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Amphiprion ocellaris Breeding Journal

lattehiatus

Past President
Certainly not the first time anyone's ever done it, but it's new to me. ;) When I was younger I was too impatient and moved around too much for any clownfish pairs to spawn. My previous successes have been with freshwater tetras, ghost shrimp, and dwarf shrimp.

Her watching over him aerating the eggs:
IMG_2829Large.jpg


Whew! No more micromanagement from the boss:
IMG_2828Large.jpg


Each of the ocellaris found its way into my tank as a gift. The female, "Bobette," was in one of Jess's tanks and was on time-out for being too aggressive. She's supposed to have come from Robin. The male, "Bob," was from another local hobbyist who needed to separate him from the other juveniles he grew up with, who had paired up and were harassing him. Bob was still an adolescent at the time, even though he was just a tad bigger than Bobette, and had torn fins and his entire body had turned a ghastly white color. I have Jess and Blake to thank for contributing the fish.

It's a very small clutch, and I am prepared for a 0% hatch/survival rate, but am scrambling to make sure I have a larval rearing environment set up. Might as well get some experience in with rotifer culturing while I'm at in. I'm also planning to get a clay pot and tiles to entice them to use for future spawns. In the meantime, I'm leaving the first few spawns in the tank so as not to disturb their rhythm.

Still doing some research into new approaches and developments since Joyce Wilkerson's book. If anyone has tips to share, any and all advice is appreciated!
 
I'd just let the first couple clutches become tank food. They usually have a super low hatch rate, and survival post hatch.

When you are ready, www.APBreed.com has all you need from first feed to broodstock feed.
 
Thanks everyone! Even after all this time, it's exciting when critters begin breeding. Simply observing their change in behavior is fascinating.

Erin, the percs must have been grooving to the wife playing Al Green. ;)

Gresham, I ordered rotifers and TDO through Reed last week, just waiting for it to ship. :) Already have salt lake artemia eggs in the freezer. No unworldly expectations for the first few clutches, but I'll try to rear any larvae I manage to scoop up into a bowl just to get some hands-on experience.
 
You caon skip nhbs altogether by going from rotifers to Otohime-A or TDO-A.
 
GreshamH said:
You caon skip nhbs altogether by going from rotifers to Otohime-A or TDO-A.

Thanks for the suggestion! TDO-A was in my order and I was planning to try that. Without a dedicated fishroom, the fewer live cultures and air pumps I need to run, the better.
 
Thanks for the link, Gresh! It's very informative to see what others are doing to rear their clutches.

It's been 7 days now since the spawn. The eyes are visible on each egg. We should see soon how many hatch.

I called Reed earlier today to check on the order I placed on Friday, which still hadn't shipped. Janet was very helpful and found there was a system glitch, so my order was missed. She gave me good advice - if you live in NorCal and do not receive a shipment within a day after receiving the order processed confirmation email from Reed, call them because something's wrong. :p Live rotis and TDO expected to arrive tomorrow.
 
It has been a while, so here's a quick summary of what's been happening.

So far there have been 3 clutches, the last one was laid yesterday.
The first two clutches I left in the tank because they were on a base rock that I couldn't easily remove without threatening the integrity of the rock structure. Each time, the eggs developed silvery eyes by Day 8. I would reduce the flow in the evening and look for larvae, but they are nowhere to be found. On Day 13, the male would eat all the unhatched eggs.

I am thinking the lack of hatching could be attributed to:
1. Temperature: Nominally at 78 degrees, has been raised to 80 degrees slowly (just in time for this 3rd clutch)
2. Lighting: With the AquaIllumination units there is hardly any period of complete darkness. I started covering the sides of the DT with garbage bags at night to minimize stray light, but didn't do so until Day 9 or so on the 2nd clutch. Are there some eggs that require complete darkness in order to hatch?

On this 3rd clutch, the breeding couple has kindly relocated to a small isolated rock. The plan is to incubate the eggs with an airstone on the evening of Day 8, in total darkness.

Rotifer culture has been doing well for the past month. I'm already running low on the 6oz bottle of Rotifer Diet that was included with the kit and looking forward to trying RotiGrow Complete soon.
 
If you haven't already seen them, there is a bunch of youtube vids at:
[youtube]yHZB2zXnhvs[/YouTube]

I was at Dolphin Pet Village yesterday. They had a tank full of 2-3 month old CF. VERY cute!

Good luck.
 
lattehiatus said:
It has been a while, so here's a quick summary of what's been happening.

So far there have been 3 clutches, the last one was laid yesterday.
The first two clutches I left in the tank because they were on a base rock that I couldn't easily remove without threatening the integrity of the rock structure. Each time, the eggs developed silvery eyes by Day 8. I would reduce the flow in the evening and look for larvae, but they are nowhere to be found. On Day 13, the male would eat all the unhatched eggs.

I am thinking the lack of hatching could be attributed to:
1. Temperature: Nominally at 78 degrees, has been raised to 80 degrees slowly (just in time for this 3rd clutch)
2. Lighting: With the AquaIllumination units there is hardly any period of complete darkness. I started covering the sides of the DT with garbage bags at night to minimize stray light, but didn't do so until Day 9 or so on the 2nd clutch. Are there some eggs that require complete darkness in order to hatch?

On this 3rd clutch, the breeding couple has kindly relocated to a small isolated rock. The plan is to incubate the eggs with an airstone on the evening of Day 8, in total darkness.

Rotifer culture has been doing well for the past month. I'm already running low on the 6oz bottle of Rotifer Diet that was included with the kit and looking forward to trying RotiGrow Complete soon.

RGcomplete ;) You'll like it, trust me on that one :)

The first few (even up to 5 - 6) clutches typically have extremely low survival rates.
 
Not_Now_John said:
Anyone know a different book, or someplace to get Joyce Wilkerson's book that isn't 200 bucks?

http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Complete_Illustrated_Breeder_s_Guide.html?id=xzJaAAAACAAJ

The Complete Illustrated Breeder's Guide to Marine Aquarium Fishes
By: Matthew L. Wittenrich, Alf Jacob Nilsen, Scott W. (PHT) Michael

Joyce's book is pretty dated now, especially the rotifer and phyto section. You can get way more up to date info from the website I posted earlier.

May she rest in peace :(
 
GDawson said:
Not_Now_John said:
Anyone know a different book, or someplace to get Joyce Wilkerson's book that isn't 200 bucks?


Maybe it's time to sell my copy... Hmmmmmmm.......

-Gregory

Good luck getting the "going" price.

The only reason the price shot up is its out of print. The dealers assume its that price given its out of print. You can find it in bookstores (used & new) for the normal price. I found it used for $5 a month ago and passed on it (have it)
 
I dosed 3 times the amount of RGcomplete than I did with Rotifer Diet, and the culture water is dark green compared to the light green I typically target. There's also more foam being produced by the airstone than usual. Should I be concerned?

After feeding my tanks with rotifers daily for the past month, my SPS have never looked better. :D
 
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