|
|
|
|
#51
12/13/2003, 10:40 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Great, thank you very much for the info. Great thread
 .-Jonny |
|
#52
12/15/2003, 09:59 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Now 25 days old. Have been on BBS since last update. Next batch is still at that stage where they are to small to tell if they are eating, but they don't seem to be dying off yet and the rotifers are slowly disappearing.
Finally took one to the lab with me so I could use the observation microscope there for pictures. I was kinda surprised he survived the trip there in the test vial. |
|
#53
12/15/2003, 10:02 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
In this picture I thought to slide something underneath for size reference. The little square on the paper is 2.5mm across. So I would estimate his length at ~10cm.
Got him flipped over for an underside shot to see the fins better. I think I might have scared the shi_ out of him. Literally. |
|
#56
12/15/2003, 12:48 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
 Like I said, I was surprised he survived the trip to the lab, but knew it wouldn't hang out for me while I had a few hours of work to do and then the drive back home. So after his photo shoot, I put him in the nano I have at work. Who knows, maybe in a month or so I'll see him come pop out from between a couple of rocks  .The problem with the fry at this stage is that they are very prone to going into 'shock'. Whenever you stick your hand in the tank, you have to do so slowly and move very slowly. If they get scared, they will dart around frantically for a few seconds then just fall to the bottom unmoving. Given time they will snap out of it, don't think we've lost one yet to this but it is very un-nerving. It does make it easy to catch one now, just scare one and then scoop him up when he passes out. Don't get me wrong, I felt bad about sacrificing one for the picture, but all in the name of science. And for when Amy reads this: I promise I won't take any more honey 
|
|
#57
12/15/2003, 12:56 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
That's his picture in my avatar. I guess he's about 8-9 months old now (would have to consult Amy's little black book for a precise age). The spawning season for them has just started but the pair had to be separated due to the male getting some sort of external infection on his tail (kept biting at it too). Hopefully he'll recover and they'll get back together soon. Seems that several people are having problems with this fish. I have read of others that have had problems with the male getting an infection on the tail and I know some people here locally that tried to pair up some but the female killed the male, strange since the male is the dominant one with this fish. Amy has had a female beta kill a male when trying to breed them before, so who knows.... BTW - welcome to RC marco10 |
|
#59
12/15/2003, 08:09 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Wooohwie... That is deffinitely a Watchman... it is amazing how you can see them grow right infront of our eyes/Forum! Keep up the great work!
__________________
Fish Girl Signing off! |
|
#60
12/16/2003, 06:05 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
Just realized my typo above, that should be 10mm. Heck 10cm is about 4" long 
|
|
#63
12/30/2003, 11:19 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
About 5 1/2 weeks old now, still doing well. Diet is mostly decapsulated BBS eggs, with some L-rotifers thrown in as well. Going to try cyclops-eeze on them in the next week or so. I think some of the biggest ones are ready for it now, but there are many that probably are not. Just like with any fish you raise there are always a few which Amy calls the MFB's (Mega-F___-Babies), and a few runts with the rest being all about the same size. I'm trying to pull the runts along with the rotifers, but we're still losing one every two or three days that just can't keep up with the others. I know how every body likes the baby pictures, so here are a few. This time no babies were harmed for the photo shoot, I managed to get some decent shots of some in the tank. They're somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4". |
|
#66
12/30/2003, 12:58 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
man cool pictures!!!! :wow:
my clown goby is same size w/ them
__________________
Selim Özadar Names of some Mediterranean fish;Chromis chromis, Conger conger, Anthias anthias, Phycis phycis, Hippocampus hippocampus, Boops boops, Dentex dentex, Pagrus pagrus, Sphyraena sphyraena |
|
#69
12/30/2003, 02:44 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
I believe I mentioned in an earlier post that the hatchout is tricky and you are doing great if you get 50%. Well the next batch had a very poor hatchout (only have 4 of them in the tank right now, but they are on L-strain and doing great) this was because the nest became detached from the cave when it was being transferred to the hatchout tank. To picture the nest think of a single cluster of grapes that has a couple thousand grapes on it and then shrink that down to about 2" long and then attach it to a surface by just a couple threads from that cluster. Once it becomes detached it is very difficult to keep it aireated/in motion (not that it's super easy when it is still attached). We had a much better hatchout (around 50%) with the most recent batch (spawn #16 for this pair I believe). They are just a few days old but I think we will end up with about the same numbers as we have for the first batch. I think with the next spawn, I'll get a picture of the nest under the microscope (after we have hatched off all we can of course) to give you all a better idea of what the nest is like. |
|
#70
01/13/2004, 11:56 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Any updates? If possible could you post a close up picture of the female?
|
|
#71
01/13/2004, 12:54 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
Update on some observations. There is a distinct color difference in the babies, which makes me think that they may be male or female from birth, based on the sexual dichromatism theory discussed earlier on this thread. What I am seeing is about 60 - 70% of the babies being a very bright yellow/green color and the rest are a dark grey/olive color with an exception of 3 babies that are very pale almost white looking. Like I mentioned earlier, there are various sizes in the babies (some will always grow faster than others), but the size is independant of the color. There seems to be an even distribution of sizes in each of the 2 color groups, with niether one being either smaller or larger on average. The three very pale babies are actually on the larger end of the scale and are quite healthy. I would almost understand their coloration if they were the runts of the batch. They all have the same diet (mainly cyclops-eeze and decapsulated BBS cysts), so the answer to the difference in color is not there. I was going to take pictures of the remnants of the last nest, but..... the batteries in my camera went dead, it was late, etc. I was quite surprised by what I saw under the microscope though...... y'all will have to stay tuned, I'll get a picture of the next one. Oh I did see yesterday morning, one of the large babies swimming around with one of the micro-runts in it's mouth  Looks like I'mm going to have to start thinking about separating them. But I haven't seen any other aggression yet. Perhaps it had picked up one that had died (the extremely small ones have been slowly dropping off as they are just not keeping up for some reason) so I'm not going to jump to any conclusions yet. I don't relish the idea of having to move them at this point. They seem to be less prone to going into 'shock' as discussed earlier, but still....
|
|
#72
01/14/2004, 06:10 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
|
|
#73
01/14/2004, 10:15 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
There are some species of SW fish that where the female will lay eggs w/o the presence of a male though.... |
|
#74
01/15/2004, 07:58 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
I would just like to say....I admire what you are doing. I'm currently trying to induce my pair of black ocellaris into mating, because many of them are collected and it makes me so sad (mine are CB from Inland aquatics, splurged and bought a mated pair for this purpose.) Blacks are a color morph from Australia, and rather unusual. I LOVE the fact that hobbyists are beginning to breed fish of all types, and now I'm looking at my WC yellow watchman in a whole new light...hopefully, his generation will be one of the last to come from the ocean.
What a wonderful thing! We have done our damage to the reefs, but we are also giving SO MUCH back, with time. That is so important. And often the HOBBYIST is the starting point, and that is amazing. You should be very, very proud.
__________________
Another pair in quarantine, a need for yet another tank. Next to go to make room is the kitchen table. We just set fish stuff on it anyway. Right Honey? |
|
#75
01/16/2004, 02:31 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
ecooper,
Most of the black ocellaris available in the US are not imported, but are captive bred. Inland Aquatics and ORA are great sources for these fish.
__________________
"Good enough is the enemy of excellence." |
|
|
Linear Mode
