Breeding Journal, Species:Amphiprion ephippium

General
Species: Amphiprion ephippium
Social Structure:  pair
Size of Individuals:  female is 4 1/2 inches the male is 3 inches
Age of Individuals:  unknown . purchased as wild caught adults
Date added to Tank:  2/2011

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  20 gallon standard 
Substrate Details:  bare bottom , 6" flower pot
Filtration Details:  wet dry , skimmer, ATS, chemical
Water Changes:  5-10% weekly 
Water Temperature:  84 F 
Lighting:  over head shop light
Lighting Cycle:  14 on 10 off
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Caribbean nassarius snails

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types: frozen mash , rods , mysis , brine nh and frozen         
Feeding Schedule:  1-4 times daily 

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  12/29/2011
Spawn Time of Day:  10 pm 
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: 1/9/2012   
Courtship Details:  vigorous twitching and cleaning of 6" flower pot
Egg Size:  1mm X 2mm
Egg Color:  orange until day 3 , dark maroon until day 6 , clear before hatch
Egg Count:  120 approx. 

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  1/5/2012
Hatch Time of Day:  10 pm
# Days after Spawn:  7
Larvae Description:  3 mm at hatch, transparent bodies , small remnant of yolk , reflective eyes 


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  82 F
Size of Larval Tank:  20 gallon BRT with 10 gallons of brood stock system water 
Substrate Details:  none
Other Tank Decor:  heater , air stone 
Filtration Details:  none until larvae are two weeks then i put it on flow thru with brood stock system
Lighting: 12w? CFL 50/50 in a clamp lamp
Lighting Cycle:  24 on
Water Changes:  drip to add volume until about two weeks then i put the tub on flow thru 

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  s-strain rotifers 
Feeding Schedule:  co- culture

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start:  1/14/12
Days after Hatch:  10
Date of Settlement End:  all larvae have completed settlement by 1/22/12
Description of Fry:  1/4" length , dark black to red larvae showing a head stripe and body stripe .


Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature:  82 F
Size of Grow-Out Tank:  20 tall
Substrate Details:  bare bottom
Other Tank Decor:  faux anemone, eggcrate , piece of gracilliaria 
Filtration Details:  flow thru
Lighting:  over head florescent 
Lighting Cycle:  14/10 cycle
Water Changes:  10% weekly
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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brood stock video

 
! dph larvae

2-3 dph larvae w/ spinal bend 

 
15 dph



24 dph

a little hang up with these guys ...
on day two i had about 75% die off . the cause is a little foggy to me . 
i had sterilized the BRT prior to hatch .
methylene blue dipped the nest 
the morning after hatch i added rots (s-strain) @ 15/ml
started a drip containing rotigrow plus and broodstock system water with a diluted chloram x solution to counteract the NH3 
temp is stable @ 82F
i have had to be careful of not over tinting the water with rotigrow after recently killing a batch of 300 ocellaris larvae on day one .
i realize rg plus isnt ideal for greenwater but i have had success using it for my ocellaris as long as i barely tint the water .
these larvae are almost 1 mm smaller than my ocellaris at hatch and seem alot more sensitive to lighting and are not coming off of the side of the BRT .
i would assume it is because i can not green it up enough to be therapeutic .
by the morning of day 2 post hatch (when the die off had occurred ) the rotifer co culture had bloomed to about 30/ml so i turned aeration up a bit and by the evening of day 2 post hatch i didnt notice any more die off . 
i continued to drip my solution to maintain the light tint of green water ( very light tint ) . 
i suspect the cause for the die off was due to rotifers consuming too much O2 . 
also the rotigrow causes an oil slick on the surface of the water which isnt conducive to gas exchange .
i plan on ordering some rotigreen omega to use in the future for green water applications . but for this batch and probably one more batch of ocellaris i am stuck using RG plus .
im wondering if i could reduce the oil content of my rotigrow plus by running a mix of RG plus and system water thru carbon before adding the chloram x and dripping ?
has anyone else found larvae from this complex to be more sensitive than ocellaris ?
if any one has any tips or tricks for me please do share ! 
 
If Tal is listening out there 
i am using a clamp lamp clamped to the side of the tub with a CFL 5050 spectrum coralife bulb .
in the past i have positioned the light in a way that it illuminates half of the tub and every day or so i turn it in to add more light to the whole tub .
i dont notice the larvae swimming to the bottom of the tub to escape the light but instead they all crowd the walls in the top 1/3 of the tub .
because the light is coming from a little bit of an angle its hard to discern wether the larvae are trying to get away from the light by going to the surface of the water on the opposite of the tub from the light .
one interesting observation is that after the die off, the remaining larvae are concentrated in the brightly illuminated area opposite from where the light is clamped, when before the die off they had been distributed somewhat uniformly around the rim of the tub .
im not sure if some of my problem has to do with lighting because it seems that all of the larvae that had been in partially shaded or dimmer areas around the tub had died .
Tal , when you turn on your clamp lamp after hatch do you aim it full blast at the larval tank ? or do you wean them onto the full output of your light slowly? 
also do you notice them crowding the rim opposite the light in your larval tanks ?
do you think i am exposing them to too much or too little light ?
 
 
 

I think you'll have better luck with the RGreen. I find that if the larvae are near the sides I just add more RGreen until they move away.
 
As far as lighting goes I'm not that particular about it. I just aim it at the water surface... When I start the 10G tank is only half full so there is a little distance between the light and the surface. I use a simple CF bulb.
 
 

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

i appreciate the feed back .
i am thinking the same thing about the green water .
do you think roti green omega is the way to go?
how green are you able to tint with the rotigreen ? can you see the bottom of the tank when you use it ?
also when you have a rotifer bloom , at what density do you notice loss of larvae ?
i am just wondering if the rotifer bloom or the rotigrow plus is the culprit causing my day 2 loss .
my aeration was easily at 6 or 8 bubbles per second if i wasnt using an air stone .
 i dont have a dissolved oxygen or co2 test 

I use RGreen Omega and it works great. I treat the density/greenness as more of an art than a science. You can get real technical about it but I eyeball it.
 
I usually only add rotifers once, the RGreen usually keeps them reproducing quickly enough unless you have a really large amount of larvae. I use an airstone.

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

i use an air stone also but it makes it difficult to describe the rate in which i am aerating .

a quick update : 4 DPH
i have not seen any more die off . i am maintaining the rots at 30 per ml and seeing better feeding response . 
all larvae are still on the sides of the BRT.
i am increasing the rate of aeration daily to keep up with the O2 demand of the rotifers and water volume .
the larvae are growing but dont have large round bellies like my ocellaris larvae do by day 4. 
they are alive and that means im happy 
 
 
 

at 17 dph i havnt had any more loss. all larvae are doing well all though they are much more aggressive than ocellaris . 
eating everything i throw at them . TDO b1, artemia 

i have been treating the broodstock with cupramine due to a parasite out break . 
they are handling the treatment well ! hope the copper doesnt suppress reproduction . so far they are cleaning the pot while in treatment . ... good sign?

the cupramine seemed to slow down the parasite but not kill it . i have switched to quick cure (the only thing with formulin i have access to).  the brood stock seems to be handling the quick cure well so far .
i made sure to drop my temp down below 80F for the treatment .
i had read somthing about high temps causing problems while running formulin .
i am a little apprehensive to follow the directions on the bottle of quick cure .
it says to do 1 drop per gallon daily for 2-3 days . 3 days being the max dose .
this worries me because i have seen the first dose wipe out a whole tank of tetra while following the recommended dose FOR TETRA.
does anyone have experience using quick cure on marines ? 

What ever you do, don't use copper and formalin in the same tank, the copper will become toxic to the fish.  I thing fish vet (or something like that) sells pure formaldhyde through the mail.  If you can find it let me know and I will check the bottle that I have and give you the details.

I stopped using cupramine and flushed the tank the day before I started with quick cure.
its interesting the other formulin option I had was formulin 2 . which contains formulin , copper and nickel sulphate .
I am really chicken about using any other copper treatment aside from cupramine . for fear of reprodutive issues this pair has been producing for me and I don't want that to change .
I really hope quick cure ( malichite green , formulin) does the trick .
I don't think I am going to keep adding doses daily as per the directions . doesn't sound like a good idea !
I will probably do as I allways do with any treatment and that's
treat
daily 100% water change
re treat

There was another method for formalin, where you remove half the water in the tank for like the first half hour and treat at 50 ppm, then replace the water to dilute down to 25 ppm.  Make sure to use a airstone during treatment.  I could try to look up the details of this it you would like.  http://www.koivet.com/a_formalin_koi_parasite_treatment.html

thanx for the link 
i am going to give quick cure a run . i cant find any info on the formulin / malachite content of quick cure . 
i need somthing to act fast i have caught this outbreak early so i am hoping this treatment is stress free so i wont have to re condition the pair after .
i was looking for a dip dosage for quick cure but have found nothing so i had to just treat the tank.
if this doesnt cut it ill have to do a H2o2 bath

I wouldn't give up on the Formulin/Malachite just yet - you can treat the tank and then dip the fish with a stronger amount.  While there is a bit of stress involved catching the fish, I haven't run across anything yet (parasite wise) that can handle a stronger dip combined with treating the tank.
 
The dip can even be a fresh water dip if you're worried about overdosing. 
 
Good luck!