Breeding Journal, Species: Amphiprion ocellaris (Darwin)

General
Species:  Amphiprion ocellaris (Darwin).  Probably from Blue Zoo.
Social Structure:   Pair
Size of Individuals:  Female 3 1/4", male 2 3/4"
Age of Individuals:  Spawned approximately fall 2009.
Date added to Tank:  11/15/11.  Acquired 10/31/11.

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  10 gallon, plumbed into 120 gallon system.
Substrate Details:  Fine dusting of sand.   Decorations include tile lean-to, small piece of live rock with some Caulerpa growing.
Filtration Details:  Central filtration via 40 gallon (20 gallons water) sump.  Filter sock, bioballs, EuroReef RS-180 skimmer, algal turf scrubber (not currently operating due to engineering difficulties haha).
Water Changes:  Bi-weekly 40% waterchanges, and weekly bottom siphoning.  Try to keep nitrate <25 ppm, but it is often around 40 ppm.
Water Temperature:  80F
Lighting:  Single T8
Lighting Cycle:  14 hours light, 10 hours dark
Other Tank Inhabitants:  A couple snails that they hate (they killed their Peppermint Shrimp "janitors").

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:   TDO EP1, HBH Super Soft Spirulina pellets, and homemade mash mainly.  Also PE Mysis, and occasionally HBH Brine Shrimp.
Feeding Schedule:  3x per day.

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  Judging by development, should be 05/17/12.  Eggs weren't noticed until 05/21!   Eggs slowly eaten, and all gone on morning of 05/22.
Spawn Time of Day:  Afternoon
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: 
05/25/12.  Approx 250 eggs.  Laid on 45.  Eggs pulled from parents into hatching tank evening of 06/01 (day 8).
06/05/12.  Approx 250 eggs  Laid on 45.  
06/18/12.  Approx 250 eggs.  Laid on vertical.
06/30/12.  Approx 250 eggs.  Laid on vertical.
07/13/12.  Approx 200 eggs.  Laid on vertical.  Eggs removed for fostering use (consequently no hatch).
07/26/12.  Approx 300 eggs.  Laid on 45.  4pm spawn (late).
08/10/12.  Approx 200 eggs.  Laid on vertical.
08/22/12.  Approx 300 eggs.  Laid on 45.
* I was away from the breeding room over winter. *
03/30/13. 765 eggs.  Laid on vertical.
Courtship Details:  The male does lots of tile cleaning and both fish do "burnouts".  Both fish appear square-like near their vents from ripening eggs and swollen gonads.  More obvious in the female.  One to three days before spawning the female's ovipositor will be visible.  A few hours before spawning the male's "spermipositor" will be visible, and the female will take up vicious looking tile cleaning which looks more like tile biting.
Egg Size:  Not measured.  Approximately 2.5 mm by 1.5 mm.
Egg Color:  Bright orange at first, then darker orange when two black eye spots start developing on day 4, obvious black eye spots on day 5.  Slight silver showing up in eyes at end of day 6, quite silver on day 7.  Eggs look shiny from the silvery eyes on day 8. 
Egg Count:  50 when I found the first batch (on day 5ish).  Second spawn is around 250 when first laid.

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  Main hatch 06/03.  Half a dozen hatched just after egg transfer on 06/01 (day 8).  Most of the larvae look poorly developed or weak.
Hatch Time of Day:  1-2 hours after lights out.  06/14 batch started hatching 2 hours before lights out.  Recently started "force hatch" by pulling eggs and putting into dark hatch bucket around 4 hours before lights out so there is time to hatch and get a first meal before lights turn out.
# Days after Spawn:  10
Larvae Description:  4-5 mm including the little clear tail fin.  Big head, yellow belly area, and tiny little tails.  Big silver eyes, big mouths.  Larvae move in a fluttering and darting motion.
Consecutive Hatch Dates:
06/14/12. Started hatching a few hours before lights out day 10.
06/27/12.  7 unhatched, 9 dead morning of 06/28.  Did not retain unhatched eggs even though they looked healthy. Early hatch start again.
07/10/12.  Only 3 early hatchers.  Main hatch day 10.
08/19/12.  20 unhatched, but still looked good.  Did not retain unhatched eggs.  No early hatchers.
* I was away from the fish room for the winter. *
04/07/13.  Missed most of the hatch because they hatched day 8. 

Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  79F.  Bumped larvae tanks to 82F on 06/27.
Size of Larval Tank:  5 or 10 gallon aquarium depending on hatch size, half full at first.  Bottom painted white, 3 sides painted black, front end unpainted.  Unpainted front has dark cloth covering, so I can lift for viewing.
Substrate Details:  None
Other Tank Decor:  Air stone, heater, and SeaChem Ammonia Alert (used as an alert not used as a measuring device).
Filtration Details:  None
Lighting:  Overhead 7.5 watt mini incandescent bulb in clip-on reflector.  Replaced with 13 watt mini spiral compact fluorescent bulb 6500K on 8 dph.
Lighting Cycle:  14 hours light, 10 hours dark.
Water Changes:  On 3 and 5 dph I vacuumed the bottom and replaced water (about 500 mL).  Starting on 7 dph daily bottom vacuuming and add 2 liters total volume.  Starting on 10 dph 30% daily waterchanges, tank is about 60% full (only 30 fish).
New Water Change Protocol:  Day 1-3 bottom siphon and replace water (about 500 mL).  Day 4-21 get 30% daily waterchanges.  Day 22 on get 50% waterchanges every 2nd day.

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  L-type rotifers raised on RotiGrow Plus, maintained in larval tank with RotiGreen Omega.  Enriched for 2 hours with N-Rich PL Plus on initial feeding of larvae.  ClorAm-X solution (4 tsp in RO/DI to make 250 mL) added 1:1 with RotiGreen Omega for ammonia control.  TDO A started on 3 dph, TDO B1 started around 3/8" (15 dph).
Feeding Schedule:  Enriched rotifers are added within 2 hours of hatch.   TDO A fed 2x per day, then TDO B1 fed 6-10x per day as the rotifer population is decreased.

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start:  06/22/12.  (60 dps 08.20)
Days after Hatch:  9 days
Date of Settlement End:  06/29/12.
Description of Fry:  7-9 mm deep-bodied, orange.  Have first stripe, second stripe just starting on some of them.  Bob around in typical clownfish fashion.  Starting to find territories, and squabble a bit.

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature:  80F
Size of Grow-Out Tank:  10-15 gallons plumbed into 60 gallon growout system (still to expand).
Substrate Details:  None
Other Tank Decor:  None
Filtration Details:  Sponge filter in tank.  Central sump with filter sock, bioballs, Vertex IN-250 skimmer.
Lighting:  Ambient light from other tanks.
Lighting Cycle:  14 hours light, 10 hours dark.
Water Changes:  TBD
Size at Transfer:  1/2" to 5/8".
Age at Transfer:  30-40 days.  They aren't transferred until they have been eating TDO B2 for awhile.

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types:  TDO B2 starting when some reach 5/8" (30 dph).  TDO C1 starts around 3/4" (50-60 dph).
Feeding Schedule:  6-10x per day.  Whenever I walk into the room.

Additional Information

Miscellaneous Information: 
 
~  Male doesn't eat much while tending eggs.  He seems very engrossed with his job.  Female couldn't care less about the eggs, and only occasionally mouths and fans the eggs.

I just found these, can't believe I missed them!  First spawn for these clowns.  I fed blackworms heavily from April 15th to May 5th.  I also lowered temperature from the 78F it was at for months in early May to 74 degrees, held that for a week and raised to 80F about a week ago.  Possible spawn triggers?
 
Anyway, here's the evidence...anyone care to guess when they will hatch?

 

About 20 eggs left today.  My understanding is that it is common for a pair to eat their first spawn?  First few spawns?  Not sure...
 

The eggs are gone today, he was down to 5 lastnight.  I notice the female has almost zero interest in the eggs.  Is that normal?

It is common for them to eat the first few batches as the male gets the hang of things. Warmer temps would be a spawning cue. Females, generally, don't pay too much attention to eggs after they are spawned.

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

Just saw your reply Tal, thanks for the info.  I knew it was common for them to eat the first spawn, but I didn't know that could carry on for a few spawns.
 
Surprisingly (to me), they spawned already again today.  I'm not sure how many eggs they started with on the first spawn, but this spawns appears to have around 250 eggs I would say (comparing to the photo that has 50 eggs).  I may have interrupted them when I went in the fish room because the female's ovipostitor was down really far, and when I came back with my camera it had gone back up partway.  Not sure?
 
Sorry my photos aren't very good, the pair gets quite agitated by the camera.

They are about 48 hours now, and we have about 50% left.  Not looking so good for this 2nd batch of theirs I guess!

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

That's still a vast improvement over last time. They are still young.
 

I think tomorrow will be the telltale day as I think I found the eggs on day 3  from the first batch and there were 50 left at that time.  So tomorrow I will check the development and make a count. 

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

Well Kathy, you are right.  They are doing vastly better than their first spawn.  The spawn is now day 5 and the number has not noticeably decreased since day 2.  According to photos it looks like the eggs today look like the first batch did when I found them, so I must have found the first spawn on day 5.  I will adjust the Datasheet to reflect this.
 

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

I started seeing some silver in the eyes yesterday morning, and yesterday evening there was lots of silver showing.  Today the eyes are very silver.  If the day they are spawned is day 1, then today is day 8.  I think they will hatch tomorrow, maybe?  Of course, I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon for 30 hours.  Go figure.  I just took this pic:

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

If I were in your situation I'd pull the eggs tonight and get them set up with rotifers and greenwater before you leave. If they hatch they should be fine until you get back.

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

Ok, thanks Tal.  I will pull them tonight. 

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

Exciting!!

Yeah Kathy - my first clown babies!  All these years, never hatched out any clowns.
 
So lastnight I pulled the eggs like Tal suggested.  The tile was covered in algae, so I got a bucket of tank water, added some methylene blue, scrubbed the tile down, then noticed a bunch of "reef pods" crawling on the tile, so I dried it off and rubbed the pods off.  Then I put it in a 5 gallon tank half full.  Added some rotifers and RotiGreen Omega.  About half a dozen hatched lastnight, but they look like preemies to my untrained eye since they have huge yolk sacks and mostly just lay on the bottom twitching.  Holy mackerel are they huge larvae!  When you start with other species, clowns look huge!  Haha!  So maybe they will hatch tonight which is day 9.  I hope the eggs are getting enough water circulation from the air stone.
 
Hatching and larvae tank, cloth lifts up for viewing:

 
 
Tile leaning on heater, air stone under hot end of heater:

 
 
View from the end showing greenwater and rotifer density (kinda):

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

I'd place the heater away from the tile in another part of the tank.

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

Easier to move the airstone and the tile...haha!  Will do. 
 
I'm thinking though, why do we put tape over the red light on the heater when fish don't see red light anyway?  I really can't see the larvae being attracted to it.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

I've stopped taping it, and have had no ill effects.  congrats!

Thanks Kathy, I might pull the tape off too.  Doesn't make sense to me.
 
I got a pretty good hatch.  They didn't hatch until lastnight (10th night), so some ended up getting fungus after spending more than 48 hours in the hatching tank.  There were two small patches of fungus that didn't hatch...maybe a dozen in each patch.  This morning with the light off mot of them were laying on the bottom twitching about a bit.  Once the light came on they all became suspended and have big round bellies now.  I'm going to estimate 150-200 larvae.  I got a pic of them "resting" this morning, and will get a better pic tonight when the RotiGreen clears up a bit.  Is it normal for them to lay on the bottom when the light is off?  The grainy look is rotifers.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

So, Hoff's book sounds like it is normal for 1-2 day old larvae to "rest" on the bottom of the tank.  However, I had about an 80% mortality in the last 24 hours, so now I'm thinking maybe those "resting" larvae were weak for some reason.  Hoff also says that dark colored larvae indicate they are stressed, and my larvae are dark.  Maybe they are dark because they are Darwins though?  I'm not really sure what's going on, but I have about 30 left which appears to be the same number that seemed to be actively swimming yesterday at any given time which leads me to believe all the "resting" larvae died, and all the swimming larvae are still alive.  Hmmm...
 
Did I crowd them too much?  Too many rotifers?  Too strong air?  Weak larvae to begin with?  The first potential problem self-corrected as the remaining larvae are much less crowded.  I sieved out a bunch of rotifers as their population seemed to be growing and were getting around 30 per mL.  I narrowed them back to about 15 per mL.  I also turned the air down a bit as I understand that they only need enough circulation to keep the phyto paste and rotifers suspended.  If the larvae were weak, or otherwise should not have been "resting", why would they do this?

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

Yes, larvae will "sleep" just like adults do. Kinda scary the first time you see it. I occasionally get batches that just don't seem to do well.

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

Ok, thanks Tal.  Maybe me pulling them early didn't help either.  I guess mine are 10 day incubators.  Now I know that I can plan better.  On the brighter side, they just spawned again although I will be out of town when they hatch, so this new batch won't be collected.
 
Pics taken about 18-20 hours post spawn (3rd batch):

 

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

I lost all the larvae from the June 3rd batch on day 3, so I decided to leave instructions for the tank sitters on how to pull the eggs, put them in the hatching tank, and get the larvae going.  They hatched on June 14th, and I see there are about 20-30 larvae swimming around today on day 4.  I have no idea how many started off in there although the tank sitter commented he "missed some of them" as I understand they started hatching before he pulled the tile.  Maybe some hatched on the 9th day I'm not sure - will have to ask him.  The larvae in there now look strong and move around a lot although they are dark like the last ones (normal for Darwins?) and I noticed that they were hanging out at the sides of the tank when I needed to add more greenwater.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

I've noticed that some larvae rest particularly the first night, and if the tank isn't scrupulously clean and sterile, I think it gives oportunistic bacteria a foothold, if bacteria have feet… I have noticed sometimes they all start swimming at daybreak, and sometimes they never get up again.  Some folks keep the lights on 24 hours those first days, I suspect for that reason, and to keep them eating and learning to hunt and eat.
 
I'm not sure sure I trust that observation that dark larvae are stressed.  Just my opinion.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

The Darwins are spawning right now.  It is cool to watch them go about their business, although I feel like a perv!  Haha!    They decided to change it up and spawn on the vertical tile of their lean-to rather than the angled tile.  I think the female habitually goes to the angled tile every once in awhile though because there are about 30 eggs spread around there while the majority of the spawn is tightly packed on the vertical tile.  I'm going to pull the angled tile tomorrow and put it in with my fancy Occy pair that are on the verge of resuming spawning since I bought them in late February.  Hopefully that will trigger them to get going.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

I have a newly spawing pair that are putting out their second nest. Some are on the outside bottom of the pot as it lies on its side, and a few are on the inside of the pot at the bottom.  The poor male is going to have to do a lot of swimming to care for all of them….

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Kathy, I was thinking about that when I was watching him fertilize the eggs, he was all over the place.  Darn wife putting him to work!  Haha!!!  I won't pull the angled tile until tomorrow so I can see how well he covered.  If the Occy pair eat the Darwin eggs I will never know.
 
This is what they came up with today:

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

That looks really nice!

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Thanks Kathy!  I think they are doing really well for a new pair.  This is their 4th batch now.  Aside from the scattered ones on the angled tile, their main egg mass looks quite nice.  I'm interested to see how well he has done with fertilizing this time since he had those other ones distracting him.  In his last 2 batches he has been about 90%, so I think there is room for improvement.
 
3rd batch from June 14th is 6 dph today.  I'm going to run an airline siphon along the bottom of their tank today to clean up a bit.  The rotifer density has gone up by about 30% in the last 24 hours, so I might try to sieve some out.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

Today is 7 dph for the June 14th batch.  I'm noticing a significant size difference in the larvae.  It seems there are big ones and little ones, not much between.   The little ones seem to swim deeper in the tank, and stay further from the light.  The big ones are all readily taking TDO A.  I started TDO A on the 5th day, and just today am I noticing they are really pursuing it.  Yesterday I sieved out about 40% of the rotifer population as it was getting out of hand and I was adding a lot of greenwater (4.5 mL per day in 2.4 gallons).  I imagine less rotifers helped the larvae seek TDO.  I forgot to add ClorAm-X on the midday greenwater feeding yesterday and had a small ammonia spike in the afternoon that killed off about half a dozen larvae.  I was very surprised how quickly the ammonia came on!  I'm not seeing any signs of metamorphosis or first white stripe yet, but hoping to see something starting tomorrow maybe.
 
Yesterday I removed the angled tile with the few eggs on it and put it in with my fancy Occys.  They took to it right away. 

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

First sign of metamorphosis today which is 9 dph!  This morning just after the lights came on I'm sure I saw one larvae doing the "wagging tail" move like clowns do, but he seemed to snap out of that and go back to the "larvae flutter".  I see at least two that have a faint head stripe.  These two are hanging out at the side of the tank at the top.  They are doing body bends, and mostly just staying in one spot.  I feel bad for them, they look stressed out.  They don't have big fat bellies like the rest of them that are (smaller and) swimming around all over the place.
 

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

About 50% of the larvae have settled into fry now (13 dph), about 25% are partway through metamorphosis, and the remaining 25% haven't started meta yet.  At least this is how it appears to my untrained eye!  Yesterday (12 dph) was the peak of the number of larvae in meta.  No sign of second stripes yet.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

Congratulations!

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Thanks Kathy! 
 
I will be pulling the June 18th eggs tomorrow night.  I turned the flow off in the tank tonight, and will check before I go to bed to make sure they don't hatch early (temps have been warm lately).  The female is looking awfully fat already.
 
The fancy Occys have fostered the few Darwin eggs I gave them from the June 18th batch to full term as well.  I'm hoping they will spawn soon, the female looks fairly ripe.
 
 
Here is my settlement photo.  He was the first one to settle, and has claimed the heater as his territory.  This is the same fish as pictured just above:

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

I had a huge die-off from the 06.27 batch this afternoon - about 50%.  I'm not sure why.  They appeared fine around 3 pm and had the big die-off by 7:30 pm.  I added more RotiGreen Omega around noon, added TDO A around 3 pm (air was off for about an hour accidentally).  Was the air off too long?  They looked fine when I turned it back on, but maybe I didn't look close enough.  I did their first 30% water change yesterday morning, and another this morning.  Then I siphoned out 50% of the water through a rotifer sieve and returned it so that I removed a bunch of rotifers.  Maybe that was too much fussing with them?  I didn't see any ammonia spike.  Maybe they weren't all feeding well.  I will look closer tomorrow when the lights are back on.  Maybe they were too crowded?  Ideas?  Comments?

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

First batch is 22 dph today and the second batch is 9 dph.  The older ones have some second striping, but not much.  The younger ones are just starting to get their first stripes.  I was hoping I might do better with the second batch, but it doesn't look like I am.  If I could get my Tigger pods to reproduce quicker I would feed some to he larvae!  So far, the Tiggers aren't very prolific.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

Tail stripe started showing up yesterday (24 dph) even though none of them have complete second stripes.  Second stripes right now are just near the tops of their backs, not down their sides.  I'm worried they are all misbars!  I forgot to mention black pectoral fins showed up around 20 dph.
 
Here's a pic from 23 dph:

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

I collected another batch lastnight (not really sure why...I have too many already).  I've been building a growout rack, and wasn't really prepared so I just stuffed them into one of my BRTs.  There are about 250 of them.  7 eggs weren't hatched in the morning (looked healthy) - they were tossed.
 
Second batch is 14 dph today and many of them have significant second stripe markings.  They all went through meta as a group, just a couple stragglers finishing up now.  I'm weaning them off rotifers now.  This batch is much more consistent than my first batch.  There were about 250 collected, 50-70% die-off on 5 dph, just the odd death since.  Must have been oxygen or something like that to cause the big die-off.  Appears to be about 100-140 of them.
 
First batch is 27 dph today.  Many have tail stripes forming, but none have decent second stripes.  I think they are all going to be mis-bars.  Sadly, I will not be keeping any mis-bars.  They are eating TDO B1 very well....little piglets.  There were 31 of them collected, and 31 of them are still swimming. 

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

07/09 batch has huge die-off yesterday which was 8 dph.  There are about 100 Fancy Ocellaris larvae in the same tank that are 2-3 days younger, and it seems the die-off was almost 100% Darwins.  This large die-off has been a typical occurrence in my larvae tanks, although it is not occurring on a particular dph.  I am noticing that the die-off happens just before I decide to siphon out a bunch of water, sieve out the rotifers, and return the water to pare down the rotifer ppopulation.  I am thinking that maybe I need to thin out the rotifers a few days earlier and the sudden die-off is caused by lack of oxygen simply from too many critters in the tank.  It would make sense the Darwins would die first being older and and a bit bigger.  For a sudden large die-off there must be something very toxic going on.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

Pics from yesterday after I moved them all.  06/14 batch got moved to the new growout tank.  06/27 batch got moved from a 10 gallon to a 5 gallon to free up the bigger larvae tank.
 
06/14 batch (all misbars except for one):

 
 
06/27 batch (still 60% misbar):

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]