Amphiprion Chrysopterus: A Breeding Pair

Ron Popeil · #1 01/29/2007, 05:02 PM

i feel nauseous. i am in complete shock. I have been away from my tanks and home for the last three days. my sump return was billowing bubbles into the tanks. a thin haze of algae covered the glass.

on the hour drive back to my house from where id been, i contemplated rearranging the rocks in my chrysopterus tank. looking at pictures of h. crispa in the wild, and trying to replicate it more closely in my 45 cube. i saw a 150 cube at one of my favorite stores, and visualized it as a crispa/chrysopterus dominated tank. i was beginning to think my 45 was just too small for them to feel completely comfortable. i had a 300 gph powerhead i was going to add to increase water movement, as perhaps there just wasnt enough.

it was one of the many things i do on a daily basis trying to figure out the correct combination of elements to encourage my pair to breed.

i had tried moonlights. heavy feedings. lots of protein. lots of mysis. lots of algae based foods. i looked into hormones. i tried a flat piece of acrylic for a breeding tile. i tried adjusting photoperiods.

all the while not ever thinking i was getting it right. that i was missing something. that my fish were healthy, but never fully comfortable.

but i did something right.

i came home today to find some 200 eggs on the side of the aquarium. my collected pair of chrysopterus finally bred.

thank you to everyone who has offered support and guidance. more details to come.

MarinaP · #2 01/29/2007, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ron Popeil

i came home today to find some 200 eggs on the side of the aquarium. my collected pair of chrysopterus finally bred.

Congrats!

Now up the feedings :>)

Mine laid 600+.

raoul · #3 01/29/2007, 06:01 PM

Congrats! That's very exciting

My regular run of the mill occell.'s finally laid eggs a couple weeks ago. I know lots do and that's not a big deal, but to us it was. I can imagine how happy you must be! (our excitement was short lived, we realized the fish were eating the eggs as she laid them - strange fish).

Can't wait for details!

catdoc · #4 01/29/2007, 06:09 PM

Way to go!! Beautiful clowns, you must be something right after all.

illcssd · #5 01/29/2007, 06:17 PM

Wonderful news jordan!
Good luck when you raise them, i assume after the next couple hatches. As marina said, stuff those fish and get a nice big batch of eggs.

phender · #6 01/29/2007, 06:24 PM

Way to go Jordan. Guess they had it too easy. All they needed was a little stress to realize they needed to continue the species.

Slakker · #7 01/29/2007, 06:40 PM

CONGRATS!!!!!

Good luck bringing up the fry!! Keep us all updated!!!

dc · #8 01/29/2007, 07:19 PM

traveller7 · #9 01/29/2007, 07:27 PM

Nice Job!!

Much congrats

JHardman · #10 01/29/2007, 07:36 PM

The best laid plans of men and mice, clownfish will find another way...

Congrats!

Ron Popeil · #11 01/29/2007, 09:11 PM

thanks again everyone. the help has been sincerely appreciated. here are the pictures ive just taken:

here is the anemone and nest. you can see the small mat of eggs on the left side, just above the fringes of the anemone.

here is a closeup of the eggs:

Ron Popeil · #12 01/29/2007, 09:13 PM

another view of the nest and parents:

some nest tending by the male:

Ron Popeil · #13 01/29/2007, 09:42 PM

now, what ive been doing for the last two months:

SELECTION OF FOOD AND AMOUNTS:
hikari tubifex worms (1-2 dry cubes every other day)
ocean nutrition formula one (3 - 5 sizeable pinches a day)
ocean nutrition prime reef (1-3 sizeable pinches every other day)
hbh graze (1-3 pinches a day)
hbh marine soft & moist krill large pellet (once every other day, only the female ate these)
two cubes mysis mixed with one cube of cyclopeeze daily

these were all done in rotation, sporatically, in different order thorughout the month. the heaviest feedings of mysis were done this month.

LIGHTING AND PARAMETERS:
photoperiod: 2pm to 10pm
moonlight: always (intended to use in conjunction with actual lunar cycles, but got lazy)
temp: 77 to 83 (i dont heat my house. so it gets pretty cold at night, and during the day the halides get the water toasty; theyre turned off if it gets past 84)
pH: 8.1 - 8.3
salinity: 1.026

unfortunately, those are all the parameters i have as...i dont do water testing very often, nor do i have many test kits at the house.

what i think triggered the spawn: i hadnt done a water change for almost two months. the entire system is close to 200 gallons, and i do a 50 gallon water change at a time. typically not loyal to any brand of salt, but i had been using instant ocean and this recent water change was oceanpure.
i think the large water change in addition to a slight increase in salinity (due to three days of unattended evaporation) triggered spawning. i feed extremely heavily. seeing pictures of scotts chrysogaster very fat and plump only encouraged me to feed more. and, a very long time ago, john hardman told me getting a clownfish to eat from your fingers gets them trusting enough to breed. so i worked on this from the second week i had them. the female is still spooked easily, but the male has no problems eating from my fingers or letting me touch his head.

the fish have been in my care for 163 days or so. i have never witnessed any definete, aggressive prespawning behavior. occasionally, when the female would chase the male and bark at him, id see him bite the glass around where the eggs are now laid; but it seemed more like stress reduction than prespawning behavior.

so, now what? well, i figure ill let this nest hatch on their own, while i prepare a breeding facility somewhere in my apartment. i still have alot of reading to do.

marina, you said your pair was laying up to 600+, how many nests did they make? what was their first nest like? what was their spawning interval? and keep up with the heavy protein laden foods?

thanks again everyone. ill be needing more of your help in the very near future.

criccio · #14 01/29/2007, 09:42 PM

Very cool, congrat's.

LargeAngels · #15 01/30/2007, 10:13 AM

Cool.

So is the common denominator on breeding chrysopterus keeping them with an anemone?

Baalz · #16 01/30/2007, 10:28 AM

I find it really cool they laid em on the glass right in front. Where you can really watch the egg development up close. Now thats cool

magnifying glass would be sweet

Jovreefer · #17 01/30/2007, 10:34 AM

wow! CONGRATS and what makes it just SLIGHTLY even better is they laid them on the glass... really good view of whats going on inside the eggs!

In the closeup pic you can see a few clean dots on the glass where it looks like they have picked off unfertilized eggs!

& I would say you have closer to 400 eggs! I counted 200 just along the clusters at the edges. Did not even attempt to count the middle.

JHardman · #18 01/30/2007, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ron Popeil

LIGHTING AND PARAMETERS:
photoperiod: 2pm to 10pm
moonlight: always (intended to use in conjunction with actual lunar cycles, but got lazy)
temp: 77 to 83 (i dont heat my house. so it gets pretty cold at night, and during the day the halides get the water toasty; theyre turned off if it gets past 84)
pH: 8.1 - 8.3
salinity: 1.026

WOW! I find this shocking. Especially the photo period.

Does the room receive natural light during the day?

Ron Popeil · #19 01/30/2007, 02:01 PM

jovreefer, thanks for even attempting to count them! im really hoping in the future ill be able to slide in a clear acrylic tile in the same place and have lay there instead...

john, the tanks are directly across from a large window. they get a nice dose of eastern morning sun. there are no overhead lights in the room, but the nigripes tank right next to the chrysopterus tank has its lights on from noon to 8 pm.

MarinaP · #20 01/30/2007, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ron Popeil
marina, you said your pair was laying up to 600+, how many nests did they make? what was their first nest like? what was their spawning interval? and keep up with the heavy protein laden foods?

I think they made 10 nests. The first one was huge, I had a thread about this pair in the breeding forum. Spawning interval was bi-monthy. Is your male the same size as a female, more or less?

You can enlarge the picture of the eggs, print it, and count the eggs.

I would add some greens to the diet.

Best of luck

ricordiaking · #21 01/30/2007, 03:36 PM

Very nice, I've been out of the net for some time now, this might make me come back

JHardman · #22 01/30/2007, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ron Popeil
john, the tanks are directly across from a large window. they get a nice dose of eastern morning sun. there are no overhead lights in the room, but the nigripes tank right next to the chrysopterus tank has its lights on from noon to 8 pm.

So we can assume that their true photo period is closer to 15-16 hours than 7-8 based on direct overhead lighting.

h2joe · #23 01/30/2007, 05:59 PM

this is one sweet thread....that tank is so cool with that nem and the pair of clowns. good luck raising the fry.

Mark

Elmo18 · #24 01/30/2007, 06:50 PM

Jordan!

Waaaaohoooooooo!!!! Raise some please!!..... Maybe trade some for Bicinctus ;0)

Best,
Ilham

Ron Popeil · #25 02/01/2007, 05:38 PM

marina, the male and female are very close in size. the female is definetely huskier. ive upped the feedings of all types with emphasis on proteins and algaes. any suggestions on specific foods you would recommend?

john, you would be correct then. lots of light. providing a reliable morning light, on a much more naturally shifting scale.

at what time should i assume the nest was laid? early in the morning or after lights out?

here are the pictures of the nest today. day four since discovering the nest.

at this point the anemone has its tentacles hiding most of the nest. i assume this isnt a problem, but i would also assume the male to take a more active role in shaping the anemone so its not so close. but no one seems to mind. the nest has shrunken in numbers, taken on a more sporatic shape, but the eggs seem to be continuing their development. the current temperature of the system is 79 degrees.

later today, i begin work on my algae/rotifer/fry set up...