Breeding Journal, Species: Amphiprion ocellaris, Darwin, outside pod culture

General
Species:  Amphiprion ocellaris Darwin
Social Structure:  pair, 
Size of Individuals:  Large, 3 inches female, 2 inches male, approximately
Age of Individuals:  unknown
Date added to Tank:  2 years ago

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  9 gallon cube attached to 4 pair broodstock system, about 80 gallons tota
Substrate Details:  bare, large pot
Filtration Details:  10 micron filter sock, lots of live rock leftover from a reef tank, pond basket of cheatomorpha as refugium, nitrate remover.
Water Changes:  10 % weekly
Water Temperature:  78
Lighting:  ambient
Lighting Cycle:  14hrs light/10 dark    
Other Tank Inhabitants:  bristleworms

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Formula One frozen, PE , other frozen food, some larger pellets
Feeding Schedule:  once or  twice a day

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  Unknown, date of this spawn, 7/24/11
Spawn Time of Day:  late afternoon
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  every 11 days or so
Courtship Details:  Mama gets big. Lays egg on pot inside, not a tight nest, but usually there are a lot of eggs
Egg Size:  2 mm x 1 mm oval ?
Egg Color:  orange
Egg Count:  150-200   

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  expect July 31
Hatch Time of Day:  after lights out
# Days after Spawn: 7 or 8          
Larvae Description: 


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  Usually a few degrees below ambient outdoor temp
Size of Larval Tank:  17 gallons
Substrate Details:  mulm from fallen leaves and pollen
Other Tank Decor:  none
Filtration Details:  whatever bacteria have colonized the walls
Lighting:  shaded sunlight
Lighting Cycle:  summer
Water Changes:  initially, none

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  Pods and their nauplii.  I may try a mixture, may stay with tiggers.  Also rotifers, rotigrow plus, and wild phytoplankton
Feeding Schedule:  continuois

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

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

(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Miscellaneous Information: 



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I don't need more blacks at this time, so I am going to try culturing them outdoors in a 17 gallon black round tub that I've had good success in culturing tigger pods in.  If it doesn't work, I will not be disappointed….well, maybe I will.

Interesting project Kathy.. Do you have any pictures of the setup?

Chad Penney - MBI Council
Agis quod Adis

Not yet. I'll get some. Maybe tomorrow. I'm a bit distracted by the filefish right now.

We were discussing this yesterday.

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

And?

No real conclusions, it just came up when I was showing people my copepod tubs, Not sure if the larvae and juveniles would handle the temp swings.

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

Yeah, but since I've got plenty of blacks, I might as well experiment, and see if it is possible.  We'll have to wait for the heat dome to pass. Not sure I have any pods left out there.
 
Ya never know with the great outdoors.

Here ya go.  The one on the left was seeded with T. californicus after I saw some green in the water and the one on the right was left to grow wild phyto with a (crashed T Iso addition) for a long while, and then seeded with:
rots
Tiggers
O marina
M salina
Panamanensis
 
After the great heat wave, the water is clear, the majority of the pods are gone, there is a think mulm at the bottom.  When the sun shines in in the morning, I still see little twitchers in there, so I'll wait before I scrap anything.  I may just put the larvae in one or both of these once they hatch, with perhaps an addition of rots and rotigrow+, and see what happens.  If the weather cools sufficiently, I may just get a bloom of naups when I need them most.  Wishful thinking, I know.

Here's a close up of the netting:

Excited to see the results! As Tal mentioned we just talked about this over the weekend. I was thinking of doing it this fall.

No fish this sickly looking should lay such a nice nest.  They are recovering from a mystery ailment that ate off the tips of all their little fins, and stripped the black from their faces. Really ugly.  It may have been related to carbon induced head and lateral line disease. I was trying to make their water clear, and may have caused them some harm… But they seem to be recovering their fin tips and faces and they are spawning again, which I take as a sign of recovering health.

So there, they spawned, on Sunday 7/24/2011.
 

I checked the outdoor tubs this morning, and after last week's very hot weather (95 F and up to 101), there are NO twitchers in either tub.  Not much hope for the outdoor culture of clownfish this time around.
 I may seed the tubs with rots and pods from my indoor cultures and see  what I get.with a just a few clownfish larvae. I'll have to see what tomorrow looks like and the weather for next week.

Given that the outdoor tubs are dead, and I have too many blacks right now, I'll let this nest go.  Perhaps next time if I can get the tubs back up to par.

Oh, you should've collected it just so you could file a hatch report Kathy!

I should have, because that pair has not spawned since….

But then…yesterday that pair spawned, and the pair that I had moved, that had stopped spawning, spawned.!! One of my orange pairs spawned as well. The orchid dottybacks are courting. It's been a good weekend.
 
So when I get back from Macna, if I have any rotifers still alive, I'll do that hatching report.  And maybe the outdoor pod tub experiment as well.

Just before MACNA, I poured half my polyglot culture into the two BRTs in the backyard.  Now a day after MACNA, they are teeming with pods, and the sides are covered with bright green algae.   I may try to introduce some clownfish larvae on Tuesday or Wednesday.  I am hatching some black ocellaris, the pictures of which are in my other Darwin thread.