning, which it has. :( Upon my observation mamma seems ready to go with tube out hangin and papa seems more like he's searching for a secure site. They have been wandering from the plate/old site so we will see what happens.

I was washing the glass top and broke on side-it like just shattered in my hand, I didn't bump it or anything. Pretty weird really...Well that hole ordeal dropped my tank temp to just below 80F so that may also play a role in the delay. I just put a heater in the sump yesterday and now were cooking at 83...Gonna try to keep it around there and see the results, other than my leather no looking too happy...He'll be ok :)

Well, kind of forgot the batch numbers...let's see...Batch 4-14 remain at 99 days


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Seem to be looking pretty good.

Batch 5 is at like 88 days and the count is still around 50. They remain in a 10 gal growout setup with hang on filter. This tank and the one housing batch 4 actually wen through a pretty substantial cycle and fish remain ok. Water quality is excellent now. :) batch 5 was the whole PopEye thing and it turns out was just nitrite poisoning from the cycling...Tuff little buggers. I guess Natural Selection happening right in my own home. :) Always learning...

Batch 6 is down to 11. 10 in the breeder net you see on the main tank. One runt from that batch and one runt from batch 4 in the other breeder net along with a pair of baby Green Banded Gobies from our wonderful friend MWP. Thank you again and pray to see you hear soon!!! They are getting nice and Fat and eating well. Lots of leftovers in a breeders net it seems.

Batch 7, 8, and 9....Total losses' You would think I learned something by now...Was Playing with tanks sterilization, using DT's instead of home grown phyto, trying new airstone things, creating earlier hatch times, etc. All experimenting and probably got something useful out of it all. I hope.

So as we wait for my pair to start up again..If they do, I will continue on with the growout building. I have been slowly getting parts together and going to buy some materials tomorrow. Game plan for next batch is back to the basics. Home grown culture, Which is doing great right now, Parent tank water through a 23 sieve only...no sterilizing. That is if I can keep the Main tanks temp stable to expect an eight day hatch. Guess we will see. Thanks to all who share....Carl
 
Thanks Kathy...that means a lot coming from you :)

Thanks Embryoguy...been an interesting road as you can see.
 
I have a diagram in an earlier post except the lower shelf will contain 5-20 gals turned like the 10's. the 20's will be on common filtration, two of the 10s on sponge/hangon type and two 10's for larval...for now. :) pic's of the construction are as above....please disperse, nothing to see here!...:) only stud's/2x4's to see. Will keep updated as I progress.
 
We have a spawn...The god's for fish tell me I get another chance at a hatch. :D Spawn #10 tonight. Should be hatching spawn 12...But, I'm just glade they started up again and still on my tile...Not the clay pot base as usual. So hopefully this batch will be ok after being delayed for so long. I don't think Mama reabsorbed the eggs so we shall see what happens. Also gotta watch some new faces in the tank...six lined wrasse is getting braver and blue tang, as mentioned earlier, is acting funny. New Copperbanded butterfly add after last spawn so gotta watch that one two.
 
hi, this is a great tread to watch lots of info,good luck with everything, just wondering what dimentions are a 10gal and 20 gal tanks?? thanks
 
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