Xth attempt raising clownfish

Kathy55g · #1 12/20/2005, 10:56 PM

I missed a lot of opportunities to try again with raising clownfish....The third attempt hatched on September 1, and resulted in 15 perfect and beautiful juveniles, some of whom are ready to leave home now.

Then I got busy with my kids' school stuff and some of my own stuff, and building a system to really do this right and with greater ease. My friend who supplies me with the nests of eggs got busy too, and our timing was off, and we just could not get it together. Once I picked up eggs a few days early, and they got covered in fungus and died.

Tonight, I just learned that the parent clownfish have just laid a "bumper crop" of eggs covering about a third of the tile! The system is not ready yet, but I have a week to get it there, and since I'm not working this week, it really could happen.

I am so excited!

Just thought I'd share...

Kathy

mako56 · #2 12/20/2005, 11:07 PM

Cool Kathy, Looks like my eggs will be hatching tonight not on a tile though they just pushed that out of the way. Have to let them get used to it I guess.

Kathy55g · #3 12/20/2005, 11:17 PM

Cool back at ya! Good luck!

Hey, how do you like that quiet one pump? I have the 400HH. Haven't plugged it in yet.

mako56 · #4 12/21/2005, 01:25 AM

The pump works fine not any more quiet than any other pump I think but its been pumping for almost six months now with no problems. I had two of them in the tank when I was filling the tank and mixing the salt lots of flow but not that quiet. Thanks for the luck. One question some of the rots I can see under the 2X microscope really well but some whatever they are are very tiny I can barely see them moving around but there are lots of them are those baby rots you think?

NicoleC · #5 12/21/2005, 01:28 AM

Might be ciliates, Mike. How fast do they move?

I intensely dislike my Quiet One 6000. It's too noisy and not very efficient.

mako56 · #6 12/21/2005, 01:46 AM

I see some things that move really fast but only one or two of them most just barely move around.

sabalough · #7 12/21/2005, 01:49 AM

I've ben folowing your thread since you started ,thanks for all the insight on your clown trials. My female occ. is finaly (paired for over a year) ready to start laying eggs. Her belly is busting at the seams hopefully she wil lay us some eggs soon.
Steve,

Kathy55g · #8 12/21/2005, 08:49 AM

Steve, I wish you great luck! Still waiting on my personal pair...It is good to have friends whose fish actually spawn.

NicoleC · #9 12/21/2005, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by mako56
I see some things that move really fast but only one or two of them most just barely move around.

Might be baby rotifers, or might be males (a bad sign), or something else altogether. I don't think you will find out at 2x. The fast ones are probably ciliates.

Kathy55g · #10 12/21/2005, 09:21 AM

Mike, did they hatch?

mako56 · #11 12/21/2005, 11:19 AM

Yep, caught around fifty or so updated on my thread too. And put some new pics in.

Nicole what power would I need to get?

NicoleC · #12 12/21/2005, 12:05 PM

For a nice close-up view, 250x. Maybe 450x for ciliates.
For general identification (is it a rotifer?), around 10x-20x.

mako56 · #13 12/21/2005, 08:03 PM

I don't know very much about microscopes it has WF 10X eyepieces and 1X or 2X bottom parts. I looked and you can buy other eyepiece and the bottom What would I need?

NicoleC · #14 12/21/2005, 10:49 PM

Just do the math. If you use a 2x bottom and want 20X zoom, use a 10x eyepiece.

They probably don't have a 125x eyepiece. Scopes are kind of in the below 100x range and then in the high range, usually.

spk · #15 12/22/2005, 04:06 AM

hey there,

Sounds as if you all have your hands full before Christmas.

Kathy, good luck with the next batch. Hope your system is completed in time.

These pumps that you are all talking about, are they for water flow or air?

Steve

Kathy55g · #16 12/22/2005, 11:11 AM

they are water pumps. The Quiet One pump I ordered is submersible or can be used outside the sump, which is what I will do.

The air pumps I have are cheap hobby aquarium pumps. They seem to do the job.

mako56 · #17 12/22/2005, 04:12 PM

So how big should a rot look at my 20X. Like I said I seen a couple that looked really nice and big I think they were rots by seeing pictures of them. But there are allot of something that looks like a pin point but they kinda move around like the rots that I think I got.

Kathy55g · #18 12/26/2005, 10:48 PM

pin points are probably males.

Kathy55g · #19 12/26/2005, 10:50 PM

I picked up eggs this evening! There are lots of them! I have a feeling they will not hatch tonight, but perhaps tomorrow night. We wait and see....

mako56 · #20 12/27/2005, 12:21 AM

Cool Kathy, do you have you setup all done yet? I ordered another microscope the other day goes from 40X to 1000X should be able to see em now.

Kathy55g · #21 12/27/2005, 10:37 AM

You should be able to see the cilia on their cute little rotating heads! 1000x!!!!

Setup is not done. Waiting on some plumbing parts I could not find at HD to be shipped.
Mostly it is done. Tanks are painted and ready to hook up. I have the eggs in one of the tanks on the table so I can just work around it. I figure I have another week to complete.

Kathy55g · #22 12/27/2005, 08:59 PM

I came home from bowling this afternoon, and while getting the schmutz out of the larval tank, I noticed what I thought was a dead one--premature hatch! So I sucked it out and thought I would check it out under the scope. Holy clownfish! It's little heart was still beating! I quickly got it back in the tank. It's probably doomed, but after putting on my bifocals, I found another one. Both look like they are rolling around the tank, encumbered by their enormous yolk sacs. When my teenager gets off the upstairs computer, I'll try to post a picture.

I am pretty sure this means that the rest will hatch tonight. I finally got my rotifers in gear, and they are just now grown up enough that I will probably have enough to feed the new brood. I have some thoughts on rotifer culture, but I'll save them for another thread.

I think it's going to be tonight, and I'm really excited!
Cheers,
Kathy

NicoleC · #23 12/27/2005, 10:30 PM

My premmies didn't turn out well, but maybe your little guys will make it. Good luck with the main hatch tonight!

spk · #24 12/28/2005, 03:13 AM

Kathy,

Wow, cool, are you going to start a new thread on this one?

Hope those prems make it through.

Good luck.

Steve

PS: Did you sell all the others?

mako56 · #25 12/28/2005, 04:12 AM

I will wish you luck even though you are already a proven ma.

Lets hear the thoughts. I ordered some Nannochloropsis that you just add a few drops into your rot bottle to feed them and some of that ClorAm-X we well give that a try. Kathy what do you use to get the rots out of the bottle again?