Breeding Journal, Species: Premnas Biaculeatus

General
Species:  Premnas Biaculeatus (Gold Stripe)
Social Structure:  Pair
Size of Individuals:  5"and 21/2"
Age of Individuals:  At leasy 5 years
Date added to Tank:  Feb 2008

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  25 Gal
Substrate Details:  None
Filtration Details:  Central
Water Changes:  None
Water Temperature:  30C
Lighting:  Ambient fish house lights
Lighting Cycle:  14 on
Other Tank Inhabitants:  none

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Mysis, Brine shrimp, cooked prawn, lobster eggs, homemade mash.
Feeding Schedule:  2-3 times daily

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  6/3/2011
Spawn Time of Day:  Sometime before 1pm
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  6/13/2011, 6/28/11, 7/9/11, 7/19/11, 7/29/11, 8/7/11 , 8/17/11
Courtship Details:  Pot cleaning. Female was also seen doing spawning dry runs day before.
Egg Size:  3mm x 1mm
Egg Color:  Orange
Egg Count:  150

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  6/9/2011, 7/3/11, 7/26/11
Hatch Time of Day:  After lights out
# Days after Spawn:  6
Larvae Description:  Not seen


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  80f
Size of Larval Tank:  10 gallon BRT
Substrate Details:  None
Other Tank Decor:  None
Filtration Details:  Drip metod returned via central sump
Lighting:  100 watt lamp 12" about tub
Lighting Cycle:  14 on
Water Changes:  constant

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  ZM 100 fry feed
Feeding Schedule:  2-3 times per day

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start:  7/10/11
Days after Hatch:  7
Date of Settlement End:  7/20/11
Description of Fry:  dark pigmentation with silver bellies at start of meta.

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature:  30c
Size of Grow-Out Tank:  95ltr
Substrate Details:  none
Other Tank Decor:  Plastic plant
Filtration Details:  Central sump, bioballs, foam, some live rock, skimmer
Lighting:  Ambient fish house lights
Lighting Cycle:  14 on
Water Changes:  Rarely.
Size at Transfer:  10mm
Age at Transfer:  22 days

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types:  ZM 200
Feeding Schedule:  3 times daily, 4 at weekend

Additional Information
The Settlement report and DPS report for these fish do not match up due to a mistake. The correct date of settlement was July 20th which is in the DPS report, But incorrectly July 16th in settlement report.  Unfortunately the settlement report cannot be changed as it has already been signed off. Just thought I would point that out as a matter of clarity.
(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Miscellaneous Information: 



You will be required to provide photographic or video 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. PHOTOS AND VIDEO S MUST BE PLACED IN ADDITIONAL POSTS, NEVER IN THE FIRST POST IN A JOURNAL.

Here are some shots of the pair. It took 3 years for these to spawn. The female doesnt' eat as much as other clownfish her size, which I thik would explain why she has taken so long to spawn. The eggs are just over a day old and have turned a reddish colour.

Beautiful close-ups!
 
Good Luck! Will be following

Michelle  
 

Damn missed this hatch. Unexpectedly they must have hatched last night. That's 6 nights post spawn. Was gonna pull them tonight, bit late it seems.

Spawned again today. Much neater nest with more eggs around 300 I would guess. Will try and get some shots tomorrow.

Pulled a nest of eggs today that I think were laid sometime on Tuesday. I noticed them on Wed morning and they had already turned a reddish colour, but didn't see them Tues night as I was in a bit of a rush when feeding them. Therefore I think they must be 4 days, 5th night tonight. Any thoughts on their age? I puleed them as half the nest has alread been eaten and I think they ate the last two.





Just been out to check the eggs as it's been over an hour since lights out and their hatching. Had a gut feeling they might hatch tonight. I'm now not sure if they were layed Mon or Tues, will wait to see in the morning how many hatched which may give me a better indication.

Anxiously walked to the shed this morning to see how the Gold stripes had faired over night. To my surprise there was around 100 fry swimming happily around in the tub! I strained around 4 litres of rots into the tub and added phyto. On returning home this evening most of them seemed to be alive and very active, some clinging to the sides others swimming away from the sides. They looked as if they were actively feeding and the rots seem to have gone down in numbers. I am short of rots at the moment so I thought I would try some ZM 00 fry feed. As soon as I put it in the tub I could see them taking an interested and even witnessed one curling into an s shape before striking.
I still have around half the eggs unhatched on the pot so will leave it there until tomorrow morniing.
Here's a shot of one of the fry.

Day 3.
Didn't get in until gone midnight last night so very anxious to see how well they are doing this morning. Looks to be around 80 still alive and very actively feeding. I am feeding 2 litres of strained rots and ZM 100 micron fry feed. Rots once a day fry feed 3 times. Have a drip running into the tub about 3 drips every 2 seconds.

Day 6.
They've been feeding well and since day 4 I have only been feeding them ZM 100 micron fry feed. I plan not to use NHBBS as I want to be able to raise them purely on dry feed.
To recap on feeding regime;
Day 1. 2 litres strained rotifers, 2 feedings phyto, 2 feedings ZM 00.
Day 2. 1 litre strained Rots, 2 feedings phyo, 2 feedings ZM00.
Day 3. 1 litre strained rots, 2 feedings phyto, 2 feedings ZM 100.
Day 4 3 feedings ZM 100.
Day 5. 3 feedings ZM 100.
Will continue ZM 100 until I think they will take 200 micron feed.
Here's a vid of one of them taken today. I would estimate I have 70-80 larvae in the tub.

Just noticed she's layed another nest! Much tighter this time but on the side of the tank! Must be 5-800 eggs this time.....Good girl, she seems to be gettin the hang of it.

Here's some pics taken yesterday of the new nest and a shot of the larvae. Lost about 20 larvae last night I think they are starting meta.

Day 10.
Looks to be around 20 left in the tub, but they are very hard to see as the look black from the top. I'm not sure if these should have stripes to be considered "settled"? In other reports they claim to have stripe or stripes at this age. Here is a shot of one of them.  Looks like he is smiling for the camera

Day 14.
I can't believe these fish still dont have any stripes! All other reports claim to have 3 stripes by now.
Just got a fantastic shot of one of these guys, look at the size of the caudal fin. It's Amazing!! No other reports have mentioned this.....Why not!
 

Here's another.
 

Incidentally these aren't alot bigger than 1 day old oc's I have in another tub.

She unloaded another nest of eggs today, nice and compact around the 800 mark. She's back to inside the pot now so should get a much better hatch rate.

Hatched the third batch yesterday. Waters a bit green at the moment to see how many, but it's in the hundreds. Batch 1 only had 3 lavae left so there in with batch 2. Their 24 days old. Batch 2 are 11 days old.

I posted this privately on your settlement report, but I wanted to share it here for the benefit of all:
 
Regarding Settlement, I don't believe you're there yet. Not only do you not have stripes, but you do not have the maroon base coloration either. It is as if your larvae are stalled, although I cannot tell you why. They look like what my Percs look like on the day prior to settlement and meta.
 
That said, perhaps I found your problem. The ZM Fry Feed you are using, I googled it as I haven't heard of it. http://www.zmsystems.co.uk/zmfryfood.htm. Drawing an assumption based on the species of fish listed on the site "zebrafish, tetras, killifish, discus, angelfish and dwarf cichlids" - this is a FRESHWATER FEED. It probably is fundamentally lacking in dietary components that are required by marine fish (DHA and EPA come to mind). That could strongly explain why your larvae are failing to undergo metamorphosis.
 
Next run, try a feed like Otohime.

Have emailed Rohan at ZM to check to make sure it does have suitable DHA/EPA profile. It does say suitable for clownfish, pipefish, seahorse and invert feed.
 
Here's the link as yours doesn't appear to work.
http://www.zmsystems.co.uk/index.php?app=gbu0&ns=prodshow&ref=zm100

I asked Rohan to confirm this is indeed suitable for marine and how it stacked up against Otohime. This was his response;
 
Hi Dale
On a quick review of the Otohime product not all comparative data is provided – and it actually looks a weaker product:
Otohime: protein 53%, lipid 8%
ZM: protein 55-60%, lipid 14-16% (higher levels with 2011 formulations), W3 HUFA 28-30mg /g dwt, DHA/EPA of 2, includes a blend of beta glucans and other immune enhancing compounds, and microalgae sourced colour enhancement. Rated with a high 80% metabolizable content.

Here's a shot of the 2nd Batch just gone through meta.
 

very cool!

Here's some shots of them now. The last 2 pics are shots of a misbarred fish that looks really cool. A bit like a deep red Leuc!

 

 

 

Managed to crash my rots again last week, so the latest batch of these are suffering big time! I also have a batch of darwins and oc's hatching tonight with no rots. Sometimes this hobby sucks!

Sorry to hear about your (culture)loss. Hopefully you can ge them back up soon.
 

Chad Penney - MBI Council
Agis quod Adis

Quick update first batch is doing great and I have about 5 from the second batch that were raised purely on dry feed. I also have around 2-300 which hatched last week and I now have 3 buckets of rots to feed the with!
Here's a pic of the first batch in with some Oc's. The misbar is still alive and I have another with exactly the same markings.
 

 
 

I seem to be getting a few of these morphs of each batch. Got 4 batches at various ages now and all show up some similar markings. Mortality is pretty high pre-meta. My question is nutritional or a natural morph? None of my other clowns are throwing up consistent marked misbars such as this.

 

"My question is nutritional or a natural morph? None of my other clowns are throwing up consistent marked misbars such as this."
I like to know the answer too.
 
My first batch of GSM came up with crazy patterns and the parents are regular GSM. They are 2.5weeks old. Is this normal?
Video of my babies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cpPaRikHoI
 
 

I have been speaking to a 'clown afficiando' regarding this and his view was that it is indeed genetic. There are colonies in the wild with odd markings particularly around eastern Malaysia. When i queried the location (having thought they were indigenous to Java), he explained they do occur further east.
 
So there you go! I think we haven't seen many of these in the trade as they are more difficult to get hold of and spawn. Looks like that's about to change!

These guys are just over the 60 dpm.