Breeding Journal, Species: Cerithium atratum

General
Species:  Cerithium atratum
Social Structure:  about a half dozen grazing in my frag tub
Size of Individuals:  1 - 1.5" in length
Age of Individuals:  Unknown, added about 6 months ago
Date added to Tank:  March 2014?

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  9 gallon Rubbermaid tub
Substrate Details:  Bare bottom
Filtration Details:  Plumbed to main reef system
Water Changes:  25-30% changed in system monthly
Water Temperature:  79 degrees F
Lighting:  Led
Lighting Cycle:  12 hrs on, 12 off
Other Tank Inhabitants:  2 Astrea snails, 1 percula clownfish

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Just the nuisance hair algaes, cyano. Not specifically fed
Feeding Schedule:  Ad lib

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  9/2/14
Spawn Time of Day:  Unknown, not witnessed
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  9/15/14, seem to find egg strands at least once a week
Courtship Details:  None seen
Egg Size:  Very tiny; individual eggs invisible to naked eye
Egg Color:  Egg strands are cream colored
Egg Count:  many hundreds, probably over a thousand (not counted)

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  9/5/14
Hatch Time of Day: uncertain, the veligers were observed at 1:00pm
# Days after Spawn:  4
Larvae Description: 


Larval Tank Details
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Larval Feeding Details
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Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start: 
Days after Hatch: 
Date of Settlement End: 
Description of Fry: 

Grow-Out Tank Details
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Grow-Out Feeding Details
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Additional Information
(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Miscellaneous Information: 



You will be required to provide photographic 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.

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Ken

I happened to notice these egg strands on the side of my frag tub this morning, and am pretty sure they are from my ceriths. I'm not certain what species I have. I gently scraped on of the strands off the side a took a couple of pics under the scope. They were then placed in a small plastic container back in the frag tub where I can see if any hatch

(edited - after further review & discussion, I am listing these as C. atratum)

32x


100x

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Ken

An adult cruising through the hair algae. I think these are C. atratum, but would like some other opinions before I post the species in my report.

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Ken

Looks like hatching has occurred. I put the egg cluster in a well slide under the scope today and noted veligers swimming around. I took a couple of short iPhone videos that I will edit and post layer.

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Ken

Here's a link to a shaky iphone video - I was trying to keep this one in focus and hold the iphone (need a microscope adapter!).  I hope to get some better images up soon.
 
https://www.youtube.com/w...-qvcnm40Z0QZqxLxh6OBaw
 
btw - can someone remind me how to actually embed the videos rather than use a link?

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Ken

A pic of one of the veliger larvae, day 3 post hatch, at 100x mag. Also a couple more pics of an adult that I pulled out to look at. I'm still not certain of the species.

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Ken

My best guess would be atratum, perhaps Andy could chime in if we're lucky?

I think that's my best guess too. Thanks for the help. We'll see if there are any other opinions.

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Ken

A short vid of a day 2 larva - a bit more stable.  Still can't get them to embed properly, so I supplied the link as well...
 
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCsFkb-DyKs[/video]
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCsFkb-DyKs
 
 

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Ken

Sure does look like atratum to me, too. Good luck with them!

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Well, as of yesterday, I could not find any live veligers, and also no settled snails. I did find some empty tiny veliger shells in the debris off the bottom of their container. I think next time I'll set up a small kreisel.

Also, thanks for the confirmation on the species.

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Ken

Another egg cluster found today and moved to a separate container - I hope to get a little kreisel set up before they hatch.

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Ken

Good luck this time around! I currently have no isochrysis at the moment, only dunalia, so I'm going to run some tests with mine. Any chance you could post a picture of the kreisel you set up (Whether before or after the hatch)?

For lack of a better idea right now, I have placed the eggs in my 53 micron sieve and set in in my sump propped up so the top is out of the water, and a rigid airline for gentle bubbling. The sieve screen on the bottom will allow water exchange, and I will add a few ounces of Isochrysis culture twice a day. This way I can also concentrate the volume down (by simply raising the sieve nearly out of the water) to obtain samples for inspection. If I get a good number of veligers, I will transfer them to a container large enough to heat and perform water changes (I'm thinking of my 2 gallon fishbowl). Hard to work with something I really can't see!

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Ken

I lifted the sieve up until just the bottom half inch was still in the water, pipetted out a few drops and took a look under the scope.  Lots of veligers swimming around!  Right now I will keep them in the sieve setup and keep adding iso twice a day to keep the water tinted.  If they stay alive more than 4-5 days, I'll transfer them to a separate kriesel.  Fingers crossed.

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Ken

Still have active veligers swimming around this morning when I checked a sample under the scope. I believe this is about 3 days post hatch.

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Ken

Nice! I think I'm going to try and mimic this and see how it does, one thing I talked to Andy about was that perhaps the veligers might need a hormone released by the parents to settle, and keeping them in a separate container might not work. Good luck with this batch!!!

I plan to thoroughly check my sieve tomorrow for veligers. I last checked on 9/21 and still found some. The past 2 days have been too busy, so I have just been adding iso and leaving things be. This sieve is in the same tank as the adults, so the larvae should be in contact with any substances released by the adults. I'll post an update tomorrow.

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Ken

Ok, after thoroughly swishing the sieve around to get as much as possible in suspension and concentrating the contents into the bottom, I emptied this into a small container and backwashed the sieve into this container as well.  I checked several samples under the scope and found lots of amphipods and other bizarre micro crustaceans I have never seen, as well as what appear to be tiny nematodes of some sort.  Also the usual ciliates and algaes that I have been adding.  I thought I was going to come up empty on veligers though, but did come across several in the 3 samples I checked.  Below is a short video of one that was separate from the debris.  I put all of the contents back into the sieve and added more algae.  I believe this is day 6 or 7 for the veligers.
 

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Ken

I took a small pipette aliquot from the bottom of my sieve to check today, and found several veligers amongst the little clusters of debris down there. I'm not sure if they are seeking out the debris for feeding reasons, or just coincidence. I'm still adding live phyto twice a day to keep the water in the sieve tinted. I believe this would be day 8 post hatch (veligers first observed on 9/18 from this egg cluster). Here are a couple of photos taken today, at 100x mag.

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Ken

My periodic check of the debris on the bottom of the sieve turned up veligers again today (day 11 post hatch).  In this (shaky) video clip, it looks like tiny eyespots are visible.  They are still very tiny, this is 100x mag.  lots of other little critters in the debris with them!
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYPpyoMXZdo

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Ken

That's excellent!!! Mine are doing ok, but they probably need more algae. Crossing fingers!

I realized today that it's been about a week since I checked on the veligers, but no more to be found when I thoroughly examined the containers contents. I also took gentle scrapings from the side and bottom, but no settled snails either. I think next time I'll try a clear glass container, no sieve. Looks like 11 days will be my target to beat on the next batch.

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Ken

I collected some eggs again, spawn 3/13/15, collected on 3/15/15. I just scraped the egg strand off the glass and put them in a little plastic container floating in my frag tank. The eggs hatched the next day, 3/16/15, with tons of veligers (and the water looks like a dense rotifer culture). I added some live tetraselmis and will see how long these make it. Since my last ones made it to 11 dph, I won't add many pics unless they pass that point. Here is an iPhone pic of the hatch showing the hundreds (thousands?) of veligers unmagnified on hatch day.

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Ken

Well, I think I killed all of these by my own fault. Day before yesterday all was well, added some live t-iso to their little container. Yesterday the little container never got any attention, was left sealed all day & no phyto added (a large family gathering at my home). I just checked the container an hour ago, and could not see any veligers swimming. I checked a bit of the settled material and found tons of empty veliger shells and billions of ciliates feasting. At least now I know how to get a ciliate culture up & running!

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Ken

Well, I think I killed all of these by my own fault. Day before yesterday all was well, added some live t-iso to their little container. Yesterday the little container never got any attention, was left sealed all day & no phyto added (a large family gathering at my home). I just checked the container an hour ago, and could not see any veligers swimming. I checked a bit of the settled material and found tons of empty veliger shells and billions of ciliates feasting. At least now I know how to get a ciliate culture up & running!

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Ken