Breeding Journal, Species: Paracanthurus hepatus

Love the pics! Great job so far!

-Adam

 
Even very young Moina salina are WAY too big.
 
What you really need are some pelagic copepods with small nauplii, like Parvocalanus or Bestiolina.  Any chance you can go to the ocean and do some plankton tows?
 
 

I think we can be optimistic,either if the rumour posted in Reef Builders results to be true or not.
If it was true,we can expect to achieve the same.
If it was not,it means that P.hepatus was never raised,and also probably never attempted to be raised.Which let´s us hope that it might be not so difficult as their yellow tang relatives,which keep challenging the guys from the OI since some years!.If it was never tried,perhaps it is not difficult.

It was tried but the researchers failed at the time.
Effects of marine ciliates on survivability of the first-feeding larval surgeonfish, Paracanthurus hepatus : Laboratory rearing experiments.

Anderson.

Hmm,ciliates again...Got the link?

I have the link to http://www.springerlink.com/content/l118n34n1m04477j/ I am being a bit cheap and I have not purchased it as yet. At this stage, other than dumping a bucket in the ocean and using what comes out, I have not really got any further with finding foods for them.
 
This mornings picture

 
Should I be expecting the eyes to pigment more than this?

Stunning work! I'm so glad you're sharing this with everyone.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Its another iphone/camera screen video.  This time its of the heart beating of a prolarvae.
 

Dang! I guess I better go with an iPhone now.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

All you need is a PM with your e-mail. It works for you too Luis.
Just ask and it will show up

Anderson.

I love reading your updates CaptCrash!  I can't believe the creativity you have put into getting photos!
 
The ciliates that are attacking the dead eggs appear to be about the right size...provided the ciliates can be captured by the larvae (those ciliates are fast!), maybe they would work....?
 
You may need a permit to do plankton tows in the ocean, or you may not be allowed to do it at all.  I'm not familiar with Australian laws.

Latest developments for the Prolarvae
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
RIP, this little guy

 
Have had quite the die off tonight, interestingly all of the die off prolarvae resemble the image above of the dead one.
Approx 12 remain, these all look more developed, with buds of fins developing.  Some of these look to be not very well and I don't expect them to make the morning.
 
I have descided not to bother with the feeding test, in stead, I have divided them into two groups.
 
group 1, remains in the existing container but has had 500ml of water removed and was replaced by parent tank water.
group 2, is in a new container with 500ml of the existing water.
 
Both groups have equal number of prolarvae in about the same condition.
 
Next time, I will start to add food once the eyes are nearly developed (eg, 12 hours earlier) so that they can hunt earlier.

Wow! Amazing shots! Keep up the great work!

-Adam

This is a DOA!.Dead when they just become larvae.Eyes are getting refringent and pectoral fins show.
If we date them in days,eggs laid sunday night,monday is day one,etc.My prolarvae are fine until day two when they die looking like yours.But yours lasted longer in good health,right?.
This is why I defined 3 stages,we have 1st to obtain lots of healthy larvae and later start the raising game.

Today, we are down to just a few still living.
In the container that received a water change of 500ml, all dead
In container that still has original water, mostly dead
 
I don't think that the water change is to blame, I think its just time for these guys.
 

 

 
Rotifers for size reference

 

 
I have been able to order some copepods (unknown species) and will be getting a plankton tow performed by a local reefer next week.
Once I have both of these, Ill try to time collection of a spawn to match.  Then it will be round two.

Aw, that last one looks like he has a sad face!  Good luck on the next batch! 

Do you have pics of the adults in your tank?

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Mum and Dad (front)

All larvae have now perished.

The last three hung on for another 12 hours past the morning photos.
They then died whilst I was attempting to catch them in a pipette.

Quite a bit has been learned so far. Once u have some food sources to try, I'll collect another hatch and try again.

Thanks for reading

 
Wait...you have a Makerbot?  Which one?  Thing-o-matic or Cupcake?  Cupcake user here!  
 
Shane
 
(btw thanks Tal for PM'ing me with this thread link!)

I started with a cupcake then upgraded to a thing-o-matic. It has an upgraded extruded ml6 (not the plus). His name is Bob.

Bob is used quite a bit to make cable/pipe clips for the breeder tanks and other random stuff.

I'm part way through building a centrally controlled multi tank automatic fish feeder that can feed frozen or dry. Though this has stalled a bit at the moment due to lack of time.

All of the pictures that went from a grey background to a blacker background are thanks to the makerbot sticker.

For those wondering what I'm on about, makerbot make 3D printers, so you can design items in 3D and print them out. Eg. I had a odd shaped hex but with a boldge on one side break in a tap, making it stop work when turned on. I managed to turn the tap off with pliers. 30 mins later I hade made a model from measurements of the pieces and printed a replacement. No trying to find a plumbing shop/plumber at 2am on a Saturday night for me.

I still don´t understand much,but never mind.
I like your new avatar.Certainly a well deserved honour badge!
Have you seen Matt W.also tried them?
Your pics are MICRO since MACRO comes down to 1-1 magnification and yours are way further.And you can do it without a microscope!
To push macro to maximum magnification people use a bellow and invert the lens.

I have found a way to get better pictures, with less grey background.  I spent a few hours tonight working on it.
Hopefully for the next batch, I can deliver clear, dark backgrounds with sharper images.
 
Its way past macro, I agree.  The focus control I have is pressing my thumb on the desk about 30cm away from the subject and letting the bend in the desk move the subject a fraction of a mm.
 
Practice is the only thing that helps.

My photos have been published on ReefBuilders.com 
Matt has done a great job on putting a story along with them.
 
http://reefbuilders.com/2011/12/02/regal-blue-tang-spawn/#comments

I don´t have access to Reef Builders,can´t comment there.But it would be nice if you could have "clear larval development"edited to "clear embryonic development" 

 
You are published!  Congrats!  There's a proud moment. 

I have asked for the change.  I didnt spot that in the draft text.

 
Definitely embryonic development (congratulations). The others are dying or not developing eggs.
 
EDIT: Jeez. Sorry. I'm a little behind on this thread.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

To keep everyone up to speed on this, I have been doing a few experiments with further batches of eggs I have collected.
 
1. Initial batch as listed in thread.
 
2. Repeat of the first batch, the development process was similar, though I removed bad eggs as soon as they became apparent.  Result was identical as initial batch, all good eggs hatched. The hatch rate for good eggs was 100%
 
3. Left all eggs alone, no matter good or bad.  Over time, more and more bad eggs developed.  Hatch was less than 25%
 
4. Eggs were provided a heater set at 26C but no light (ambient light was available). Left all eggs alone, no matter good or bad.  The hatch rate was above 85% 
 
5. Eggs were provided a heater and an airline on a slow bubble, Left all eggs alone, no matter good or bad.  Hatch rate was less than 25%  This was a small collection with only 12 eggs.
 
I have been able to organise a source for various copepods (and possibly ciliates).  At this stage, Im waiting till after christmas to finalise choices of species that are available here in Australia.  One of the annoying parts is that it is apparently illegal in Western Australia to use a plankton net behind a boat.
 
This means that I will need to get copepods from a supply several thousand km away and have then air freighted to me.  But its at least a step in the right direction.
 
As I learn more, Ill post info

I hope you didn't have to learn that the hard way.  Can you walk with a plankton net??

You don´t need a plankton net for collecting and breeding copepods.I think you need to read this:
http://www.marinebreeder.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=144&t=508
 

I just watched my male spawn with each of the two females in the tank about 15 minutes apart (dirty bugger).
 
This is the first time that the smaller female has spawned that I am aware of.

Excellent!  How's the plankton collecting project coming along?

Amazing! Updates?!

I'm trying to work out what plankton is working for keeping these guys alive.
So far with regular collecting (every 2 days or so) I have been able to keep then alive for about 2 weeks (16-18 days post hatch).
But there is no significant development or growth after about day 6.

My conclusion is that I have been collecting something that is useful as a food, I just don't know what.
What ever it is, however does not seem to be nutritional enough to grow the fry.

The fry become very easy to kill after the first few days. Just collecting them with a pipette after about day 6 post hatch ends with mortality. After day 10-12 trying to collect them with a pipette or spoon has the same result.

Overall, the progress is minimal, I have only speradically been working with tring to raise the prolarvare/larvae but I will continue and as I get actual results, I'll keep everyone informed.

I am happy to hear that you are still working with these fish!  I wonder if the sudden death has something to do with a lack of HUFAs in the food you're providing...?  Although I seem to remember hearing about sudden death with other pelagic fry.

Im thinking along the same lines, though Im not sure what is missing.
I had the same experience with the chromis larvae last night and this morning as well, Im expecting them all to be gone when I get home today.

Cool! Well good luck and hopefully you'll be the first to rear a regal at home!

Some images from the latest batch of eggs
 
approx 2 hours old

 
Approx 30 hours old

Its funny, it never gets old, watching the development within the egg.
I watched one of the eggs for a good 10 minutes today as the embryo moved about.  It was especially active.