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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Monday, May 12, 2014 10:49 PM
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On Saturday, they were looking like they could hatch, so I set up another kreisel, this time with rotifers instead of Parvo, live Iso, and air, of course. The Parvo kreisel is stll going strong, and has tons of pods in there. I've been thinning them, but there still is a LOT. I scraped some damsel eggs and added some to each kreisel. I added more than last time, just to give me more chances at success, but not so many that failure would be guaranteed. Overnight, they didn't hatch. The Damsel's wall was still covered in eggs. Later that day, just before lights out, I noticed that the damsel's wall was mostly devoid of eggs and the 2 kreisels had tiny transparent larvae swirling in them. Did they hatch early evening, or mid day? Don't know. Damn things are so unpredictable...
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Monday, May 12, 2014 10:56 PM
( permalink)
Now Monday, not 24 hours from hatch, the Parvo kreisel larvae seem to be tossed by the circular current, whereas, in the rotifer kreisel, many larvae hover in a cloud, mostly striking at what comes at them in the current. Their eyes are not yet pigmented. Can they see? Or is this just some reflexive swimming motion? This is not a controlled experiment, as the Parvo kreisel has been running for 3 weeks, and the rotifer one, 3 days. The rotifer one has clean new aged saltwater, whereas the Parvo one has all the detritus of many dead larvae, and probably generations of Parvo. There have only been minimal water changes. Let's see what tomorrow will bring.
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Saturday, May 17, 2014 11:39 AM
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As of yesterday, neither kreisel had living damsel larvae in them. More eggs were laid on Thursday, so there will be a hatch today. I'm going to break out the tubs. I think the kreisels have too much light, and are too small.
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Wednesday, May 28, 2014 5:44 PM
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Have you tried these in a BRT yet?
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Thursday, May 29, 2014 9:20 AM
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I'm on my second hatch with the BRT. The first time, the eggs hatched wonderfully, lavae swam around abundant Parvocalanus crassirostris nauplii, then died as soon as their yolk sacs depleted. I'm trying again with the Parvocalanus in the BRT,and have sent an email to Andy Rhyne, who has lots of experience with damselfish and Parvo, to ask for advice. The timing of all the deaths I've experienced with this species suggests that the eating mechanism is just not working right.
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Wednesday, June 11, 2014 6:57 PM
( permalink)
I've been giving it a go, every 6 days or so, when the damsel larvae are ready to hatch, I scrape some off and put them in the parvo tub. They hatch beautifully, and spend a couple of days swimming there, and then they all die off by the time the damsels spawn again. Mr Damsel used to hide when I went in for the eggs, but now he attacks the siphon tubing with a vengeance. He hasn't gone after my hand yet, but it probably won't be long. This time I sectioned him and his mate on one side of the tank with some perforated PVC sheet goods, and scraped the eggs with an algae scraper, collecting the eggs with the siphon. I got a fair amount of eggs, but not a lot, as I went in late to get them, and some , most, had already hatched. Threw those eggs in the parvo BRT, and a couple of hours later, I had tiny swimmers, as usual.
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Wednesday, June 11, 2014 7:04 PM
( permalink)
This time, they seem more vigorous, three days later, and I have high hopes. Differences this time, are that I moved the light higher, and I'm using more Isochrysis, and I've added Cheato phytoplankton as well. I'm wondering what the role of pigmentation is, in eye development. When I try to collect the newly hatched pro larvae, they swim away from the approaching pipet tip. Can they see it, or are they in tune with the currents made by it? Pigmentation comes in later. Is it required for actual sight? Does it protect the eyes from too much light? Does intense lighting bring it on? One would think that in the ocean, the surface water would be intensely lit. Do they head for the surface like clownfish? or do they hang around wherever they hatch? I have not tested for photo dynamics...
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Sunday, June 29, 2014 10:17 AM
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With the next to last hatch, I set up 5 systems. Three 17 gallon BRTs and two 3 gallon fishbowl kreisels. Rotifers with what looked like O. marina, Rotifers "alone", and Parvocalanus crassirostris in each of the BRTs. Ciliates and some kind of microscopic worm in each of the kreisels. I scraped eggs off the wall of the tank, and added approximately 20 to each of the small kreisels, and tried to evenly divide the rest of the eggs between the BRTs. Hatching happened, as usual, with no further assistance from me. One obvious flaw in the design of this trial, is that I started late in the day preparing the vessels, so the temperature of the water when I added the eggs was cool, about 73F. Heaters had been added, but the temperature was not what i intended to raise the larvae by. The temperatures eventually rose to 78-79F. In the kreisels, the larvae remained suspended in the circular flow, head down, until starvation day 3. They occasionally darted, but mostly drifted. The rotifers with O. marina BRT did not hatch as well as the others, which could be due to sloppy stocking density on my part. The larvae also died on day 3. The Parvo BRT, which has been set up for a couple of months, receiving occasional water changes, and which last hosted a precious few larvae that lasted until day 5, this time lost them all at day 3, despite ample stocking density of larvae. The best culture was the rotifers, surprisingly, as they are supposed to be too large for the developing larvae, yet the ones that died on day 5.5 seemed to have something green in their guts. Post mortem analysis of the culture water food levels revealed that this BRT had those O. marina like critters as well. One other difference in what i did that time, is I had a culture of Cheato phytoplankton, a diatom. I fed this to all the tanks along with live Iso, until the Cheato crashed last week. The rotifer tanks also got some of Reed's Greenwater product, to supplement the microalgae for the rotifers, as they seem to consume more than the copepods.
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Sunday, June 29, 2014 12:32 PM
( permalink)
The parental damselfish continue to be the easiest fish to spawn in the world. I put a white wall tile in the tank after the previous hatch, and they spawned on it the next chance they got. They fight the grabber device I used to retrieve that tile, but it was easier to do than scraping off the wall, and may be easier on the eggs. This time I put the tile in the BRT that hosted the most successful run from last time, and with no particular interventions to get the water to flow over the eggs, other than the airstone providing circular flow to the whole tank, distant to the tile, all the eggs hatched, and there are an abundant number of tiny swimmers in the tank an hour after lights out. Easy peasy. Then I turned on, and left on, the light at the ceiling above their tank, for 24/7 illumination. (Before adding the tile, I did scrape the bottom, swirl the water, allow time for settlement, and siphoned out the crud. I then searched the siphonate for damselfish bodies and observed several under the scope with pigmented eyes, protruding lower jaws, and something green in the guts. Perhaps they ate something, and it is almost certain that they did, since they lived to day5, and starvation is at day 3 with no eating. ) The new larval culture is also with a larger volume, closer to 10 gallons than 5. I thought since I would be adding more larvae, more volume was warranted. Also, I effectively did a water change on the tub simultaneously. I guess, a water supplement.
<message edited by KathyL on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 9:20 AM>
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Monday, June 30, 2014 12:17 AM
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I took some pix under the celestron scope, of a couple of sacrificial larvae to see what they are doing. Then I added some parvocalanus nauplii to the tank, getting ready for the development of mouths. The yolk sac is almost spent, and the eyes are getting some pigment. What can be the advantage of hatching without pigmented eyes and a fully formed mouth? It's not like they learn to swim better without these things being fully functional...
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Monday, June 30, 2014 11:53 AM
( permalink)
Today, I moved the light down from the ceiling to the edge of the BRT. The larvae are not just drifting, they are drifting and scooting around, hopefully getting fed. I did this after taking a sample of the larvae and finding that the eyes now have pigment. Here are yesterday's pictures, followed by today's: Day 1: All pix are at taken at 100x with the celestron.
<message edited by KathyL on Monday, June 30, 2014 12:16 PM>
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Monday, June 30, 2014 11:57 AM
( permalink)
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Monday, June 30, 2014 9:15 PM
( permalink)
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Monday, June 30, 2014 9:19 PM
( permalink)
Can anyone tell if he was eating, and if so, what? Since moving the light down, the larvae are significantly more active. Instead of drifting, they seem to be darting around, which makes me think they are eating, both by their activity, and the fact that the yolk sac is seriously gone by now. There are a lot of them, which is making sacrificing them for pictures easier to do. This is a significant difference from previous batches. I have hope that we could make it past 5 days... I fed the tank about 100 ml of my darkest ISO, which is not terribly dark, and 20 drops of RG green.
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Tuesday, July 1, 2014 9:23 AM
( permalink)
Meanwhile Mr and Mrs Strom (I named the parental damsels) are spawning this morning on a new, larger, clay tile I put in their tank a couple of days ago. It's another huge nest of the tinniest eggs you can imagine. I can't tell they are there until I pull the tile out of the water. The nest covers approximately 6x6 inches of tile.
<message edited by KathyL on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 9:40 AM>
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Wednesday, July 2, 2014 11:20 PM
( permalink)
And this evening they are mostly gone. If there are any left tomorrow morning I'll be surprised. Sigh.
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Thursday, July 3, 2014 1:26 AM
( permalink)
Keep working on it, Kathy. You'll get it soon.
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Thursday, July 3, 2014 10:04 AM
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No surprise, all dead. :-( Hatch again tonight.
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Monday, July 7, 2014 9:46 AM
( permalink)
This time I put the tile into a chlorinated/dechlorinated BRT of saltwater with heater and airstone, light at the ceiling. Thousands hatched out. I added about 200 ml Isochrysis, and some 12 drops of RGreen. The next day I started adding P. crassirostris nauplii, and I've been adding the same daily. The second day I began to lower the light, and by the time they had pigmented eyes, the light was attached by the clamp to the tub. Yesterday, I checked some of the few survivors, and they have pigmented eyes, a mouth and a gut the same color as the brown copepods. (the pictures above were euthanized with iodine, which turns everything brown. I did not euthanize when I checked under the scope this time, and so it is very difficult to take pictures because they do not stay still) There were very few survivors, but my copepod nauplii supply was not what I would want to feed this many larvae. Checking under the scope, the nauplii seem still too big for the mouths of the larvae, so the brown guts may be due to ingested algae…I don't know.
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish
Monday, July 7, 2014 9:51 AM
( permalink)
Meanwhile, yesterday Mr and Mrs spawned on the large tile as well as another smaller tile in the tank, both sides. Where do they keep these things? This pair is so massively productive it is scary.
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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