gold strip maroon fry

[bcjm]

just want to share the joy. 18 days old.

[bcjm]

one more

[jwisbey]

Fantastic! Congrats!!! I have breed banggai's and have a pair of true percula's that I have had for a year but they have not breed. I hope in the near future they will get the urge and I can have a bunch of little ones swimming around like that.

[Laura D]

That is too cute!!!!!:D They look like they are doing well.

[JBIT]

That is so cool! Did you buy the parents as a pair or did you introduce them? How long have they been together? Is this your first batch??

[bcjm]

I got the female as an adult then bought the juvenile male later. He was wearing white color bands instead of gold at that time. 8 months later they produce the first batch on Xmas day 2001. They have been spawning every 2-3 weeks since then. I had problem keeping the fry more than 3 days until the last 2 batches. About 1/3 of fry died in the 8-12 days period due to metamorphosis. There are still 150 - 200 fry left.

[neuroracer]

Holy shiznits!!:fun4: :spin1: :spin3: :spin2: :bigeyes: :lolspin:
(sorry)

Those are awesome!! Can I put myself in line to buy 2 from you??? Put me on the list!!!!!!!!

neuroracer

[percula]

Congrats! Nice work!

Rotifer or Non-rotifer fry, that is the question...?

Cool! - perc

[JazzMan]

I will buy two as well!! Very cool.

[aLittletank]

how they doing now?


what are ya feeding from hatch to current?


thanks
Allen

[bcjm]

They are doing fine. Thanks.

I started with live rotifers then gradually changed to BBS from the 8th day. I just started the flake food 2 days ago. I still give them a little BBS daily.

I struggled with bad water quality a week ago. Ammonia and nitrite was pretty high. The sponge filer I used might not have enough bacteria. I added a big live rock and the ammonia went away in 1-1.5 days and the nitrite went away in 2-3 days.

I lost more fish between day 15 to 22 than day 1 to 8. Still have about 150 left.

[Greenwater]

Congratulations!
...and now a question.
I too have started raising the GS maroons and it has been full of joys and not-so-joys over the last 2 months. Anyway I have about 40 12-day old larvae that appear to have gone through metamorphis (at least they have 2 stripes and one forming on the tail) and I am already noticing the infamous maroon temperament. Did you notice a lot of aggression and does it continue to get worse?
This is the 3rd batch that I am trying to raise and they are the first to make it past 8 days, so I am in new territory.
Any observations of your maroons would be great.

[bcjm]

I have not notice any aggression at all. Most of fry just huddle together on the bottom of the tank. The fry I got from my Tomato Clown started to fight right after the metamorphism.

How many maroon fry do you have?

[Greenwater]

There are about 40 and they are in about 5 gallons of water in a 10 gallon tank. I noticed aggression yesterday for the first time when two where fighting over a corner and this morning I noticed 4 of them sparring over a different corner. The aggression consists of one fish dashing at another and apparently trying to nip at the other. I have lost 2 fish over the last 4 days, but I have no clue if it is due to this or just the expected mortality during this time period.
It is so exciting to see them grow and face so many new challenges.

[eco-tropic]

Bob,

Nice job! Now you'll have to grow them out, cull them, and sell most of them for a fraction of their retail price! Your looking at another 8 - 12 months before their stripes turn gold. An inexpensive way to raise out a ton of fry is in a small baby pool with a couple of hang on filters. If you can find the small blue baby pools without the decals & cartoons on them they make great fry ponds for aggressive clowns like maroons!

[bcjm]

Eco-tropic,

What link of baby pool and hang on filter were you referring to? Can you give a name of the maker and the model?

I lost about 40 fish last night. I gave them some crushed Vibragro soaked with Selco yesterday. Don't know if that is the reason. Water parmeters are OK. I am back to feed them BBR again. Any food suggestions?

Bob

[eco-tropic]

Crushed or pulverized flake is best for clowns right after metamorphosis. I wouldn't start in with Vibragro and additives like selcon until you've moved them to a tank with an established filter. 4 weeks after metamorphosis they can be moved and should be able to start eating every kind of prepared food. The baby pools I'm talking about can be found at any K-Mart, Target, or Wal-Mart in the U.S. They're blue and about 5 feet in diameter. They don't have any decals or cartoon stickers. You could use any kind of filter. I prefer the small fluidized bed filters like the Merlin or Rainbow Lifeguard. The cool thing about these filters is that they're portable. Just make sure to put a sponge over any pump or powerhead intakes.

[bcjm]

Eco-tropic,

Do you use anything for color enhancing? I have heard NatureRose but $80 /kg is kind expensive.

Bob

[eco-tropic]

NatuRose, a product containing Natural Astaxanthin would be a huge waste of money. Astaxanthin can be fed as is but it was generally intended as an additive. Ocean Nutrition's flake product called Formula One contains this pigment. Astaxanthin is great for fish with red pigment. All you need to do is grind up some Formula One with a little Vibragro and you shouldn't need any other products for color!

[monkeyboy]

I bought some Naturose Axanthin powder from here (http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/brine%20shrimp%203.html#brineshrimp21) , it may be expensive by the kilogram, but there's no way in hell that you would be able to use that in 7 lifetimes. I like to sprinkle a little in my food mixtures, so i figured i'd buy 4 6g vials. When you order, you get a ton of powder, the stuff weighs nothing. If you're intrested you could buy a few vials or go drop the 12 bucks and get the 8oz bag. Even with feeding all those mouths, i don't forsee you using up the bag anytime soon.

It will be nice to see some nice tank raised maroons, the ones available from ORA are kind of gross looking :D Great job!

[bcjm]

Eco-tropic,

Fluidized filter is cheap and efficient but I hesitate to use it because a lot of people complain about the clogging. What is your experience of using them? Would you use them for broodstock tanks also? All fluidized bed filters use a small pump to pump the water through the filter media. I was always wondering how can that be possible to let enough water pass through the media to make it work if I have a big tank.


Bob

[eco-tropic]

Clogging can be a problem. A lot of people, myself included, don't read the instructions and slap the filter together. As a result of improper installation you can have back flow and clogging. I have been using the Red Sea Merlin. They work very well if you make certain that the check valve is installed correctly! I wouldn't use them on a true broodstock tank. I'm more of a huge wet/dry, huge skimmer type of guy. If you currently have one large broodstock tank with sufficient filtration it is best to just leave it. If you decide to setup a broodstock system then I would suggest a wet/dry and skimmer. They are just a bit more reliable in the long term. If you are going to use a huge tank for grow out you could rig up a wet/dry from a couple of 5 gallon buckets and some bio media as opposed to buying a Merlin. In either event your going to need some heavy biological filtration on your grow out system.

[Wild Card-inal]

Those things are so cute! How big are they? How big were they when hatched? Now you're making me think of breeding Clowns too! Is it easy to tell the gender of Percs/Ocellaris? Wait, maybe I should just read any good article. Anyone know of any?