Breeding Journal, Species: Amphiprion ocellaris

General
Species:  Amphiprion ocellaris
Social Structure:  pair
Size of Individuals:  Female 4 inches in length, male 3 inches in length
Age of Individuals:  Female >3 years, male born 1/23/2009 (the first fish I ever raised... completed the life cycle!)
Date added to Tank: Female added May 2009, male added December 2009 

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  72 gallon bow front
Substrate Details:  live sand, multiple substrate sizes
Filtration Details:  algae turf scrubber, exclusively
Water Changes:  Not in last 1.5 years
Water Temperature:  78
Lighting:  250 W MH
Lighting Cycle:  10 hours on, 14 hours off
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Flame Angel, Bangaii Cardinal, Royal Gramma, Spotted Mandarin, Brown Tang, Cleaner Shrimp, Entacmaea quadricolor, Stomatela snails (no other snails or crabs)

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  New Life Spectrum Pellets
Feeding Schedule: Twice daily 

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  9/11/10
Spawn Time of Day:  Evening
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  9/11/10, 9/23/10
Courtship Details:  An odd pair, don't sleep together, inhabit separate conch shells most of the time.
Egg Size:  normal
Egg Color:  light orange
Egg Count:  First spawn ~20; second spawn ~50

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  First spawn 9/18/10
Hatch Time of Day:  10:30 pm
# Days after Spawn: 7
Larvae Description: few, weak, only one through meta


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  80
Size of Larval Tank:  20 gal, BRT
Substrate Details:  None
Other Tank Decor:  None
Filtration Details:  None, for first two weeks, through filtration allows BRT to be connected to grow-out system
Lighting:  20 W flourescent,
Lighting Cycle:  15 hours on, 9 hours off
Water Changes:  Every other day

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  Rotifers, unidentified copepod (likely cyclopod), then pulverized flake after meta
Feeding Schedule:  Rotifers - twice daily; flake two-three times daily

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start: 9/23/10
Days after Hatch:  5 days
Date of Settlement End:  9/24/10
Description of Fry:  dark orange, looks more like mom

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature:  80
Size of Grow-Out Tank: 240 (plus sump) 
Substrate Details:  none
Other Tank Decor:  pvc pipe when needed
Filtration Details:  MTC HSA 1000 skimmer, bioballs, will add turf scrubber soon
Lighting:  2 40 W bulbs in "shop light" fixture
Lighting Cycle:  15 on, 9 off
Water Changes:  weekly
Size at Transfer:  1/4 inch or so
Age at Transfer:  variable, usually between first and second month

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types:  pulverized Formula I flake, pulverized New Life Spectrum Pellets (sm)
Feeding Schedule:  3 times daily

Additional Information
Miscellaneous Information:  Female was purchased from Premium Aquatics and sold to me as from Sustainable Aquatics.  Male's parents were ORA derived.  Male was the first fish I ever raised - properly named "Alpha". 
 
Crummy picture of the male attending to the first spawn

 
Crummy picture of the first nest

 
Slightly better photo of the second nest with male and female attending

 
Rediculously poor picture of the only fish to make it through meta.  Day 6.  See if you can find him.

 
I made this a spawing report only, because I doubt that the picture directly above would qualify as proof of anything.  I need a new camera!

Day 6 seems awefully early for post-meta in A. ocellaris?  I'm not seeing anything in that fourth picture - where is it?

Matt,
  I thought that the average was about 7 days and that there is often variation around that number.  At any rate I noticed that he had started to get black coloration on his sides on the night of the 23rd and by the next day he was orange with a headstripe.  I will try to take a better picture tomorrow.
  Someone asked why I submitted a settlement request without a spawn, and I assumed that one entailed the other which is why I documented the spawn on this thread in addition to the settlement.  I will do each step individually next time. 
 

 
John

John, You do need to submit a report for each step to get all your points and a success for a species.

Chad Penney - MBI Council
Agis quod Adis

Thanks everyone.  Let's see if I can do this right this time.  Below is the best shot of the settled fish that I can get with my wimpy cameral.  I had to put him in a petri dish to get even this poor quality of focus.  Sorry all.
 

 
John

Very cool looking little guy

Much better picture and there we can see all we need to see that tells us that yes, it's a newly settled clownfish!

Here is the lone survivor from the first batch at 60 days post meta
 

 

 
The second batch has a few with this misbar pattern, but most are fully barred.