Breeding Journal, Species: Amphiprion ocellaris

General
Species:  Amphiprion ocellaris
Social Structure:  Mated pair
Size of Individuals:  Female ("Martha") appx. 2 1/2"; Male ("Bert") appx. 2"
Age of Individuals:  Martha: over 5 years; Bert: Over 1 year
Date added to Tank:  Martha: Added to the current 210 in June 2009, but she has been in our care for over 5 years (she was one of our first fish ever!); Bert: Added to the tank a little over a year ago (Appx. August 2010).

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  210 Gallons
Substrate Details:  Live sand, Live rock
Filtration Details:  A little Cheatomorpha, ASM G-4 skimmer, UV, Lots of live rock.
Water Changes:  Not large or frequent enough.  Inconsistent.  Sometimes as much as 25-30 gallons at a time (perhaps once a month), more frequently, 5-10 gallons (a couple of times a week).
Water Temperature:  78-82 F
Lighting:  4 x 39 watt T5 actinics + 4 x 250 watt MH.
Lighting Cycle:  Actinics on at 7:00 AM and off at 7:00 PM; MH on at 10:00 AM and off at 4:00 PM
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Many other fish and inverts.  One yellow tang, one flame hawk, one coral beauty angel, one firefish, one clown gobie, one green mandarin, two cleaner shrimp, a few peppermint shrimp, one coral banded shrimp, various snails, some soft corals, and two RBTAs.

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Various meaty frozen foods.  A combination of various brands of mysis, enriched brine, marine cuisine, emerald entree, angel & butterfly food, etc.  Occasional Spectrum pellets.
Feeding Schedule:  2-4 times a day.  My wife and I both feed, some days more than others.  We rarely compare notes, so there is much variation in the feeding schedule.

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  Appx. August 15 2011.
Spawn Time of Day:  Unknown
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  Appx. August 29 2011, and September 12 2011.
Courtship Details:  They are always together, loving their anemone(s).
Egg Size:  Appx. 500 microns wide by 1000 microns long.
Egg Color:  Orange at first.
Egg Count:  Unknown.  At least 100.

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  First hatch that I caught any larvae from:  9/5/2011
Hatch Time of Day:  About 10:00-11:00 PM
# Days after Spawn:  Unknown
Larvae Description:  Appx. 1/8" long, little blunt-nosed, torpedo shaped things (I was trying to catch pipefish fry!).


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  75-78 F
Size of Larval Tank:  2 Gallons
Substrate Details:  None
Other Tank Decor:  Rigid airline
Filtration Details:  Live phytoplankton
Lighting:  6500 K Compact flourescent in a reflector suspended over the tank.
Lighting Cycle:  18 H on, 6 H off
Water Changes:  Small (250 ml) daily, dripped slowly in

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  Rotifers, Apocyclops panamensis, Acartia tonsa, NHBBS on days 5, 7, 9, 11.
Feeding Schedule:  Continuous.

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start:  9/14/2011
Days after Hatch:  9
Date of Settlement End:  9/17/2011
Description of Fry:  Orange, with incomplete head stripes and complete 2nd stripe, Appx. 1/4" long.

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature:  Ambient room temp -- Appx. 74 F
Size of Grow-Out Tank:  5.5 gallons
Substrate Details:  None
Other Tank Decor:  Two rubbery fake soft corals
Filtration Details:  HOB filter
Lighting:  Fluorescent strip light
Lighting Cycle:  Manually operated -- appx. 16 H on / 8 H off
Water Changes:  Irregular.  As needed to keep water looking clear.
Size at Transfer:  Appx. 1/2"
Age at Transfer:  Appx. 3 weeks

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types:  Mostly TDO B1 and B2.  Also, some Frozen Cyclopeze and occasional copepods (Tigriopus)
Feeding Schedule:  3-4 times a day, sometimes more often.

Additional Information

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



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Pictures of today's spawn below.  Short history:  Two of our very first marine fish, over 5 years ago, were Martha and another Occy named Ghandi.  They lived and loved for about 4 years, until Ghandi found a 1/2" gap at the side of the eggcrate and went linoleum surfing.  Jacquie, my wife, got Bert to help Martha with her grief.  They started spawning about a month ago.  I caught a few of their fry in one of Chad Vossen's larval snaggers last week when I was snagging some Bluestripe Pipefish fry.  They spawned again today.  Here are two lousy pictures of the parents and today's eggs:
 
Bert and eggs:

 
Bert, Martha, and eggs:

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nice.

As I documented in my Bluestripe Pipefish journal here http://www.mbisite.org/Forums/fb.ashx?m=60054 back on September 5th, I accidentally caught some of Bert & Martha's larvae in the snagger while snagging pipefish fry.  I'll re-post the larvae images here, just to document the 9/5/2011 hatch.
 
MODERATORS:  Please move this thread to the correct sub-forum.  I just realized this morning I started my journal in the wrong place.  TIA!
 



 

Attached Image(s)

Day 12 for this serendipitous batch of fry.  I started out with only about 5-10 clown larvae, and now, 4 remain.  This is my first time watching clowns go through metamorphosis, and it's been very interesting.  It seems like all of them have the same incomplete head stripes like the one in the images below.  I don't know if this is normal, or if they would be considered misbars.  Based on the images on Page 121 of Hoff's book, I fear these guys are misbars!  The second image isn't all that good, except it does show the fins really well, which is why I've included it.
 


 

Attached Image(s)

Today we are past 60DPS for these little guys.  Here are the pics:
 

 

 

Attached Image(s)

Coloration looks great!

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

Thanks!  The credit goes to TDO, which is their "staple" feed.  They also get frozen cyclopeze, and occasionally, live copepods.  They are in with some smaller occys from a later batch, so they are getting TDO B1 and B2, and a little C1 from time to time.

I knew it! TDO rocks!!!

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

Nice.