Breeding Journal, Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Three Stripe Damselfish

No! He was supposed to be bulletproof now. Sorry Kathy, hopefully he is just adept at hiding.

Nope, It's gone.  Hatch tomorrow. We live to hope!

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

And what a hatch it was…. Ten gallons of BRT water just thick with larvae.  I tried to get a 100 ml cup of tank culture to check the copepod concentration, and got 4 damsel larve inadvertently. So, 40 per liter, 160 per gallon, then 1600 in the 10 gallon culture.  Sounds like a low estimate, since I was sampling in a spot that I didn't see so many larvae.
 
What I did: Cleaned and Bleach/dechlor-ed a 17 gallon BRT with central standpipe. Heater and airstone included.  Eggs were disinfected on their tile with 5 ml peroxide per liter of brood stock tank water.  The tile is so big, I had difficulty getting a small container to contain it, and ended up suspending the tile upside down in the tray to submerge the eggs. 15 minutes, and then into the BRT just propped up randomly.
 
I looked to clean out the peroxide tray a couple of hours later, and noticed some schmutz on the bottom.  Filtered and looked under the scope, and it was a bazillion damsel eggs, still alive (heartbeat and movement evident under the scope). Must have fallen off. I added them to the BRT.
 
I misjudged hatch night, so they didn't hatch.  I left them in there. Waited 24 hours. Last night they hatched.  I added copepods, mostly Parvocalanus, and tried to screen for adults, as these hatchlings don't have a mouth yet and will want the smallest nauplii when they do have a mouth in a day or two.  The adult copepods might provide that, and I have other cultures of Parvo copepods, large one and a bunch of smaller ones, that will supplement. This morning there was the beginning of pigment in the eyes. I added Isochrysis last night as well, and it appears that there is enough this morning. I also added a little of the Cheatoceros that I've been growing.  I did that last time, and got one larva to 2 weeks.  Trying to repeat what worked.  It may be that they eat the phyto in the water at first, as they had brown tummies last time, I just don't know, and don't know how to tell what they are eating.
 
This time, the light is attached to the BRT, so, close to the larvae, and bright. I have also turned the airflow up higher as a result of conversations at the MBIW. I am surprised at how well this is tolerated.  The larvae seem active and darting, even though they don't have mouths yet.  I don't understand why, but I'm not complaining.
 
I think I will have to thin this group of damsels, as I can't imagine it is good to have them SO thick.  I wonder if my pipefish would like some…better to get them out of the BRT than to have them die in there.  Next time, I should not hatch so many.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

I bet the pipefish would love 'em!

Actually, they were not interested. They liked the copepods that came with the larvae better.  My pipefish are very small. Dragonface love rotifers, as an example of the size of their snick.
 
Massive die off today, as expected.  Actually, the biggest die off came when I swished the 300 micron sieve through the tank in an attempt to thin the numbers of damsel larvae.  Worked very well.  Got lots in the sieve, and several hundred turned white and died just from, I presume, fright.  Thankfully, it is not a problem, as I still have loads of larvae that appear to be alive.  Pretty dramatic, though.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

All gone. lots of parvo nauplii, yet they did not learn to eat.  I am at a loss, but I'll keep trying stuff.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

i scraped off just a few of the next nest, which was laid on the glass of the tank.  I guess the fish are mad at me for removing their tile for 2 days.
 
They hatched as usual, always more than I expected, and this time, I am doing this:
Initially, the light is at the ceiling, and the larvae are hatched into tank water, the leftover BRT from the last run, which I have continued to feed and monitor. No ammonia, live algae, now including tetraselmis and chaetoceros as well as isochrysis.  The parvocalanus look very well this day 1 of the run, with lots and lots of the tiniest nauplii.  The adults have a brown color to them, which makes me think they are well fed. Also the abundant nauplii.  There are pseudodiaptimus in there as well, but since they are all calanoids, I can't tell the difference except by adult size.  Juveniles are all confused.
At the end of day 1, I moved the light a little closer.  The larvae seem to be getting a little pigment in their eyes and reflecting the light of my flashlight a little bit.  Significant numbers have died over the day, but that is to be expected.  We shall see what tomorrow brings.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Some die off as expected, and there are many seemingly striking at food now at day 2.  No ammonia.  Yesterday I trickled a gallon of new water in.  Then I had to make more saltwater, so I didn't do it today, in order to age it properly.
 
The eyes are well developed now, and with that goes the mouth. They should be eating in the next day.  If they are strong enough, they will survive.
 

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Some wishful thinking on my part:  The one that survived longer than normal was spawned just after the first week of a mostly squid diet for the brood stock.  I didn't take the next couple of nests, and then I ran out of squid for a week or so.  These guys were spawned after the week of little quid for Mama, so they may not be that strong.  The next hatch should prove stronger, if Mama's diet is going to have an impact on their survival, assuming that the squid that helps them spawn will also make strong larvae.
 
PS. after a 50% squid diet for 2 weeks, my clarkiis started spawning (I only had them a couple weeks), and my neon gobies resumed spawning after their summer break.  All the regular spawners are making nice, big nests.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Major die off overnight. Some still in there, but not so many are actively swimming and striking at food.  I upped the air and lowered the light.  Added Tetraselmis and Isochyrsis.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Interestingly, the parental fish spawned again, and this time I was in the fish room early, before the brood stock lights came on.  Larval system lights were on, but the brood stock tanks were mostly dark. Eggs were already laid, that weren't there last night.  They either spawned in the dark or when the larval lights came on…or sometime during the night. Again on the tank wall, up front.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

I collected some few eggs last evening and added some to the gobies, rotifers, copepods, clarkiis tub, and some to the copepods clarkii tub, just in case one or two decide to live.  I have another plan for the next batch.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Kathy, have you tried ciliates?  They are smaller than parvo naups and might give you another angle to view your results.  Also, maybe you can try the smaller dinos?  I know there are a lot in the 150 micron size but I don't remember if there are others in the 50-100 micron size.  The best place I know to get starter cultures of them is Carolina Biological.  
 
I'm not offering advice here because you know more about damselfishes than I do.  I'm just offering suggestions.  Keep trying.

Hi Dave,
I have tried ciliates, with fatal results.  I don't know why ciliates don't work, they are the right size and they are packed with the right stuff. Perhaps they are too fast to catch. i may try them again in future.
 
Now that I have some variety in phytoplankton, my plan is to grow a lot of it, and really darken up the larval tub in the early days. My thinking is that since they have no eye pigment, they may need more contrast or shade from the light in order not to be blinded, and to learn how to hunt.  These are such tiny larvae, it seems to me that even parvo nauplii may be too big for them.  They might just be eating motile phyto for the first day or so after mouth formation.  Then introduce parvo nauplii without the parental pods to give them a chance to hunt for prey without distraction from the larger ones.  We'll see.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Interestingly, the damsel larvae, at day 2 in the rotifers, copepods, gobies and clarkii tub are still darting, appear to have eyes and probably a mouth, whereas the ones in the copepod clarkii tub are no where to be found. Note that the gobie rotifer tub is significantly darker with dead phyto than the copepod clarkii tub in which I am only using live phytoplankton.  
 
The lone clarkii in the copepod tub seems much better developed than the ones in the gobie tub, but there is only one.  There are many in the gobie rotifer tub, that are close in size and development.  I need a spreadsheet to keep what is in each tub and the conditions therein straight...

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

So impressed was I by the ciliate like movement of my recently acquired tetraselmis culture, that when I finally had grown enough excess of it, I added a gallon to ten gallons of water in a BRT for the damsels.  Unfortunately, the hatch, while it looked good in the tub, was only a partial,as there were still thousands of eggs on the tile when I gave it back to Mr and Mrs Strom. Mr Strom was really pissed when I removed it...
 
Anyway, I should have let it hatch some more, because in broad daylight, I didn't have that many larvae, and they all died by day 2. It may be that there were not enough population for a few to survive, and it may be that the tetraselmis are too fast for the larvae to catch.
 
Meanwhile, I await the next batch of eggs, and the tub has grown into a lovely green culture of Tetraselmus.  I'm going to try again before I abandon this approach.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

I think you are on a promising path.  Tetraselmis should be a good candidate for an early food.  From what I've read it has good nutrition too.  Keep us informed if you have any success.

Large nest hatched very well last night into the neon gobie BRT teeming with rotifers and cheatoceros.  The cheato is so thick it clogs my 35 micron filter.  I looked under the scope, and it is the cheato. The cells are distinctive.  These larvae look very good today.  There are a lot of them, and while they do appear to be tossed around in the very mild current produced by the airstone, they pause and strike at something, even though they do not have mouths at this point.  Even parvo nauplii seem too big for them, so I wonder if they are responding to the cheato.  Wouldn't that be great!  I think the gobies may be eating the damsel larvae, but there are so many larvae, and so few gobies, that I am unconcerned. We shall see what tomorrow will bring.
 

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

The over greening of this tank turned out to be a bad thing.  All the damsels and most of the gobies died, although 5 gobies survived. 

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

After re-reading a report on angelfish rearing, I am trying something new tonight.  I hatched a remarkably small nest of damsels in a BRT, previously sterilized and heated to 78F, with a barely perceptible air bubbling on one side.  The angelfish report said that they had 80% survival of their pro larvae if they introduced NO flow to the tanks until the larvae matured enough to begin feeding.  So I am trying a NO flow BRT for the first few days.  It was a small nest by Damsel standards, and I have Tetraselmis and Isochrysis, live, in there for green water.  Let's see what happens...
 

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

No luck, above.  Trying again.  Got a fresh parvo culture. I'm waiting to add the nauplii until the larvae have eyes and a mouth.
 

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

I stopped trying for a while, distracted by other stuff.
Recently I set up a larval tub for watchman gobies that hatched too early in the parental tank, so I didn't get the eggs.  My Damsels had spawned as usual, so I moved the tile to the tub, and turned off the light, and an hour later, the tub was thick with damsel larvae.  I returned the tile to Mr and Mrs Strom. This morning I fed the tub parvo nauplii, lots of tetraselmis, isochrysis and rhodomonas, some apocyclops, ciliates, and what could very well be O. marina. I moved the light down closer to the tank.
 
Many fewer lavae darting around this evening, but still a lot.  We shall see what tomorrow brings.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

This morning I loaded the tub with parvo nauplii, and there were some larvae, but I couldn't find any this evening.  

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

July 9:
Added some damsel eggs to a freshly prepared tub, but containing Chryptocentrus cinctus  larvae which hatched July 2 or 3.  Many died but at least 2 persisted in a BRT with a single watchman larva, and all the live food items.  It's July 16, day 7, and there are still a couple of damsel larvae darting for food. They share the brt with the watchman larva, more damsel larva, hatched yesterday, and some ruby red dragonet larvae, also hatched yesterday.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Tub 1: In the watchman tub, the new July 15th damsel larvae are numerous and swimming.  There seem to persist a couple of damsel larvae from the previous hatch,July 9th! Yay!.  
 
Tub 2: The new damsel hatch in the freshly prepared tub seemed to massively die almost immediately although a couple survive.  The Ruby Red dragonet larvae seem OK in this new tub.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Just reviewed my notes from the last time I got a damsel larva to live past 4 days.  I lost it during the MBI 2014 workshop weekend. My older damsel  larvae this year will be EXACTLY the same age as that first larva, when I leave for MBI this year. EXACTLY!

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Day 8, July 9 larvae looking good,
 
Day 2, July 15 larvae getting reflective eyes.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Day 4, from July 15

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

At day 5 I can't find any July 15 larvae, still at least one July 9, day 11 larva.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Day 12, still at least one, but it looks underdeveloped compared to the last time I got any to survive for a while.
Tomorrow the tub gets a bunch of euterpina, tisbe, and brine naups since the watchman larva may be metamorphosing.
 
Edit: the lone survivor turned out to be a runty Cryptocentrus cinctus-watchman goby.  Much smaller than the other one, and looked so different in size, I thought it was a damsel….

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Kathy, this may seem like a foolish question to ask, but have you looked into the scientific journals around this genus and its culture?  Dascyllus was done a while back and multiple times over...I feel like you should have the materials and tools to pull this off.

yes I've looked. I hope get one this time. Luis A M says this one is particularly difficult as it hatches as prolarvae and very small. I suspect that those who have brought the through on rotifers had a particular ciliate contamination of which they were unaware.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Still have a little swimmer after MBI this year, but it is not as far along as the one from last year.  I went back and recalculated the age of last years run and it disappeared after day 19, and had some color just before.  This one is beginning to look like a goby larva , no color at all, and is at day 23. I wonder if it s a goby runt.  It is significantly smaller than the one I know is a goby, and always has been.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

It's got to be a goby runt.  bears no resemblence to a damsel larva.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Ok, Damsels. 
Now is the time to apply learnings from MBI workshop to these amazing damsels.  I've already turned the temperature down on the damsel parents.  They spawned probably early this morning. Normally the eggs would hatch in two days.  It may be later, and I hope it is, because I turned down the temperature to allow the embryos to get just a bit larger before hatching (thanks, Kevin Barden).  
 
I've prepared a 2 gallon pretzel jar (thanks, Ramon Villaverde) sitting in a water bath (thanks, Kevin Barden).  I plan to feed the damsel larvae daily with lots of Parvocalanus crassirostris nauplii and copepodites and live phytoplankton (thanks, Andy Rhyne, and Ramon Villaverde).
 
The earliest I can expect metamorphosis for this species is 16 days.  Not bad. (thanks, Kevin Barden)
 
I'll keep you posted.
 

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

I stole about 100 eggs from the tile.  they look good.  Waiting for a hatch that I hope does not come.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Good luck Kathy!
 

I jumped too early. They didn't hatch and I am hoping they won't hatch tonight either. Isn't it strange that a lower temperature is supposed to delay hatch but not development or growth? I would have guessed the opposite.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Looking at the eggs last night, some died at an underdeveloped stage, yolk turning black. The rest had beating hearts and pulsing colorless blood through their veins. They hatched last night in the clean cup, not as many as I had wished, but probably enough for a 2 gallon pretzel jar. In they went with a ton of parvo nauplii and enough live Iso to tint a medium brown.  When I put the Iso in, they all went to the surface.  I lowered the light. I hope they are OK.  The plan is to slowly increase the temperature, but I am leaving it as is for now.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

at 40x, 80F prolarvae day0-1

 
at 20x, 74F, prolarvae day 0-1

 
not a head to head, same batch different temps, but two separate nests, so there is no control here, but kinda an indication that temperature of incubation matters.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)