Amphiprion ocellaris Breeding Journal

[JAR]

great work David!

 

[lattehiatus]

Thanks for the awesome support and encouragement, everyone!

This was primarily an exercise to see how easy it is to rear clownfish larvae. With today's understanding of larval nutrition, it seems that just about anyone can begin captive breeding of marine fishes - even someone as dense as me. :bigsmile: On the freshwater side, most of the fishes are captive bred now, and largely due to the efforts of hobbyists. Who knows, maybe some individuals in our club will be adventurous enough to take a stab at breeding pelagic spawners?

The reward is coming home to a bevy of smiling faces every day:

Here is a video of the 23 DPH juvies playing in the extremely fake silicon anemone.

Extreme fake silicon anemone was sourced without having to order online thanks to Kensington Reefer. Once I convert a 33 gallon into the growout tank, I would like to get some real BTAs in there for the clowns to host with.

 

[lattehiatus]

They've got hearty appetites and growing fast, it seems like they add 1 mm of length every couple days. This batch has about 30 clowns about 15 mm each, I have yet to transfer them to a growout tank, so they are still in their 2.5 gallon larval rearing tank.

Yesterday a few hours before I was about to head out of town (naturally), I noticed many of them were breathing rapidly. pH was around 7.5. No detectable ammonia but somewhere between 0 to 0.25 ppm nitrite. I immediately put in a bigger air pump and increased aeration to the sponge filter and a separate wooden airstone, and pH gradually increased to 8, and the juvies' breathing returned to normal. IIRC, nitrite toxicity is positively correlated with pH, whereas ammonia toxicity is inversely correlated. So with equal levels ammonia and nitrite, at a higher pH the ammonia is more toxic, and at a lower pH nitrite is more toxic.

I typically keep low fish stocking densities in reef and planted tanks, and haven't really had to deal with the nitrogen cycle or be concerned about sufficient aeration for many years - this was a good refresher.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Nice catch...very observant

 

[lattehiatus]

I'm definitely not as sharp as some when it comes to eyeballing things, but that was a fortunate catch.

One thing I forgot to mention was that since their tail stripes came in around 15 to 18 DPH, these are almost certainly ocellaris and not percula. Changing thread title accordingly.

 

[gimmito]

Very cool David...and nice save with the youngsters !

 

[Not_Now_John]

I'm definitely not as sharp as some when it comes to eyeballing things, but that was a fortunate catch.

One thing I forgot to mention was that since their tail stripes came in around 15 to 18 DPH, these are almost certainly ocellaris and not percula. Changing thread title accordingly.

Nice observation, glad you caught the pH

 

[lattehiatus]

The headline of this recent article on AA made me laugh:
Cultured fish and boring environments make for stupid fish

My occy female regularly displays aggression towards her own reflection. Maybe it's the only thing keeping her sane. I might need to tape some sudoku puzzles to the glass. arty:

The first batch of clowns are now at 48 DPH. They had outgrown the larval rearing tank long ago, but with daily water changes and Purigen, the environment was clean enough that the small bit of chaeto I threw in there didn't have enough nutrients to grow. The other day I transferred them to a 5g tank, and was finally able to get a solid count: 47 juvies. My guess all this time had been approximately 35 juvies.

I am attempting to rear a third clutch. Last night was the 8th night for the eggs, but only 5 hatches occurred. I had positioned the airstone in the clay pot poorly, and about 1/3 of the eggs weren't being aerated and turned white. :tired: My rotifer cultures had crashed as well, but Robin kindly provided an emergency rotifer infusion. I am grateful for his aid and all the fantastic support in BAR.

 

[Coral reefer]

47!?! Nice job!!!!

 

[lattehiatus]

47!?! Nice job!!!!

I need help naming them all!

 

[aqua-nut]

Wow David, 47! That's great.

Names?

How about 1LittleFishie, 2LittleFishie

No strike that...

01LittleFishie
02LittleFishie
03LittleFishie...

I was thinking just yesterday it had been a while since you sent an update.

Now all we NEED is pictures!

 

[Kensington Reefer]

They all have the same name...$10

 

[robert4025]

Hi David...Thanks for bringing in the babies! They all are doing very good!

 

[JAR]

nice

 

[gimmito]

Nice job David...they look beautiful.

 

[eldiablosrt8]

david got your stuff ordered today, cant wait to hear from you....