Breeding Journal, Species: Amphiprion ocellaris Darwin Black

General
Species:  Amphiprion ocellaris
Social Structure:  pair
Size of Individuals:  ~4 inch female, 3 inch male
Age of Individuals:  Unknown, were full grown when I purchased them ~5 years ago
Date added to Tank:  ~2 years in this tank

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  50 gallon
Substrate Details:  ~2 inches of Sand
Filtration Details:  Protein skimmer
Water Changes:  10% every couple weeks or so
Water Temperature:  ~80F
Lighting:  T5
Lighting Cycle:  6AM to 9PM
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Bristletooth tang, pair of red scooter dragonettes, pair of yellow coris wrasses, 4 neon gobies

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Homemade mash (shrimp, clam, scallops, krill, mysis, squid), Formula one and Two flakes
Feeding Schedule:  2-5x a day

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  2-9-2013
Spawn Time of Day:  Usually between 4PM and 7 PM
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  3-4-2013, 7-10-2013, 7-26-2013, 9-5-2013   
Courtship Details:  Cleaning of nest site by both, wiggling done by the male
Egg Size:  ~2mm, oval shaped
Egg Color:  Orange, then gray, then silvery
Egg Count:  unknown

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  7-18-2013 
Hatch Time of Day:  ~10PM
# Days after Spawn:  Hatched on the 9th night
Larvae Description:  clear with noticeable eyes, attracted to light
Consecutive Hatch Dates:       8-3-2013 (Batch that made it to settlement), 8-4-2013 (?remaining partial hatch?), 9-13-2013 (9-14-2013); 1-8-2014          

Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  78-80 (room temp, so there is a bit of fluctuation)
Size of Larval Tank:  10 gallon
Substrate Details:  None
Other Tank Decor:  Air stone
Filtration Details:  Nothing other than live phyto
Lighting:  CFL
Lighting Cycle:  6AM -9PM
Water Changes:  Random, as needed

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  Rotifers mainly and some Tisbe, occasional bbs after day 5
Feeding Schedule:  Constant

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start:  8/13/2013; 1-18-2014         
Days after Hatch:  10
Date of Settlement End:  8/24/2013; 1-18-2014       
Description of Fry:  Miniature clownfish in shape and behavior, have the typical clownfish "wiggle." 

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature:  ~80F
Size of Grow-Out Tank:  Mesh breeder basket in a 27 gallon cube
Substrate Details:  Sand in the tank, none in the breeder basket 
Other Tank Decor:  Some macro algae in the breeder basket      
Filtration Details:  Live sand, live rock, protein skimmer
Lighting:  Reefbreeders LED
Lighting Cycle:  6 AM to 8 PM
Water Changes:  ~20% every two weeks
Size at Transfer: ~1/2 cm 
Age at Transfer:  ~25 days post hatch 

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types:  Crushed flakes and pellets, Golden Pearls
Feeding Schedule:  1-3 times per day usually      

Additional Information

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



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I have had this pair for years and years. The last several years they were actually part of a trio that was spawning (the Darwin female and a regular orange ocellaris male). I removed the orange ocellaris while there were still eggs and as I had hoped the Darwin male took over. Then the new pair spawned shortly after and maybe a time or two after that (can't remember exact dates and I can't find where I wrote it down) but each time the eggs disappeared after a couple days.

Here is the pair:


Getting a shot of the eggs has been much more difficult. The previous pair was spawning on a rock that faced the front of the tank. This pair is spawning on the same rock, but the other side of it. I can sort of get a pic if I go through the side of the tank, but they don't turn out very well.
Here he is with the eggs:

I put in a tile a couple days ago and they go from being afraid of it to trying to murder it. Last night they seemed to be more accepting and it looked like they were even biting and cleaning it. Hopefully they will spawn on there next time and that will allow two great things to happen: one, I can get better pictures, and two, I can remove the tile for hatching.

The eggs that went all the way to hatch hatched on the 18th. I spotted a few with a flashlight around ten. I tried to baster one of them, it escaped. I taped a small light near the top and waited. One came, but it thwarted me again. I waited and waited. I ended up getting a collection of snails congregating around the light and spawning (cool, but not my goal!). Then I ended up collecting a whole bunch of what looked like veligers of some sort (to the eye, I have yet to look at them under the scope, if they are even still alive) and that was cool, but also not the goal. Then I got tired of monkeying around and put the snagger in. Within about 20 minutes, one was in there. I bastered him out and put him in a 10g with about 2 gallons of water in it. Then I decided to let the rest wait until the morning. When I checked in the morning there was nothing! No more larvae, no eggs.

So, as ridiculous as it may seem, I have ONE larva cruising around and stuffing himself on rotifers. Since this is my first chance with these, I figured I might as well. Plus, I don't currently need that tank or spot for anything else.
Here he is:


And so begins attempt #1. I'm shooting for 100% survival

I tried to scrounge up some more pics of the nests, but they aren't much better.  Here is the best of them:

I thought I had a video somewhere, but I can't find it so I must have deleted it.  
 
Day 4 for the Lonely Larva and he is eating well and cruising around.  I added some chaetoceros yesterday and a little bit of nanno today.  My guess is within a couple days I am going to have to start removing some rotifers.

Another spawn today. This time they spawned on the bottom tile of the little hut I made.


The lone larva from the first hatch is still cruising around. It looks like he started going through meta, but no head stripe yet. I haven't added bbs really (just a few were added a couple days ago, not sure if he ate any) but probably will tomorrow.

Well yesterday was a happy day and a sad day.  The happy news is that the new nest hatched out Saturday night/sunday morning, but was only a partial hatch.  I had removed the tile to the larval tank and put an airstone under it (the tile was propped up against the side) and about 1/4 to 1/3 of the eggs hatched.  A few more may have hatched last night, but there are still plenty of eggs.  They were given rotifers and some Tisbe and the water was tinted using tetraselmis, nanno, and Iso.  
 
The sad news is that the lonely larva, who was finally behaving more like a real fish, was murdered by me.  A towel had dropped into his tank that I did not notice immediately.  The water became all soapy and frothy and the little guy did not make it.  Very frustrating.
 
 

Today is Day 10 of the latest hatch and I saw at least one with a head stripe and the distinctive clownfish wiggle-swim I will try to get pics in a few days when there are more of them.

I would say there are only about 30 or so left. I had a very large die off the first couple days that I believe was related to a bad hatch (only about 1/3 of the eggs seemed to hatch, maybe 1/2 and the rest got fungused) and also due to the lighting being too intense the first couple days.

Here they are:


Not all have settled yet but they are getting there.

A couple more pics of pre-meta larva and larvae going through meta. The pre-meta is in the upper left of the pics.

Settlement is finally done. Many of the first ones to settle already have three stripes. They have been getting crushed Formula one flakes, some Gden pearls, and some enriched 24 hour old bbs occasionally. I think they eat a lot of the tisbe pods that are cruising around on the side walls of the tank also.

This morning I woke up to a tank full of dead juvenile clownfish...the temperature in my house dropped 8-10 degrees (Fahrenheit) overnight and I had forgotten to put a heater in yesterday (I remembered the other tanks).  This completely sucks, but is not likely a mistake I will make again. I hope.

Friday night and last night (9-13 and 9-14) I had a small hatch. They are in a black round tub, and I'm not sure how many actually hatched yet since I haven't had a chance to really look closely. They have rotifers and green water right now.

Talk about small, small, small hatch...only four!  I think I need more aeration on the eggs next time.

I had a bad hatch from the last nest, but ended up with a few that made it...

 
They finished settlement on 1-18-2014, and there were only 3 of them  Oh well!  They laid another nest and I think I am going to try the siphon and tumble method for the eggs.  They just don't seem to artificially hatch well for me :/

Better pic:

I only ended up with three of these guys after settlement.  At ~25 days old I moved them to a mesh, hang-on breeder basket in my display tank.  That ended up falling into the water and the baby clowns all went who-knows-where.  Several days later I ended up finding one and put it into a new basket where it has remained all by itself.  
 
Here it is for it's 60 dps pic!

New spawn today they laid on a tile, so hopefully I will get a decent number of larvae this time.

 
 

I pulled the tile tonight. It may be a day early, but I don't want to risk missing the hatch and the temps have been warmer in my house lately. I put the tile in a BRT and used broodstock water to start with. The tile is leaning on the side of the tub and there is an airstone positioned so the air bubbles are going directly over the eggs.

Fingers crossed for a good hatch tonight or tomorrow

No hatch last night and I forgot to actually check the condition of the eggs (I just peeked into the tub and saw there weren't any larvae).  Hopefully they are still okay and will hatch tonight.

Craptastic hatch last night...just a few.  I scraped the eggs and a few more popped off, but there were plenty of dead larvae on the bottom as well, like they hatched and died.  Next time I will increase the aeration a bit more and maybe even scrape them off on the 8th night or morning of the 9th night to encourage a better timed hatch.  I added RG complete, live Iso, and rotifers.  Tonight I will have to do a bottom siphon most likely to get the dead ones out.