Breeding Journal, Species: Amphiprion clarkii

General
Species:  Amphiprion clarkii
Social Structure:  Trio, with an odd ball male (much younger, not actively spawning yet)
Size of Individuals:  4" each
Age of Individuals:  ~4 yrs old 
Date added to Tank:   Aug. 2nd, 2013 (starting working with offspring april 2013 and bought the pair off my buddy in August). 

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  90g
Substrate Details:  DSB   
Filtration Details:  sump with skimmer, refugium
Water Changes:   1x every month
Water Temperature:  80
Lighting:  dual 150w metal halide x 4x 3w cree royal blue moon lights x 50/50 compact fluorescents. 
Lighting Cycle:  halides: 12pm on on 8pm off, compacts on at 10am off at 10pm, moon lights on at 10pm off at 10am, 
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Mated pair of Banggai cardinalfish, peppermint shrimp,     

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  nutrition one spirulina flakes, DIY Reef mash, Nutrition one pellets   
Feeding Schedule:  as often as I walk by the tank. at least 2x day.

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  4-21-2013 (that I know of)
Spawn Time of Day:  evening
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  4-21, 5-16   
Courtship Details:  paired up exclusively, hosting in anemone together. 
Egg Size:  2-3mm long
Egg Color:  orange
Egg Count:  300+

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  4-29-2013       
Hatch Time of Day:  overnight
# Days after Spawn:  10 days 
Larvae Description:  small silver tadpole looking fish, big eyes in proportion to body.  no real color formations on them. 
Consecutive Hatch Dates:    4-29-2013 through 5-2-2013,  7-10-2013, 9-3-2013, 9-21-2013


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  80
Size of Larval Tank:  2.5g
Substrate Details:  bb
Other Tank Decor:  none
Filtration Details:  bubbler only, water changes post meta
Lighting:  ambient
Lighting Cycle:  n/a
Water Changes:  none until after meta.

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  Rotis, NHBBS, otoA
Feeding Schedule:  constantly

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start:  05/15/2013
Days after Hatch:  16
Date of Settlement End:  5/17/2013
Description of Fry:  Small black with white stripes, miniatures of parents (but darker), slight yellow to them.

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature:  80
Size of Grow-Out Tank:  2.5g
Substrate Details:  bb
Other Tank Decor:  none
Filtration Details:   water changes
Lighting:  ambient
Lighting Cycle:  na
Water Changes:  25% weekly 
Size at Transfer:  no transfer, same hatch/grow out 
Age at Transfer:  

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types:  NHbBS, OTO-A,B1,B2,C1,C2
Feeding Schedule:  constant

Additional Information

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

Hatch date starts 4-29-2013 and continues through 5-2-2013. 

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.

 Im trying to load pics but it's not letting me, more in the future... I will figure it out! 

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Alright there are a couple of pics I snapped before I greened the water up... about as clear as its gonna get folks! 
 
Ok, update up until this point. I only had about 15-20% hatch from this clutch (maybe 30-40 total), and they aren't doing to hot either, I only have a few remaining probably only 5 or so.... ugh... but hey for a first clown hatch out I will see if I can get one to make it! 
 
After much research and looking into the possible cause of such low survival rates, I have decided it is the low nutritional profile of my rotis. I have decided to switch over to f2 for a live phyto culture as opposed to the phyto paste I have been using to rear these buggers, seems there are plenty rots in there, but the babies aren't getting enough of something and that's the only thing left to change! (plus, paste makes your water dirty much quicker...) 
 
As I wait for my order of f2 to come in for my phyto, I am not giving up on the last remaining kiddo's!!! I did a deep harvest of rots and I am enriching them overnight with selco and green water made with paste. ugh. I wish I had a better alternative right now. 
 
plan 1: put remaining babes into smaller tank, with phyto paste, and enriched rotis....
plan 2: recieved f2 and begin new culture with this, hope and pray they make it until then! 
plan 3: toss in the towel with this clutch, and try again in a week! (as mama and dada are back at it!) 
 
Input would be nice, otherwise, here's to the journal! 

I vote for #1.  Use some kind of ammonia control (ClorAm-X, AmQuel Plus, Prime, etc.).  Keep your chin up.  It takes all of us practice and experience to learn how to get better success rates.  It will get better, and there is still hope for this batch!

Jim-Thanks, I am not throwing in the towel just yet, as I have at least 2 super swimmers in there, I am afraid they are my first two hatches (2 hatched 2 days older than the main clutch) and they are just that dang good at out competing with the newer little guys. 
 
When you have them hatch trailing off, not one solid 'hatch day' what kind of a time/ day difference do you leave between the oldest and youngest?

Alright, well out of the two babies I have left today one of my little guys switched over to the dark side! ok, well he morphed and and the other one is close behind. 

Updated pics of the babies, Day 16- 2 babies left, one hit morphed and the other one hasn't yet. 
 

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Here is the bigger baby...doing well! Day 23 picture.

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Ok, here's the pictures of mom and dad... dad's hosting his anemone in the photo sorry, not a good shot.... but he looks exactly like mom. 

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What a sad sad day, today is day 36, and one of the babies got stuck between my breeders box and the glass wall. Trying his best to attack the other single baby in there (who is separated with a breeders box!). They are fighting often now, even through the mesh separated box they fight! Maybe more babies together would force them to play nice? Now I only have one remaining fish! Geeze, the prospects of doing this full time is looking slim with slip ups like this!
 
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aka, frustration. 

aghh! The second and last baby died today! grrrrrrr. so frustrated. I saw some white like fuzz on him this morning.. (fungis???) He is in tank water from my reef, maybe something in it? ugh.  More likely due to infection though... he had an open wound from his fellow fish mate (who passed last week) that was trying to heal up.... 
 
Maybe only new fresh mixed salt (aged) from now on??? I started that way then he gradually had been introduced to reef water over the last 2 weeks. Maybe this was a mistake. :0 
 
Well, let's hope for more eggs soon! 

OK the world is right again! They laid a new clutch on July 3rd. Pulled eggs this past wednesday (7/10/2013) and last night over 100 of the hatched!!!!!!!! YIPEE!!!!!!!!!!! 
 
I will post pics when the lights come up!  

https://www.facebook.com/...0151755416146323 
[video]https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151755416146323[/video] 

ack! this is the first time I tried ChlorAmX with a batch of babies for ammonia control but since I was going to MBI for a couple days away from the babies...thought it would be a good time to use it since I wouldn't readily be available for siphoning of dead ones. Thought we had a pretty good rig up for the 48 hrs I would be gone. Drip lined in rotigrow with some fresh salt mix up... (ASW) and a dose of ChlorAmX... well after rolling in at 2:30am in the morning last night, I did my rounds checking on everyone. All the cultures/fish were fine EXCEPT the baby tank!?!?!?! WHAT THE HECK!!!!
 
Lost them all... (maybe 1 or 2 left) will have to check the tank as I drain it tonight! ... what I disappointment to walk into after just coming back from the MBI conference. ack. well.... epic fail AGAIN! 
 
 

Upon closer inspection, the small piece of live rock they were on had a black sponge (?) on it, it had a white mucous like material coming out in a single stream out of it. ??? weird looking. I wish I had grabbed pictures! Maybe he was releasing toxins in the tank??? ( I am sure if he was a sponge he would be quite ticked off about the low flow and air contact he would have had in the transition)... mmmm???? thoughts?
 
I normally take the rock out after the majority hatch. But there were still at least 50+ viable eggs on it... was I wrong to leave that in there??? I had no clue the "sponge like thing" was even on it, I even inspected the rock before putting it in the baby tank! I'm going to have a buddy of mine take a look at it, and see if he can tell me what it was for sure! 
 
I did see 1 baby swimming and snagged him up, he doesn't look to happy though, so I will have to see if he will pull through.  
 
All in all it was another lost clutch devastating to me, I realy had high hopes for this batch! I even just invested in the good stuff (rotigrow products) from reed, so I could eliminate nutritional problems! ... I certainly hope I can figure this out with these clarkii's- makes you just sick in the gut! 

OK!!!! IT'S OFFICIAL!!!!  We own the parents now! (and their 3rd wheel)... lol. Very glad to have these new additions to the broodstock we are working with! They are beautiful! 

 

 

 

and this little third wheel doesn't look the same to me?????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????
 
I'm thinking he is a true A. clarkii and maybe the pair is something else? really need to look a lot closer and try and figure these guys out! 
 
Here's the small odd ball male. 
 

 

 

Ok well, the last batch hatched and they were killed by an evil heater going wacko... I have since then replaced the heater and put it on a controller.... new nest was laid last friday night. The parents, due to the move to the cabinet... are refusing to take their eggs back up. I have given chunks of the nest to several of my other pairs to help promote spawning as a double down technique (thanks mitch, of booyah's clowns). And thought my ocellaris pair might foster them but every pair has turned on them. and either been taken over with fungus and or eaten! 
 
of the 400+ nest only 8 with heartbeat's remain, they were in a nest with fungus so I removed them, gave them a methylene blue dip, and put them in an egg tumbler to hatch. I know I have seen at least 3 babies swimming when I went to go put rotifers in the tumbler (just an hour ago). 
 
hopefully these guys make it, not putting to much stock in the whole batch though, as these ones were covered in fungus and some had extremely slow heartbeats. We will see who/how many are alive in the morning!