Incubating Centropyge eggs and prolarvae.

i've already thought about stealing that idea.  Thanks Luis!

Hi,
That is pretty much what I did with the 53 micron sieve. Works great.
 
I definitely saw 2 spots on each larvae with a void between them of clear tissue, which today have a silver edge to them, they really look like eyes. The rudimentary spine is the other main thing visible, when the light hits them right I can see the transparent flesh above and below the spine, it is iridescent, and that they are laterally compressed. You may be right about the sliver off the head, could be a scratch or dust in the water.
There were 5 alive this morning seen at once. 3 were head down near the bottom most of the time. Every so often they would swim like mad at something either to get away from stimulus or to get food, not sure which. 2 others mostly swam horizontally, the biggest one having a tiny black spot near the tail. That one seems to make the most deliberate movements.
 
Not sure I ever will get large numbers of fertile eggs, as the pairs are on a standard 120 with central overflow, it's a mixed reef display. Not set up for egg collecting, and there are 2 Chromis atripectoralis in there that madly race around eating eggs. Per spawn I usually get over 100 eggs most of which are cloudy or sink to the bottom. And if I did what to feed them... I think in the past I was collecting too many dodgy eggs and they were poisoning the water when they decayed.
 
Since I am 41 I can expect to soon lose the ability to close focus and that will be the end of this project. After about 40 the lens loses it's elasticity in most people. So if you have pelagic eggs on your bucket list and are young enough to have the ability to close focus do it now before it's too late. I seriously doubt I will be able to see the eyes of a pelagic larval fish with reading glasses in a couple years when my vision gets worse. No time like the present.
Kate

Hi Kate,
I am in the old club, and I think Luis is there as well, and I can assure you, there are lenses for that.

Hi Luis,
 
Been secretly following your progress.

Junkai in the house !

Anderson.

Yay! Please don't be such a secret!

Sure,but being 40 was hard for me.Turning point between being young and...whatever comes next
You see perfectly well with reading glasses,it is an optic problem and has optic solutions.
But a local oftalmologyst has found some eyedrops that let you keep focusing,ever!
But you need more than strong eyes for the pelagic eggs game.Put a loupe and microscope in your Xmas list!

Nice to see you,Junkai.You didn´t show much lately...
I heard you were busy.What are you currently breeding?

My eye is weird, they are unusually elongated. I can see really well if something is about 4" from my eyes and well lit, but am nearsighted and astigmatic. I thought everyone could see this level of detail up close til this year when an eye doc asked me. Thought that was normal. I like being able to see the heart and digestive system of a Daphnia magna in a jar without a loupe, but I do not expect this to last much longer. My other eye is hosed, had a cornea transplant and the lens removed last January and not sure when/if it will resume being useful. 
 
Just had friends over and a woman in her 20's could not see the larvae more than to tell they were present. She said they just look like dust. They are not looking too perky anyways, maybe have met the limits of this little experiment. I think I need the ciliate Karen Brittain used on Genicanthus personatus. 
 
I keep killifish too, and most of the guys in the club are older, they have all lamented not being able to find the eggs and fry like they used to. One guy wears 2 pair of readers at the same time, others just throw food in and cross their fingers. So that is why I said that, but really life is always a limited time offer, and if something is on your bucket list get it done. (:

Mine are probably now deceased, I cannot find them. Last night probably due to the furnace being on a lot the evaporation was pretty bad. Salinity went up near 1.028. Then the airline cut out. I now have a nice culture of tiny red copepods (: Working on a DIY kreisel in an undersized old sump I have which has an auto topoff, that should make it much easier to deal with. Lots of dust got in too which is annoying. Need a lid. My goal was to see if the eggs were fertile, if I could hatch them and if I could see them once that happened, looks like the goal was met. Now for the next goal: More and better eggs.
 
What is the status of yours? 

Not related to Centropyge,yet part of the larger pelagic spawners rearing game.I am now trying to raise mandarins http://www.marinebreeder.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=176&t=10763
and I find the same old problem:larvae die before feeding time.
Mandarins are the larger,stronger and easier pelagics; and still,we see this non nutricional mortality,found by all of us with pelagic spawner´s larvae no matter what species.
Which reassures me that the root of this problem,and it´s solving ,will be the same for all of them.