Amphiprion Chrysopterus: A Breeding Pair - Page 4

MarinaP · #76 03/11/2007, 10:11 PM

Don't let them cling to the sides. Tint your water green to the point that they uncling. You will notice immediate difference, once you add enough algae.

Ron Popeil · #77 03/13/2007, 08:25 PM

day three.

today there appears to be 9 fry. i was worried the rotifers i had might have been too big for their tiny little mouths as i wasnt noticing any distinct hunting behavior yesterday or the day before. today however, it appears that most of them have gotten very good at it. it still takes them a bit of time to recognize what they are staring at, but the strikes are fast and effective. i enjoy watching them trail a very specific rotifer for several moments before they attack.

all of them appear to move with haste and purpose. im almost relieved that i have only nine to worry about, as a tank full of several hundred might make things overly time consuming and stressful. so far water quality has remained great. there are slightly more rotifers in the tank than i would prefer, but for the past two nights ive been sieving several thousand out. in the mornings and late evenings im adding small amounts of alternating microalgaes (isochrysis, tetraselmis, nannochloropsis) to maintain rotifer nutrition.

so far taking a picture of the fry has proven to be impossible. i continue to be very optimistic.

Zestay · #78 03/13/2007, 08:33 PM

wow.. just wow..

good luck!

Ron Popeil · #79 03/13/2007, 08:34 PM

zestay, thanks!

marina, when, if ever, did you start to notice territorial problems?

ezhoops · #80 03/14/2007, 01:56 PM

I have no experience with Chrys babies but I would doubt territory would be an issue. All the things you stated sound great (as you already know)

When you say Day 3, do you mean day 3 after the hatch or day 3 after the morph

Ron Popeil · #81 03/14/2007, 02:21 PM

the eggs hatched saturday night of the 10th, so this would be day four now, right?

its several days off now, but any suggestions on flake foods or such i should have ready for the fry once theyre ready to consume larger items?

JHardman · #82 03/14/2007, 05:19 PM

Get some Cylops flake on order if you don't have it now. Ground freeze dried works well too. I still like the frozen and crush it up for sizing.

Be prepared for lots of water changes once you start feeding dead food.

Start working on your BBS hatching skills, you will need them soon. Try to figure out the hatch timing so you can feed shortly after the hatch. The last thing you want is BBS that has used it's yolk and is too big.

If you plan on hatching the next nest, post a pic of the tile in the hatching tank, one of the toughest things in a static hatching tank is getting the bubble flow right.

Ron Popeil · #83 03/15/2007, 02:53 AM

thanks for the advice john. im not looking forward to culturing brine shrimp as well. my apartment is quickly running out of electrical outlets.

i dont think i mentioned it, but the night of the hatch, i had an air stone placed specifically to really saturate the nest with a spread of air bubbles. for an hour or so the tile stayed in place, but i left that night for several hours, and of course when i returned, the tile had magically moved well out of the way of the air. i blame this for the reason i lost so many fry.

but on the evening of day four, the fry really are developing well. their eyes are developing more structure. i can discern the parts of their tail. i can see that they are filling their little bellies on rotifers. i did my first water change today, maybe a 1/3 of a gallon of fresh saltwater, preheated and set for a salinity of 1.020. i used an expired plastic gift card to scrape the bottom layer of sediment off and simultaneously used a vinyl tube to siphon out the scraped pilings.

as a side note, the parents spawned again last night unexpectedly, some five days earlier than planned.

got some preliminary pictures tonight, terrible of course, but they are a tease until this weekend when my photographer friend arrives in town.

thanks for the continued support!

MarinaP · #84 03/15/2007, 10:24 AM

I never fed mine BBS.

I do not use CP flakes, they just tend to float. Frozen CP was introduced at day 14.

I would not expect too much agression in the near future. They will just hang out together.

So, what happened to the rest of the nest? Did they hatch and die or did fungus get them? I had massive dieoffs on the first couple of days

Ron Popeil · #85 03/15/2007, 12:19 PM

several of them hatched, and would died shortly after. but i think for the most part the highest mortalities were inside the eggs. they didnt turn white or look as if anything was wrong, they just didnt hatch. id find the eggs all over the bottom of the tank. im pretty certain it was the lack of strong aeration.

with the nest that was just laid, i plan on being far more careful with keeping it adequately aerated during the night of the hatch. i expect a dramatic increase in viable fry.

so, you did rotifers up until day 14, and then switched to frozen CP? at how many days were they able to eat larger foods? i noticed at one point your babies were eating OSI spirulina, at what day was that? your pictures from your older threads are no longer showing up, so i dont have anything to reference as far as progress. ill PM you.

thanks again!

Ron Popeil · #86 03/19/2007, 01:55 AM

day 9.

there are six left. still eating rotifers. lots of them. if i had to guess, id say at least one of them has gone through metamorphosis, or is close. they all appear to have a shimmery blue spine. their eyes have distinct features now. but they are still tiny, and do not resemble clownfish. in the next day or so, i will attempt frozen cyclopeeze.

either monday or tuesday night my next nest will hatch. i hope to be far more successful with this nest than the first.

ezhoops · #87 03/19/2007, 11:13 AM

sounds like your making progress, keep it up. I bet your exhausted, if not just wait

Ron Popeil · #88 03/19/2007, 11:25 AM

not tired yet. extremely impatient! i want to see tiny miniature clownfish already!

this next nest....thats when ill be tired.

Elmo18 · #89 03/19/2007, 05:30 PM

Hi Jordan.

I am sorry, I am still on vacation!!! 6 is great!!! I can't wait either!

I will talk to you when I get back from Hawaii.

Best,
Ilham

BAYONNEREEF · #90 03/19/2007, 06:51 PM

very nice pics

Ron Popeil · #91 03/19/2007, 10:34 PM

so nothing too exciting with my progress. but, to keep my patience from waning, i take pictures. here is one of the smaller, mid developed fry. this is the only good picture ive been able to take. im really fascinating by how the fry all have distinct blue vertebrae and shimmery blue stomachs. their transparent tail sections are slightly yellow hued. i tried some frozen cyclopeeze today, thawed and squirted in with a small eye dropper. no interest. and still a bit larger than i anticipated.

and, this is what i get to play with tonight:

im hoping its this nest that i can make up for past mistakes and experience a whole flurry of new ones. just a few more hours till hatching time!

illcssd · #92 03/19/2007, 10:55 PM

Nice beautiful nest jordan!
You know what your clowns in the fuge need? Merten's. Early next week i will pm you.
Good luck with the hatch.

Rare Angels · #93 03/20/2007, 09:21 AM

Awesome Jordan!

You are one lucky guy to have breeding white tailed chrysopterus, I am very jealous if you can't tell.

Dave

adtravels · #94 03/20/2007, 09:28 PM

for the recored sorry if you have said this before do you still have the cjromis and other fish in with them?
What else do you have in the brreding tank??

Thanks

Ron Popeil · #95 03/20/2007, 09:33 PM

in the tank with the spawning parents, i have a bicolor blenny, and five chromis. there is a random assortment of corals and stuff in the tank as well: acans, gorgonian, rose bubble tip, zooanthids, rhodactis, porites, a baby maxima clam.

Rare Angels · #96 03/21/2007, 09:03 AM

How did the hatch of the latest nest turn out?

Ron Popeil · #97 03/21/2007, 11:35 AM

dave, this last nest....was incredible!

i expected the nest to hatch monday night, and infact a few did. the following day, there was no new fry, just the original five or so. by that afternoon, i began lowering the salinity to 1.020 and made sure to keep a light over the tank and then turn it off at night just in case more hatched during the second night.

this morning, there are several hundred fry all swimming about! now the real challenges begin!

chewie · #98 03/21/2007, 12:19 PM

Very cool Jordan!

You have your hands full now.

Ron Popeil · #99 03/21/2007, 04:49 PM

ok, first water change done in day old fry tank. i didnt understand why anyone would need to make that siphon/filter thing described in wilkersons book...until today. there are just so many tiny tiny fry. i did my best to remove all of the dead fry and eggs, naturally sucking up a bunch of living ones in the process. i used an eye dropper to replace them as best i could. after that, i set in my 53 micron sieve container and just siphoned water directly out of that. i added rotifers and some isochrysis to start them off.

as for the 11 day old fry, the six that remain, im going to add a sponge filter ive been culturing for the past month. i added some two day old brine shrimp today. i dont notice the fish specifically targeting them yet. two of the six are growing much more rapidly. they favor the current of the bubbles and the surface for feeding.

Elmo18 · #**100** 03/23/2007, 03:24 PM

Nice job Jordan!

Don't forget to enrich the baby brine.

The photos of my bicinctus are probably aroun 1 month old? I will have to check my notes again to be sure.

Best,
Ilham