We have babies (Onyx Percula that is)

[OrionN]

Not good news regarding my Onyx spawn. The spawn was last Saturday and should have hatched yesterday. I am not sure why they all hatched Friday night so I ended up with zero Onyx fry. Because they hatched in 6+ days at 83 degree temp. I took the eggs from my office, spawned last Sunday, home yesterday. The office tank is also at 83 degree. The SnowflakesXOnyx did not hatch yesterday. I hope they will hatch tonight. The pair in my office is young and does not have the variety of flakes plus frozen food like the pair at home (no frozen food for the office pair) plus they don't get feed over the weekend.

Hope I will have good news later tonight.

 

[OrionN]

Since the Onyx hatched in 6+ days at 83 degree, I took the eggs from my other pair home from my office yesterday afternoon (spawned last Sunday). That tank also keep at 83 degree. None hatched last night. I just peek into the fry tank, we got fry tonight. I did not want to let in too much light so I cannot see too well other than there are some fry.
I will wait 2 more hours and will put light on that tank for the next 24 hrs, and will add rotifer tonight. Hope that will help the fry to go through the first 24 hrs.
Will update tomorrow

 

[OrionN]

I only see about 20+ fry. I turned on the light and feed them with rotifer. Hope the rest hatch tomorrow.

 

[OrionN]

Onyx PHD #24
All of the fry are doing well. I end up with 55 babies. All eating Otohime A. Some are smaller than other but baring any mishap, they should all survive. I think I will add Otohime B in the next day or so.
SnowOnyx PHD #2
Well, no further hatching of the SnowOnyx spawn. I check the eggs and they were overgrown with a slimy fungus so I removed it. I end up with only 12 babies from this spawn. 13 hatched and one death the first night. Last nigh one was swimming corkscrew like but this AM all was swimming like normal.
I did leave the light on all night the first night and last night was normal with light off from about 9PM to 6AM.
I think feeding the very first night is essential for weaker fry. So far they don't seem to eat rotifer as well as the Onyx fry as I remember from 3 weeks ago. All are strong swimmer and I hope they all will do well.

 

[Tmoriarty]

Good to hear Minh . I would definately start giving them OtoB. I still have not seen the need to hatch brine shrimp but if you have the extra time it is always another option. To get all my fry to make the switch to OtoA I simply start intoducing it around day 3 and introduce it twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. That method has worked now for numerous spawns (most of which are pretty small) but I have had great success with a fast switch.

Brine will work but once they are a little older their nutrition goes away, unless you supplement them with something they are not generally very nutritious.

 

[OrionN]

Thanks.
I am excited to see what my SnowOnyx babies look like. I hope to be able to keep them alive first. I think the nutritional condition of the mother is very important and the SnowOnyx mother is not in as good shape as the Onyx mother.

 

[Tmoriarty]

For sure it is, healthier mom means healthier eggs, which means healthier fry. I can tell when I slack on feeding schedule the strength of the fry from that hatch is weaker then when I feed the female well.

I hope you get some healthy ones as well. I currently have a snowflake male with a B/W female, waiting on them to spawn (female is 3 yrs, male is 1 yr)

 

[OrionN]

The Onyx babies are really eatting well. They strike at OtoA on the surface, not wait for it to sink doen into the water column.

The 11 of the 12 SnowOnyx fry seem OK, full stomach but one swimming irratically on the bottom. I guess he was the one that swim corkscrew last night. I think he probably will not make it. He seem to have a full stomach however so I amy be wrong.

 

[OrionN]

The Onyx babies are the same but growing really fast eating Oto A.

SnowOnyx PHD#3
I can only count 11 fry. I am not sure what happen to the other one. Likely he was the one I observed corkscrew the first night and irregular swimming the second night. I guess he did not make it. The rest seem to do great and full. The light is about to turnout for the night. At this point I don't expect much more death. I mainly just keep the 11 in a 5 g fry tank with rotifer. Just need to keep the water green so that the rotifer can keep up with the loss due to the clowns. I got way too much rotifer for the 11 clowns so I have been harvest them and dump them to my reef tank. Hope the clams and coral can eat them.

 

[OrionN]

Onyx PHD #27.
Doing well, all eat Otohimes B. There are two babies with deformed spine that need to be cull. Both are larger of the clowns. I guess it is best to cull now instead of later. I put them into the aquarium with the parents. I am not sure if I want to put them in a small amount of water and in the freezer or not. The largest of the babes are about a little more than 1/2 inch, The smallest are about 3/8 inch.

SnowOnxy PHD#5
The parent of this group does not have the same amount of nutrition as the Onyx. The babies are weaker but all the weak on died. I have only 8 SnowOnyx now but all eating well and growing with full stomach all the time except when first get up in AM. I will start to add Otohime A to this tank.

Onyx PHD #0.
I just got about 200+Onyx fry hatched just now. Will see how many will not make it over night. I will leave light on 24 hrs tonight, and have added rotifer to the fry tank. Next hatch is SnowOnyx on Thursday.

 

[OrionN]

:facepalm: Sad news

:facepalm: Sad news

:facepalm:Sad news. My 6 year old son called me at work yesterday to tell me that "the mommy clown jump out of the tank. I guess we won't have anymore babies right Daddy?"
I reassured him that we still have the other breeding pair at the office and will continue to raise baby clown fish. This is a Onyx/Snowflake pair. The female is the daughter of the dead clown.

Update
Onyx PHD #29
Nothing new to report. They are growing fast. Two with deformed spine and was culled

SnowOnyx PHD #7
8 babies, doing well and should continue to do well still on rotifer. Will add Otohime A twice a day

Onyx PHD #2
Of the 200 or so only 35 or so make the first night. A fe more died last night. I have not been feeding the parent consistently.


This is really too bad, I was hoping that I end up with more. I guess I will keep a few of these since I lost the female. This female is older than my youngest son. This pair spend 1 year in my second year son's first grade class. (He is in 8th grade now). I set up a tank for the teacher and my son maintain it there with me helping change the water every month or so. He bring RO water to school to add to the fish tank, wash the protein skimmer cup and fish the fish.
RIP little fish. I am glad that I able to get two spawned from her this time. A friend raise babies from her before but this two spawns are the only two spawn I got. total of about 80+ babies.:facepalm:

 

[kris4647]

I'm sorry Minh. I empathize with you guys. I was really attached to my Nigripes and when the 400g came down a power head in their new home overheated. Lost a mated pair of Borbonius and my only clown pair. Much less the hurricanes I doubt ill ever own a Theili again.

I your son is feeling okay.

 

[OrionN]

My sons are doing fine. They know that we still have her babies

 

[Tmoriarty]

Sorry to hear that Minh, at least you did get a couple spawns out of her. I guess it is a good thing that you became inspired to try raising fry or you wouldn't have anything from her. So I guess overall there is a reason you have started raising the baby clowns.

Lets see some new pictures Minh.

 

[OrionN]

Pictures of the Onyx PHD #29 eating Otohime B just 5 minutes ago. Most are just over 1/2 inch.

 

[OrionN]

Update.
Onyx PHD #31 All doing great, not much cnage from the pictures above other than they all eat well

SnowOnyx PHD #9 Doing great. I only end up with just 7 babies, the luckly 7. All are eating well. I have added Otohime A twice daily and start to do some partial water change. I use the water from the tank at home because it is difficult to get water from my DT tank at the office for water change. I did a 30% water change today. I hope they will be Ok in AM. No death for the last 5 nights. I move them to a smaller tank and use the 5 g tank for a new hatch tonight.

Onyx PHD #4 Doing very well, at the most one or two death last night. Still have about 30+ near 40.

SnowOnyx PHD #0. Today the spawn from the office pair hatch. I cannot guess how many but possible 200+. These are healthier than the last Onyx batch. I hope I will end up with near 100.


It is really hard to keep raise two pairs of spawning clowns. I wanted to keep the two strains separate but likely end up add some of the older batch together. I am running out of heater and air nostril for the fry tank. Right now I have 4 fry tanks at various ages.
Now that the Onyx female jump out of the tank and died, I will only have one breeding pair. Things should gets easier.

 

[OrionN]

The SnowOnyx spawn was perfect. I got several hundred babies and only 3 death overnight. I did not leave the light on all night but turn it off at 11 PM. This AM only 3 deaths, first night survival of 99+ percent. All the fry seem to be swimming fine so I expect minimal death from now on. This is this pair 3rd spawn only. They are at my office so only get dry flake food, a mixture of 4 type of flakes but no frozen food what so ever.

It was my opinion that frozen food is not need for successful clown fish reproduction. If this continue, I am through with feeding frozen food to my clowns. I know that when I loan my clowns to one of the LFS to raise the Onyx (the owners are friends of mine). After two or three patch, the babies start to get a lot of deformities then fail to live after a night or two. They only feed Mysis to the clowns. I told them to feed them flakes food but the person who was in charge of breeding have it in her head that frozen food is best for the clowns and did not listen to me. I eventually take the clowns back, and decided to try to raise the fry which lead to this thread.

 

[OrionN]

UpDate SnowOnyx PHD #10
All have reached and passed Meta. Five of the 7 babies with very clear 1st stripes, the other two are smaller and only with some white but not clear stripes yet.

 

[Rare Angels]

Minh,

Good job in raising these first few hatches. Raising baby clownfish is alot of work and I feel for you, I did it for several years before giving it due to lack of time due to 3 babies of my own.

Keep up the good work and take it easy on yourself, you can get burned out raising several hatches at the same time that are a different phases of development.

Dave

 

[schprock]

Very nice Minh!!