Breeding Journal, Species: Amphiprion ocellaris

General
Species:  Amphiprion ocellaris
Social Structure:  Mated pair
Size of Individuals:  Female ~3.5, male ~2.5 inches
Age of Individuals:  Female ~9 years old, estimate the male to be ~2 years old
Date added to Tank:  Summer 2013

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  40 breeder
Substrate Details:  None
Filtration Details:  Live rock, live sand
Water Changes:  Infrequent
Water Temperature:  ~80 F
Lighting:  Metal halide
Lighting Cycle:  6AM to 8PM
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Snails, sea hare

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Live blackworms, frozen mash, mysis, pellets
Feeding Schedule:  At least twice a day

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  4-4-2014
Spawn Time of Day:  Between 7 AM and 5 PM
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  4-16-2014; 4-28-2014 
Courtship Details:  This pair did not do much nest site cleaning prior to the spawn.  Neither fish tends to the eggs much either.
Egg Size:  ~1.5 mm
Egg Color:  Orange at first
Egg Count:  ~100

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  4-12-2014 (Most eggs hatched 4-11-2013 but were not collected)
Hatch Time of Day:  Around 7-8 PM (they were scraped/siphoned off the rock and hatched shortly after)
# Days after Spawn:  9th night after spawn (counting the night of the spawn at "1" but most hatched on the 8th night)
Larvae Description:   ~4mm, developed eyes and mouth, active
Consecutive Hatch Dates:   4-23-2014; 5-6-2014 (5-5-2014 partial)         


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  ~75 F
Size of Larval Tank:  1 gallon fish bowl
Substrate Details:  None
Other Tank Decor:  Just rigid airline tubing
Filtration Details:  None
Lighting:  Fluorescent strip light
Lighting Cycle:  24/7 for the first week or so, then 6AM-9PM
Water Changes:  As needed

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  L strain rotifers, nhbbs, crushed flake and pellet, Oto A      
Feeding Schedule:  constant for live foods, then 2x a day or more for the prepared foods

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start:  5-3-2014
Days after Hatch:  10 days
Date of Settlement End:  5-8-2014
Description of Fry:  Look like miniature clownfish, ~1/2 cm, by the time the last larvae got its head stripe the first to meta already had its second stripe

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature: 
Size of Grow-Out Tank: 
Substrate Details: 
Other Tank Decor: 
Filtration Details: 
Lighting: 
Lighting Cycle: 
Water Changes: 
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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The pair (female is regular, male is snowflake)





The small, spread out nest:

Most of the eggs hatched last night. I set up a snagger since I didn't have time to set up for the pot to hatch in a new tank and I worked late. The snagger didn't catch any clownfish larvae. There were still some eggs however, so I siphoned-scraped them off with a straw and set them to tumbling. There were probably just 20 eggs or so left. Hopefully they will hatch soon!

As of 10PM there were three that hatched.

The remaining eggs don't look great, so I'm guessing they won't hatch, but I still have them tumbling just in case. I put the few larvae in with some day 2 D. lineatus larvae.

The female is starting to get plump again and I'm hoping the next spawn will be larger and that I'll be home the night of the (main) hatch.

The rest of the eggs (all 10-15 of them) didn't hatch. I saw a couple of the larvae that hatched last night swimming around this morning. Hopefully they stay strong!

Another spawn yesterday. It is noticeably larger than the first nest, but not quite double the size. Once again, they seem to pay little attention to the eggs.

Hatch last night...sort of.  Most of the eggs disappeared several days before they were due to hatch.  Last night I siphon-scraped the remaining eggs off (they are in a tank where collected the larvae is not possible and the clay pot they are laid on is covered with..stuff so I don't want to take the entire pot).
 
Nearly all the ones that ended up hatching did so within the first hour or so, when the lights were still on over the tumbler.  I ended up with less than ten and they didn't look strong.  We shall see...

Four left this morning (day 7).  I have to do water changes to remove rotifers at this point.  I have also given them small amounts of nhbbs.  Tomorrow I may try to get them on enriched bbs, and today I will probably give them some crushed flake.  

Settlement started today

The settled one died yesterday; I suspect sudden shock.  Still three left cruising around though.  There is also a nest due to hatch tonight, so I will likely pull that and perhaps try them in a BRT.  We'll see.  This nest is larger than the last ones, so I don't want it to go to waste...

Last night I pulled the pot, and only a few hatched. A few minutes ago I used to straw to agitate/scrape the remaining eggs off the pot and a few more hatched. I plopped them back into the larval tank and dripped another gallon of ASW into the BRT (already ~5 gallons in there).

I tried to remove most of the unhatched eggs this morning.  There aren't a ton of larvae, but more than five this time at least.
 
The older batch has one settled and two larvae left.  I'm hoping they settle soon so I can finish taking down and moving that larval station

Settlement is done today (finally)



 
Only a few of the younger larvae are still alive.  This bad hatching issue is quite annoying.