Breeding Journal, Species: A. percula (Picasso variant)

General
Species: A. percula (Picasso variant)     
Social Structure: Mated pair 
Size of Individuals: Female: 2.5" Male:2"
Age of Individuals: Approx. 4.5yrs from ORA 
Date added to Tank: 9-12-09

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank: Standard 10G
Substrate Details: Fine layer of Indo/Pac sand.
Filtration Details: Plumbed into central system, approx. 95G 
Water Changes: 30% bi-weekly 
Water Temperature: 80-82F
Lighting: Shop light
Lighting Cycle: 14hrs light, 10hrs dark
Other Tank Inhabitants: None

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types: Various frozen foods including squid, enriched with RaitoHUFA
Feeding Schedule: Every 4 hours

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn: 11-1-09 
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: 11-26-09 

Larval Tank Details
Temperature: 82F
Size of Larval Tank: Stand alone 10G 
Substrate Details: None 
Other Tank Decor: Small piece of LR 
Filtration Details: None 
Lighting: CF bulb with reflector 
Lighting Cycle: 14hrs light, 10hrs dark 
Water Changes: None

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types: Rotifers, NHBS(for a few days), Otohime A  
Feeding Schedule: Continuous-rotifers, every 4 hours with Otohime A  

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Metamorphosis:
Date of Settlement: Day 10

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

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types:
Feeding Schedule:

Additional Information
Miscellaneous Information: First spawn only produced about 24 eggs, three hatched but died on day 4.
Spawn #2 produced more eggs (40) but again, only a few hatched. 

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

Broodstock with first spawn (for me):
 

 

 
 

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

Those look really nice for ORA percs.  If it wasn't for the male's pattern, I wouldn't have guessed they had ORA lineage at all.

This pair originally came from Scott/Tanglovers, he won them at IMAC in 2006.  He sold them to Mike/Pazzaz (who still "owns" them) and I'm breeding them.   

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

A nice way to start the new year. 




Can't see the eggs in the vid but I checked after they were  finished and it's their biggest clutch yet!

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

Here are a few pics of the 2 survivors that hatched on Jan 11.  That makes them 1 month old. They mature slowly like regular A. percula.







Here is the latest clutch from the spawn on 2-11/12-10 (I'm not sure if they did it late on the 11th or early on the 12, I missed the act.)

This looks to be the biggest clutch to date.

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

Looks like they have a TON of white coloration already...more like Platinums?

They do have a lot of white along the dorsal.  Should be interesting to see how they turn out. Can two Picassos make Platinums?


I should say that this pair has produced small clutches up to this point... 12-24 eggs.  Out of those about half would make it to hatch point and only a few would actually hatch, with these being the first ones to make it to this age.  


Switching from pots to tiles seems to be working well with all my pairs except the Darwins, they haven't gotten used to the tiles yet.


I was under the impression that Picassos would only produce 25% "Picasso" offspring... if that's the case, I was pretty to have the two survivors have the markings?  

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

From what I've seen, yes.  Seems like several people are coming up with Platinums out of Picasso-lineage fish from the ORA line.  Not surprising perhaps considering how supposedly, they all stem from a single pair if you read literally into some of the wording on ORA's site.



I'd want more info.  I recently got word from David Durr on the west coast...out of a Picasso pairing, the numbers on his first small clutch were roughly 25% Platinums, 50% Picasso-types, and 25% normal barring.  That along would certainly suggest some sort of co-dominant genetics of some sort.  Of course, one look at Woodstock's fish...I've never read through the 100+ page thread completely because it's so bloated with unrelated info, but it seems she has no shortage of picasso-type offspring.  I wonder if these "25% Picasso" matings are coming from parings of things like an Onyx + Picasso?  IDK...time and better information will reveal the true nature of the genetics at play.

Hmmm... well, I'll have to see what I get out of the next batch.

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

Tonight's spawn, bigger yet!

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

Here are the first 2, just over 6 weeks post hatch...

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

Those are certainly white little buggers.  They remind me of little kids in ghost costumes on Halloween, lol!  You should TOTALLY name one Casper!!!!

The latest group hatched on February 20th, the morning of the A&M Tour.

Here they are at 17 DPH:











There are obvious color differences from regular A. percula. You can see at least one that is showing the Platinum coloration, now that I know what to look for. We'll see if I get any Picassos out of this clutch.

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

MP sent me this related link:http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?t=17910

Thanks Matt!

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

Disclaimer: These pics are horrible and only intended to give an idea of how this group is developing their stripes.


28DPH 

If you look closely you can see that some are showing signs of becoming Picasso's. There are some Platinums in this group too.

What I find interesting, at least at this point, is that out of the ones that are not showing Picasso or Platinum traits some are developing normal A. percula stripes much quicker than offspring from an A. percula pair while others are not. This may change over the coming weeks, not sure what will happen.

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

Hi Tal,

Thanks for sharing the pictures.  I have a batch of platinum's that hatched on 2/27/10 so they are on day 32 now.  I am seeing similar markings as yours.  I have one question tho.  It appears that your babies are still on a sponge filter.  Have they not been moved to your growout system yet?  If not at what day approx. do you move them over and start them on your normal system water?

Dave

In the pics from the 9th they were still in the larval tank wit the sponge filter. In the pics that I posted earlier they are in the GO tank. Transferred them last week, around 25 DPH.

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

Here are some pics of the Platinums in with some A. ocellaris:












 



And the latest batch of Picasso's in with the Banggai:

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

Hey give you two shiny quarters for those ugly silver clowns!  

Here are some better pics from today. This clutch really seems to stay in ball formations much more than previous ones, this may be caused by the banggai in there with them. Each "ball" seems to have a Platinum "ring leader" too.











It looks like there are going to be some interesting patterns in this group. 

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

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

Some vids from last night. This group hatched on March 17th.









Notice the balling behavior, much more pronounced in the Picasso offspring than in other species.

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

New pics.

Hatched 02-20-10









Hatched 03-17-10

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

More vids:





Check out the bubble in this one...

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

I've been trying to track down some info about the origin of Picasso clowns. From what I've been told by a few reputable sources, the Picasso variant was first seen around 2003 and they most likely came from the Solomon Island region. It wasn't until 2005, or 2006 that they became popular in the trade.  

The Picasso variant is found in the wild so I'm sure that they were seen long before 2003 but most likely not collected since they didn't have the classic coloration of regular A. percula. 

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

Wow, I counted three platinums.  Very nice.

I was under the impression that Picassos were spawned from Onyx percs so hopefully my pair will also throw off some picassos

I seem to be getting more platinums with each batch. They are laying more eggs each time too.


I've never heard of Onyxs coming from Picassos.

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

New grow out pics:



















Yeah, there are some Banggai in there too:

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

I did it! If you look closely in the above pics you can see my Tal-casso! I finally got one with a "T", almost like my photoshopped avatar but this one is real.

 

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

HaHa, nice, are you feeding it flake food cut into letter T's?

Looks like I have some new morphs...

A. quadcinctus on the left:





Right






And my special "T"cinctus  looking good on the left:






BTW, I'm only joking with the names.

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

Cool pics, Tal

Tal,

  Would you say they mature as fast or slower than a regular Perc?  Great pics btw!

They stripe considerably faster than regular A. percula. They grow a bit quicker too, more like A. ocellaris.

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

Here are the eggs that were spawned on 07-07-10. Moving them to the larval tank. Looks like the largest clutch to date from this pair. Around 200, some were cropped out of the pics.

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

Some nice shots of the juveniles...

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

95% of the hatch from 07-15-10 are doing great. Pix tomorrow.

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

Pics from the July hatch: 

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

I was fishing around with the older ones today and pulled them out to get some better pics...
 

 

 

 

 
Sasha checking them out...
 

 

 

 

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