Breeding Journal, Species: A. percula ("onyx") x ("picasso")

General
Species:  Amphiprion percula ("onyx") x Amphiprion percula ("picasso")

I don't own the broodstock (I collected eggs from a buddy's tank), so the broodstock sections are intentionally blank.

Social Structure:  Pair
Size of Individuals: Female: ~4 inches, Male: ~2.5 inches
Age of Individuals:  4 years
Date added to Tank:  Born to me, 7/13/10

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  90 gallons, 48" x 18" x 24"
Substrate Details:  Sand
Filtration Details:  Tons of chaeto, connected to my 1,500 gal. system
Water Changes:  8-10% every 1-2 weeks
Water Temperature:  79°F
Lighting:  T-5s
Lighting Cycle:  I believe it's 14 on, 10 off
Other Tank Inhabitants:  None.

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  My mash of foods plus lots of small tank critters to poach on in the chaeto.
Feeding Schedule:  Once per day.

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  I collected from a buddy's tank, so I don't have these details. I'm excited to report that two of the babies of the batch I raised finally spawned today, 11/24/14
Spawn Time of Day:  3:00 pm
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: This is the first I've seen.
Courtship Details:  I caught them mid-spawn but they've been cleaning this week.
Egg Size:  A couple mms.
Egg Color:  Orange
Egg Count: They are still at it.

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  7/13/10
Hatch Time of Day:  10:00 p.m.
# Days after Spawn: 
Larvae Description:  Lots of them. They look like baby fish, except HUGE.


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  80
Size of Larval Tank: 17 gals., blue (inside black) round tub    
Substrate Details:  krylon paint
Other Tank Decor: 
Filtration Details:  Connected to large trash can and 20H sump for water volume. Water into trash can goes across bioballs.
Lighting:  Desk lamp, room light
Lighting Cycle:  16 on
Water Changes: 

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  The idea is to try to use Apocyclops to raise the fry. So far (day 8): Apocyclops, rotifers, Oyster Feast, BBS, powdered Hikari S
Feeding Schedule:  4x/day

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start: 
Days after Hatch: 
Date of Settlement End: 
Description of Fry: 

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature:  80
Size of Grow-Out Tank: Same as larval, but I started flowing water through to filtration, sump.       
Substrate Details:  Same.
Other Tank Decor:  Added a sponge filter.
Filtration Details:  Sponge filter/Wet-dry with bioballs
Lighting:  Same
Lighting Cycle: Same 
Water Changes:  Up to about 4 gals. per day
Size at Transfer:  Didn't transfer
Age at Transfer: 

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types:  Lots. Hikari S, Formula 2 flakes, Apocyclops, Nutramar Ova, homemade frozen fish goo, SF Reef Plankton, etc.
Feeding Schedule:  4x/day

Additional Information
Miscellaneous Information: 



You will be required to provide photographic evidence in this thread of each event submitted for the MBI Program.
If your thread does not contain these photos the MBI Committee will not be able to approve your reports.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Sorry. Can someone delete the other thread? The MASM site does NOT work well on the iPad. And by not well, I mean "not at all."

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Andy...

drop the ipad and get a nokia....  FYI this is the one that should be deleted the other one has the info...

lol
 
hah and in edit... I notice the neither have info....  ANDY!!! Wake up! doesnt that ipad have some crazy brain dump genious bar auto fill stretch and touch stand on your head to forum fill function?

Pelagically yours,
~J      

Yes. Yes it does. The MASM form fields won't let me enter text on the silly thing, though.

Okay, here's the deal:

I asked my buddy (Zooid) who does lots of clowns if he would try the funny little copepods with a batch to see how they'd do. He said that he didn't have room to do a batch now, but that he had a nest that should hatch tonight. I gathered supplies and headed over. He has a couple of clowns in his reef tank that lay on a flower pot right next to an anemone. So, he pulled it out, we got the battery-powered airstone running, and I took off home. The airpump lasted about thirty feet from his door (sigh). Fortunately, the roads were bad and I'm a sucky driver, so there were lots of waves on the way home.

Long story short, looks like all or nearly all hatched tonight! That's a lot of clownfish! I'll certainly get some photos tomorrow. 

First impressions: Clownfish larvae are ENORMOUS.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Andy, your a programer (at least at heart) so you need to develop an Iphone/Ipad app for the MASM site and the MBI   You know I need it for my new Iphone.  And, I know you have the time now

Rook

Time? What is this thing you speak of: "Time"?

I've never done clowns before, but these seem very dark for 1 day old larvae to my eyes. I mean, I can actually see them. How do they survive in the big, bad ocean if things can see them?

Things seemed to go fine overnight. I turned on lights for them a little earlier than the rest of the fishroom (so I could show them to the kid before she left for camp) and added lots of copepods to their water. There are still too many fish to count, so that's the first big hurdle.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

I think I'm seeing some that are making strikes! BTW, I also have some rots getting enriched, just in case.

Question: If I'm seeing white bellies at this point, should I assume that's still remnants of the yolk sac, or does that mean that they're eating already?

Most of the photos didn't turn out. But here's one:

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Video: 
 

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Some more photos:

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Looks like you have lots of happy and healthy larvae.

I've found that if you transport the eggs on the day they are expected to hatch, like you did, they will often hatch on the way home. I attribute this to being placed into a dark container for transport... simulating night to them. Several people that I've given tiles to in the past have had this happen so I warn them that they might get home to find a container full of larvae.

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

Hmm. Yeah, I could see that being a problem if one were to put a top on the transport container.  Maybe I should try that....  

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

I don't really see it as a problem, just something to be aware of.

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

Well, you might see it as a problem if you saw all the water in my car.

--------------------------------

A large die-off this afternoon. I'm not sure what's up with that--whether it's residual transfer stress or something to do with what I'm doing--but there are still lots and lots. While siphoning, I accidentally sucked up the little dude above. So, that's in a better place for photos and with a different lens.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Oops, I didn't realize that you didn't cover the container... that would be a bit messy.

Great pic!

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

Day 4:

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Awww... what big eyes you have!

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

Looks like a baby pike with that color!

Nice pics!

Thanks, y'all!

Day 5:

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Personally, I think BBS are about the grossest thing ever. Fortunately (or not, depending on how you view it), the clown larvae seem to disagree. It's probably a little late to be introducing BBS, but I completely spaced out how short the rot period is with these. The larvae gave me a couple of dirty looks when I first added the BBS, but soon gave in to the dark side and started eating. I am, of course, still adding rots and copepods as well.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

This one was rushing around the tank like a fish on speed, so I pulled it to take a look.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Day 7 (woohoo!):

I think I had the flash slightly wrong or there's just more ... stuff ... in the water column today, reflecting light from the flash back to the camera. 

Pigment has definitely moved farther down toward the tail and it looks to me like there are _good_ energy stores along the spine.



And I _really_ wish the eyes were more in focus on this one:

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Day 8. They've certainly deepened quite a lot and have started the clownfish waddle. They've also darkened considerably, which is showing up under flash as yellow but to my eyes is dark grey/brown. I started some powdered dry food today. Some seem to really like it (Hikari S, mortared)

Side shot (with a little distortion from shooting across the water at an angle):



Top-down:

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Be sure to keep close tabs on bar development (I'm sure you will). My regular Picasso offspring bar much differently than regular A. percula, much more like A. ocellaris. I'd expect to see signs of the first bar in a day or two.

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

Cool. Thanks, Tal! Gale (whose eggs these were) says pretty much the same thing.

Day 9. A question: Do clown larvae have nighttime colors? I could have sworn that several had started head stripes first thing this morning, but then couldn't find them a little later. But, maybe a little white on this guy? The one from yesterday didn't have that and I have a photo of another one from today without, too.



And a shot into the center of the group at the other side of the barrel. The blue is a reflection from the unpainted rim.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

I haven't noticed any color change but I never really looked for one in the morning.

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

I saw it again this morning on several and again it vanished. Hmm. There are areas of the tub that I can't see very well (part is shaded by an overhanging shelf). It's possible they dive for cover when they wake up.

Here's a horrible phone photo from this morning:



The white is fairly bright, even without the awful LED flash off the phone.

Video from last night (again seeing what the new phone can do): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNz2-IwxSwg

The big ball o' larvae from the video has mostly broken up this morning. They pretty much have mastered the C curve and clownfish waggle and have darkened enough that I really worry when doing water changes now. I'm not a big fan of all the detritus in the water. It's coming in off the BBS and maybe some from the pulverized dry food. It takes _forever_ for it to settle so I can siphon it. It doesn't seem to bother the kids much, though.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Day 10. A milestone in their development: They now get worried about things above them. Sadly, it makes it much harder to get photos. But, a couple still:





New BBS arrived today. I decapped some for tomorrow, so hopefully I can start to clear out some of the debris.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

I'm anxious to see some pics with headstripes today Andy

Well, it probably won't happen. I think I've figured out what's going on. My hatch rates on the BBS have just sucked. I looked really closely at the decapped hatch this morning and there were like ten of the little buggers in there. So I'm going to up the amount of powered foods and feed more copepods. Tomorrow is the first day with the new BS cysts. I don't know what else to do.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Andy, I don't use BBS anymore, I go right to Otohime A then to frozen cyclopeeze and finely crushed flake.

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

I've gotten a lot of black and white ocellaris through with just Otohime only.  I just fed my percs BBS to see if their growth rate increased.

I guess you all are right. It doesn't seem to be hurting them all that much (though I would have been feeding more other stuff had I realized the BBS were duds). It was just weirding me out that they haven't started stripes yet. They certainly don't look to be lacking in food.

Day 11.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Gale: You need an avatar.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

So, it's not showing up here, but Gale (Zooid) added an avatar that's actually these baby fish's parents. So, if you are interested in tracking what the folks look like, check that out.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Day 12 or, "Head stripes?!? We don't need no stinkin' head stripes!" 

The kids give a big high five to the folks at Brine Shrimp Direct. They are digging the new BBS. The difference in hatch rate is astounding, honestly. 

 

 

 

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Day 13: 

Bad hatch on the BBS again. Sigh. I tried to decap and maybe didn't use enough de-clor. Sigh. I have two hatchers running now to be sure that I get _some_ BBS every day. In the meantime, lots of mortaring and siphoning for me today.  

The babies don't look much like babies anymore: 

 

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Zooid asked:
 

 

Well, somewhat. The head area and a line (like this "/") down past the belly look yellow/orange to me. The back end is still dark and greyish. 

New movie for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U4bvM0cwC0 

Here's a crop of the baby clown jumping: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YshBPnE8O6w 

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Day 14! Two full weeks.
Fish seemed to really put on some growth last night. They were hitting the copepods really hard before lights out. Maybe that was the reason. They seemed psyched to again have some BBS this morning, though.
 
First photo, note the copepod naup in the top, right corner.
 

 
Second photo, several copepods and one BBS:
 

 
And a zoom on that shot. Is this guy bucking the trend and actually starting to develop some head stripes?!?
 

 

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Or are they horns?? These fish are the devil!

Chad Penney - MBI Council
Agis quod Adis