Walt's Official A. thiellei Page

[isseym328]

Good looking pair there Walt. I still have my lone Thiellei of 5-6 years after moving her from a 60g to my 270g. I tried to pair her up with a cap but to no avail. Any insights on a lone Thiellei out there? Been forever since I've seen one at the lfs.

Btw I keep my tank temp very low....73-74 degrees even in the summer if possible. Not sure if heat is the culprit in your tank but my thiellei has been pretty healthy.

Is that pair ready to spawn?

 

[WDLV]

My pair was doing a lot of cleaning last night. I also heard my female click. I don't recall the last time I heard that. Perhaps the recent tile, flow and water changes I made over the weekend were favorable. My lone thiellei was loaned to a breeder friend at a public aquarium about four months ago. Its with a lone sandaracinos. This fish is notoriously difficult to pair... both before me and now. Ill give it a few more months. I would remove yours and put it in a ten gallon adjacent to a tiny ocellaris in another ten gallon so they can see each other. After a month, (if you get a good gut feeling) put them in the same ten gallon. If they bond, add them back to the big tank. That's how I paired my pair. They are inseparable. I think they just require my patience and a little better husbandry before they produce anything. I think my strategy then will first be to pair my individual with an F1 and offer juvenile pairs as trades to people who have individuals so I can start a captive breeding program. That's my plan anyway.

 

[Ron Popeil]

i enjoy that tile design as well. i may make a few for myself!

 

[WDLV]

Jordan, make sure you build it rough side in. I made a few more tonight out of my old soapstone tiles. Ill have to fix the others soon.

 

[WDLV]

I'm strongly considering getting larger tiles. They were cleaning last night and looked a bit cramped inside. I don't know if there's enough room in there to swim in a spiral. These guys are as big as the largest ocellaris I've owned... and she was 14 at the time. I don't know if clownfish think or not or if so, how but watching last night I was seeing the male doing some burnouts then biting the edge of the diagonal tile, then the female started doing some burnouts and started biting the same edge of the tile while clicking and doing burnouts. Then she tried what looked like precision swimming inside the structure. She tried doing a 360 several times before appearing frustrated then moved to cleaning the exposed glass on the rear of the tank that's adjacent to the tiles. I don't know whether they're selecting a spot to lay and if so whether I should replace the tiles with something larger or leave them alone. Maybe I'm seeing behaviors as pre-spawning behaviors because I want to see them???

It feels like a whole lot of hurry up and wait. )

 

[maxxII]

Jordan, make sure you build it rough side in. I made a few more tonight out of my old soapstone tiles. Ill have to fix the others soon.

Interesting.

My Onyx Percs wont lay on the smooth side. Rough side, (bottom) is all they would lay eggs on.

Nick

 

[WDLV]

Interesting.

My Onyx Percs wont lay on the smooth side. Rough side, (bottom) is all they would lay eggs on.

Nick

That's what I'm saying. Rough side in. Someone on another forum was mentioning that to me. So, I investigated by looking through some photos yesterday of breeding pairs with pots and tiles and most pairs seem to lay on the inside of the structure on a rough surface.

My melanopus layed on the outside of the pot but it was the portion that was in the corner of the tank. So, that was technically in an enclosed area too. They also layed on bare glass when I put them in a 40 breeder to photograph them for sale with no pot.

 

[maxxII]

Hmm...
I have two mated pairs of Percs, the previously mentioned Rod's Onyx and a pair of Grade B Picasso Percs. Both are in reef systems and hosted by H.magnifica anemones. Prior to getting the Onyx Percs to lay eggs on the tile, they would lay on an exterior portion of the rockwork,(even though an enclosed area was available close by), but under tge umbrella of the anemone. The Picasso Percs have only mated once, but it was similar to the Onyx in regards to being on an exposed area of the rock, under the umbrella of the anemone, even though an enclosed area was available nearby. In both cases the enclosed area was near the anemone, but not covered/protected by it.

I wonder if breeding pairs of clowns without an anemone tend towards laying clutches in an enclosed area because its easier to protect eggs in a location like that, when no anemone is present?

Nick

 

[WDLV]

that's how I see it. Caves are great. Anemones are better. A cave adjacent to an anemone is optimal.

 

[MarinaP]

I would place multiple tiles/triangles in the tank. They will choose one that they like. Rough side in and out. Variety is the spice of life They should choose an outward surface, not the cave, IMO. They are looking for optimum flow that will allow the eggs to get fertilized, but still enough to aerate the eggs.

Happy Birthday, Walt

 

[WDLV]

I went ahead and swapped it out with one that was made out of soapstone tiles entirely. There is little difference berween either side.

.... and thank you!

 

[DeathWish302]

Nice to see your still around Walt!

I've tried vertical tiles that had rare-earth magnets epoxied in as a sort of 'movable-laying-strip', pots, tile caves as yours, larger complete oyster shells & larger pieces of LR that were cut with a wet saw to allow a perfectly smooth surface.

It seems the vertical tiles on the tank wall (near the back rockwork) was best for the Tomato, the GSM preferred the wet saw cut piece (which was ~1.25ft^2) and my Onyx clowns liked the clay pots and oyster shells. I tried each of these types of substrates and let the pair choose. We'll see what the Gasters like if I can ever get my hands on a WC single....

 

[WDLV]

It's looking like a crap shoot. I may be doing everything right or several things wrong and I'm not sure there's a way to tell the difference.

Frustrating to say the least.

 

[deangelr]

Frustrating to say the least.

Your not kidding... Four pairs and none spawning for me.. One pair is going on 3 years..

 

[WDLV]

These guys started shacking up on 8/30/2009.

:headwally:

 

[deangelr]

LOL.. Glad I am not the only one..

 

[WDLV]

far from it.

 

[DeathWish302]

Your not kidding... Four pairs and none spawning for me.. One pair is going on 3 years..

I found every pair started doing their thing when I was soo frustrated I quit looking at the tank. Maybe the extra traffic of my big head peering in kicked them into 'HIDE' mode? I wouldn't worry, as I had a Pink Skunk pair that were together for at least 5 years with no luck and then one day... BAM! A nice little clutch of eggs. If this species was easy, there would be juvies all over the place.

Good things just take time.

 

[WDLV]

"...but I'm talking on .y new Comcast Digital Voice!"

 

[WDLV]

I had some time today so I went ahead and pulled out all the baserock.

I cut a bucket in half and used the top half and cut a hole in the lid big enough for a collander.

Then added the ten gallons of bio balls.

It took longer than I'd have liked but I did like seeing all the nice old branch rock I forgot I had. I have use for that in a later project....



I'm hoping this setup will be a bit cleaner. There was a lot of rotting crap in the baserock. I drained about 30 gallons of the sump water to help get rid of it. I still need to pick up some filter socks.



Slowly improving.