Breeding Journal, Species: Synchiropus ocellatus

General
Species: Synchiropus ocellatus
Social Structure:
Size of Individuals: 2"
Age of Individuals: Unknown
Date added to Tank: 11-13-09

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank: 28 gallon
Substrate Details: Aragonite
Filtration Details: Filter floss, Chemipure elite, Brightwell Purigen. 5 Gallon refugium
Water Changes: 5-10 gallons weekly
Water Temperature: 75-82
Lighting: 150 watt radium 20k, 2X18 watt PC Actinic's. 4X 1 watt LED moonlights
Lighting Cycle: Actinics on 14 hours, Halide on 10 hours and moonlights always on.
Other Tank Inhabitants: Seahare, clams and typical CUC.

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types: Hikari bloodworms, Hikari mysis shrimp and cyclopeeze
Feeding Schedule: 2-3 times daily

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn: 11-17-09 9:30pm
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: NA

Larval Tank Details
Temperature: NA
Size of Larval Tank: NA
Substrate Details: NA
Other Tank Decor: NA
Filtration Details: NA
Lighting: NA
Lighting Cycle: NA
Water Changes: NA

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types: NA
Feeding Schedule: NA
Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Metamorphosis: NA
Date of Settlement:NA

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature: NA
Size of Grow-Out Tank: NA
Substrate Details: NA
Other Tank Decor: NA
Filtration Details: NA
Lighting: NA
Lighting Cycle: NA
Water Changes: NA
Size at Transfer: NA
Age at Transfer NA

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types: NA
Feeding Schedule: NA

Additional Information
Miscellaneous Information:

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

Meet Scoots and Boogie my new Scooter pair.





I have had Scoots for several weeks and just picked up the male today.
It was love at first sight. He has been flashing her like crazy and turning a bright blue color.

She was quick to show him where the food is.





I am not ready to raise any fry yet. I have 2 five gallon copopod cultures but no rotifers.
I could set up a larvae tank in 10mins flat though.

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

Female is gravid this evening. Hopefully the male feels up to the task.

Heres a video of them eating dinner....yes the seahare is eating too. He is a wierd little guy but better than it starving to death.

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

Got a spawn tonight! 11-17-09 surprisingly at the same time my Mandarins would spawn 9:30ish pm.
Unlike the Mandarins eggs these are positively buoyant and stayed in their strands thankfully. Made for a easy collection. 
 

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

Oddly the eggs possess a oil globule. This came as a surprise to me considering Mandarin eggs did not have one. I would never of guessed that Ocellatus and Splendidus would differ so much.
 

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

here's a pic from this morning. They are floating in a container in my DT that is sitting at 76 degrees. I assume at those low temperatures that the eggs will take longer to develop.

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

Very cool!  Any tips on keeping a pod culture going?

Not really. Pods are rather easy to culture. I just use a 5 gallon bucket with several chunks of filter sponge. Keep a airline gently bubbling and feed a few drops of T. Iso paste every couple of days. I dont try and keep heavy cultures at this point but I assume upping feedings and sponge (living) material would do the trick.
 
Fertilization confirmation. Egg development slowed due to low temps of hatching container.
17 Hours post spawn.

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

Caught a spawn on video. This is thier second spawn. Broodstock has been together 5 days now. Does not look like eggs where fertilized but difficult to tell under actinics.
]

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

Very Cool.. Thanks for sharing that with us.

Chad Penney - MBI Council
Agis quod Adis

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

Got another spawn this evening. I Missed the spawn but collected eggs at 10:00pm

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

I lost all my previous eggs and larvae to what looked like a really small type of ciliates. Eggs and larvae where completly covered in them. Thats what I get for using parental tank water instead of fresh SW.

I did get another spawn today though. That makes four days in a row.

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

I'm so amazed they're spawning with such a short time together.....  It's awesome!

Thanks K's Mom I am kind of supprised too. On that note I got yet another spawn tonight. I decided to get my butt in gear and set up the 10gal and kreisel. I will post some pics when I am done.

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

Cool setup. Did you see the design somewhere else?

Chad Penney - MBI Council
Agis quod Adis

No just kind of winged it. It didnt really work too well. I have alittle mesh where the line comes in and the line allready disslodged but the power head provides enough flow to keep things off the bottom of the kreisel.

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

I currently have five fry left. I am shocked that they have made it this far since I do not have any rotifer cultures. I have been sieving my copopod cultures and apparently they are finding enough naups. I did things differently than normal and it appears to be working. I did not use a air line as usual and just kind of let the water in the tank and kreisel slowly mix. There are virtually no currents in the kreisel. The pod naups are congregating at the waters surface and the fry are all up there striking and feeding. The lack of current is is allowing the pods to concentrate which is making up for the lack of numbers for the fry. I do fear water quality may become an issue with all the empty egg casings in the bottom so I will have to do some maintenance tonight. I lost track of how old this batch is. I would have to say somewhere around 4-5 days.

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

I have had the lights off in the kreisel for two days.I turned the lights on for no real reason.  I was sitting at my desk when I noticed 3-4 fry swimming around in there. No idea how old they are. I would say 4-5days maybe. They where swimming very activly. I tried to syphon one with a pipette but it wouldnt let me get close to it. They where hunting these little guys

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDIxjpWUYnQ

The entire surface was covered in a thick mass of them. This was the same magnification as the video above. They are definatly small enough to be consumed but big enough to make a meal.

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

Those would be ciliates.  Euplotes sp. to be more specific.  Make sure they don't get anywhere near any live phyto cultures, they're worse than rotifers when it comes to contaminating phyto.  They should be fine with rotifers and other zooplankton, may even be beneficial according to Frank Hoff.

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

Heres a video of one of my remaining fry. No idea how old...a week or so?
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ-RUYwmaDo

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

its upside down but a good video none the less. You can see that the ciliates are a perfect size for consumption.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B8kx61e_YA

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

more spawns since last updated. Today I also got a bivalve spawn so I seived them and feed them to the scooter fry. Heres a couple new vids

Spawn the other day 
 
the fry tank...may want to mute. Audio spawp not working today.

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

NICE vid!

Thanks Matt.

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

Great pics and vids. Believe it or not the scooters are actually a bit more difficult to rear than the mandarins. I think they are a bit smaller at first feeding and seem to have a hang up or two during the first 3 days after first feeding. As you have found they don't seem to do well in vertical current fields as in a small kreisel so it is good you cut the flow. The ciliates in your video would concern me of water quality. I doubt they are playing any role in nutrition for the larvae, but definitely signal deterioration of water quality. I think the hang up during the first 3 days for me has been bad water quality triggered by high stocking density of food. Low prey density actually seems prefered since they succumb to bacteria or unknown ailments. Simply dripping clean water 6" from the surface will create a rocking motion in the rearing tank that these larvae seem to like. It will keep the cop. naups concentrated at the surface (keep the lights on 24 hrs.) and keep the water quality up.

Cool stuff. Keep posting it.

Thanks. I have a flukers reptile dripper over the kreisel and I do keep the lights on 24 hours. The ciliate was probably from pod culture theres alot of them in there. Water quality is a issue atm though. I noticed some hydroids in the bottom of the 10gal. Currently there are none in the kreisel though. After this next batch passes on I need to scrub it clean.

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges