Breeding Journal, Species: Synchiropus sp. "Ruby Red"

Seems there are 2 populations in the jar. One is horizontal, robust, lunges at food, swims where it wants to.  The other is smaller, sometimes in the verticle head down position of all the just-hatched-lings.  I predict those will not last another 24 hours.  The robust ones sure don't seem like they will die tomorrow. 
 
My parvocalanus came in, so I'm hoping for more nauplii tomorrow.  I need to do a water exchange on the pretzel jar as the nauplii that didn't get eaten in the first few days are all grown up now and there is a lot of poo and molts in the water. tomorrow.
 

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

Pictures: Day 5 taken through the side of the pretzel jar:

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

day 6:
microscope: lit from below

 

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

Day 7, through the jar

 
 

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

Microscope, lit from below.  The top larva has a full gut and was active and larger.  The bottom larvae was empty, color fainter, it opened its mouth frequently, but could not swim effectively. 

 

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

Day 7, microscope, lit from above:


 

 

 
THEY ARE YELLOW!  
And importantly, still alive.  Today was starvation day.

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

Seems like they should be big enough to eat rotifers pretty soon. There is a rotifer contamination in the pretzel jar, but it is dwarfed by the parvo nauplii.  I changed about a gallon of the 2 gallon jar, and filtered what I removed.  Lots of rotifers and grown copepods, and in the fraction between 64 and 30 microns, about 35 nauplii per ml, and only 5 tiny rotifers per ml. On the other hand, there were lots of rotifers that were larger.  Got to get my copepodite filter going, perhaps tomorrow.

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

I transferred the adults to a 20 tall tank, with the thought that the 15 breeder was too short for the rise needed to spawn.  Acclimation went well, until I tried to lift them from the bag floating in the new tank.  The male suddenly jumped over my hand and splat on the dirty concrete floor 5 feet below.  I scooped him up as soon as I could find him, which was seconds longer than I wanted, and put him into the new tank, to hopefully rinse off the crud and recover.  He looked pretty stressed for a while, but then started moving like a mandarin should. I don't think they spawned last night, but I hope he makes a full recovery.  The female spent her time watching over him.  It was pretty sweet.

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

Those photos are great! Looks like you are on the way to breaking the code for these little guys.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ken

Very nice Kathy!.I think some pros light their micro pics both from above and below with expensive fiber optic gear (see Matt W.´s pics for example.

This is great!
And glad your male lived, chicks dig scars so maybe they will spawn all the time now.  =)
 

Yeah, this was tricky because I use an LED flashlight.  Need three hands since nothing is mounted on the scope: flashlight, focus, and camera.  Frequently, I get it all set up and the fish moves. …….correction, need 4 hands.
 
I should build a new microscope table.  Presently it sits on the laundry basket support under the laundry shoot.  I could save time every day if it were closer to the sink, wouldn't have to bend over so much, and could set up a better light system.

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

After their rest, the adults look ready to spawn tonight.
 
The larvae continue to progress.  I may be imagining things, or engaging in wishful thinking, but they seem bigger today, like the size of the newly hatched clownfish.  I wonder if they are big enough for rotifers.

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

how many do you think you have left alive?

A lot, perhaps 100?  Very hard to count,and I haven't tried. 

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

Still lookiing good.  Lots of food in the jar. Getting that carrot shape that is typical of mandarins.  In some angles they look very yellow to the naked eye, and sometimes black. I no longer need the flashlight to see them, even after adding live phyto, I can still see them. I must say I enjoy the view.
 
I am still giving lots of parvo naups, but the rotifers are clearing the jar now, and I have the strong feeling that the synchiropus are eating rotifers. They, the larvae, just look so much better than I remember from last time when there were no rotifers.  Just a guess. Today is day 9

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

Kathy, I was looking at your journal - are your Ruby Reds trained onto prepared foods yet? If so, what foods, and how were they trained? 

The adults are eating the Frozen Arctic Pods from Brine Shrimp Direct, and Otohime B1 or 2, not sure. I started feeding them this soon after I got the, mixed with NHBS.  They did seem attracted by the NHBS, for a long time.  I didn't see them eating the other particles until just recently, but now they seek them out.  They seem no thinner than when I got them, and I got them from a full blown reef tank , full of pods, at my LFS.
How: I mixed the NHBS, the frozen, and the pellets with a little saltwater, and squirted it onto each of the 2 sponge filters in the tank, twice a day. The fish learned that food can be found there, it didn't fly away too much, so the fish could study it, and if they missed some, well, the sponge filter took care of the waste.  Also, I could watch them as they ate, if they ate.

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

Day 10: I did a 30% water change on the jar today.  Added back the critters that filtered between 64 and 30 microns, and added extra parvocalanus nauplii.  More phytoplankton, since the rotifers seem to eat it all.

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

What a terrible idea that was. This morning something looked a little off, but there were still larvae swimming around.  I thought it was just that I may have used too much phytoplankton.  Too dark to see them all. This afternoon I came home early from work, to no larvae. Argh. Major bummer. Day 11 this time. No idea why they suddenly all died.
 
I filtered all the water, and the bodies were in the sediment at the bottom.  They died with full bellies, many with open mouths. I had done that water change, adding back the smallest fraction of critters, and I also added some Apocyclops panamensis nauplii.  I can't imagine that either of those two things killed them all so precipitously, but something happened.  Soooo disappointed. I really thought they looked better than last time, and I had a real shot at getting them through.  Good thing Tom says that he has an unlimited supply of eggs.  We live to see another day.

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

Sorry to hear Kathy but we have faith in you. Back on the horse you go!!

Got any suggestions to get them breeding? Actual spawning , instead of their nightly game of "let's pretend"?

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

my frustration... Here they are the day before they all died en masse.  Live Day 10, all dead Day 11. No microscope needed:

 

 

 

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

Man they were looking good.
This time around how are you going to handle the water changes? Or skip them?

Skip them.
 
On Sunday, Tom kindly gave me some new eggs to try.  Now, they are starting to get eyes, and dart at things.

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

This batch of Rubys hatched on the 25 of October.  Now at 4 days they are all eating and having full bellies, and are not yet the size of newly hatched clownfish.At this time they are only getting Parvo nauplii. If all goes well, I'll introduce rotifers on day 8ish, early next week.  No water changes....

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

I added about 8000 rotifers to the 8 liter jar. Could be 6 liters, haven't measured. Not that many, but they are a healthy young batch with 1-4 eggs on them, so I expect they will expand in number without delay. Today is day 6, when the Rubys live, and tomorrow is day 7 when they die, if they are starving, so we shall see.  I don't think they have starved.
 
i've added rotifers later than I did (accidentally) last time.  I'm hoping they do better, of course.

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

On what day do you notice they have become yellow?

The larvae I mean.

I actually don't know. It seems they look yellow when the light is from above their bodies, but they look black when the light is from behind them.  When I am observing them in the pretzel jar, I use backlighting to locate them.  If they swim below where the light is, they are noticeably yellow.
 
Not sure exactly which day they start doing this, but these larvae have pigment very early in the process. Probably around 5 days, I would guess.  Now at  7 days, they certainly are yellow. And alive. So we are past the starvation. Yay!
 

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

Today is day 11 when they died last time after a water change and addition of a new copepod (A. panamensis) from a struggling old culture.  Somehow I poisoned the previous batch.  This one looks OK.  Perhaps a few have died off, but there are still a few, perhaps 25 or so.

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

Fewer still this evening, but definately some live ones.  This from Matthew Wittenrich, TFH September 2010:
"
Scooters Are the Most Difficult Dragonet to Raise
Dragonet larvae are some of the smallest fish larvae found in the oceans and certainly present challenges to would-be breeders. With a bit of ingenuity and dedication, mandarins can be raised in captivity. Spotted mandarins reach metamorphosis at around 12 to 14 days. In comparison, metamorphosis in scooter blenny larvae seems to require about 20 to 25 days. The larvae of scooter blennies are difficult to feed and are prone to mass mortality before 12 days."
 
So last time, I may not have poisoned them, they just had that mass mortality thing.  Tomorrow is day 12, so we shall see with this batch.  If any survive, I'll only have 8-13 more days to go before meta.

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

Hmmm,Matt hadn.t met rubys at that time.Should we call them scooters or mandarins?

I think they are scooters. Certainly have practiced that mass mortality thing enough. 12 days, all gone, and I mean disappeared.  Here this morning, gone this evening.  Not sure what my next step will be.

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

Omg how frustrating Kathy I'm really sorry. My first larval run with them this week was a bust. My parvo naups landed with poor timing to first feeding and they were already too big to be eaten by time the larvae had mouths. Then my brood stock male jumped out of the tank. I wanted to cry. I have another male but she doesn't like him as much...

Omg how frustrating Kathy I'm really sorry. My first larval run with them this week was a bust. My parvo naups landed with poor timing to first feeding and they were already too big to be eaten by time the larvae had mouths. Then my brood stock male jumped out of the tank. I wanted to cry. I have another male but she doesn't like him as much...


They're scooters all the way though for sure.

So sorry to hear of your bad luck with these. 
 
When you order parvo, it pays to order adults.  If you order nauplii they will be one or two days old when they get to your house, they might be too big, and it will be a week before they will produce more nauplii. When you order adults, it takes a couple of days for them to overcome shipping stress, but then they will reproduce, and you can filter out nauplii every day for a couple of weeks.

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

Looks like we all are having bad luck we these. I came home from vacation to find the top off float valve on their tank stuck causing nonstop inflow (& thus overflowing the tank). The SG was 1.010. Male was dead, and female died the next day. A downer ending to a nice vacation....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ken

Big bummer.  Sorry for your losses. :-(

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

Oh boy bad luck strings all around huh? It's got to end for one of us sooner or later lol

And yes Kathy I see what you're saying about ordering parvo. I tried to time the landing for first feeding and when that didn't work it was a disaster. They're now adults and reproducing for me.......unlike my rubies currently. At least the splendidus have been back at it, maybe I can make some progress there this month.