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A Clownfish Spawn


Ron Popeil

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well, the eggs took on an even more silvery appearance yesterday, leaving me to believe the hatch was imminent either last night or tonight.

 

this is day six since discovering the nest (it could be between 6 and 9 days old at this point):

 

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lights out around 1030 pm, i waited around an hour. still saw the silvery masses. waited another hour. still no change. i inadvertently stayed up til 3 am, and by the time i went to sleep the eggs were still present.

 

however, as of 10 am this morning the entire nest was gone. i dont know if this means they hatched sometime later than 3 am and then the nest was consumed, or if the parents finished it off for whatever reason spontaneously after i left.

 

i worked on my closet hatchery last night. setting up bottles. organizing air line tubing. shelving. lights. im a bit cramped for space, but i think it will work just fine. ill have some pictures up when its in its prime.

 

i now have three 5x8 clear acrylic tiles i plan on sliding into place of the nest. i was thinking of putting two in the tank, and using the third to switch in post-egg laying. i really hope this doesnt interrupt them.

 

any thoughts or suggestions?

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so i slid a piece of acrylic over the spot where the original nest had been laid. i watched the pair alot yesterday, and it appears the male is unhappy with the tile. but, based on the amount of cleaning theyre doing together, i suspect they will be spawning right next to the tile or in the front left corner of the tank. it seems they really prefer the angle because most of their attention is being spent there.

 

i also started some cultures of nannochloropsis and isochrysis in my closet hatchery.

 

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the cultures were donated to me by jansen, and i think ill eventually switch out the isochrysis for some tetraselmis. so ill play around with this for a week or so, then begin some experimentation with rotifer growing.

 

so other than that, the pair seem to be unaffected by the addition of the piece of acrylic and appear to actively clean locations regardless. in theory, another nest should be coming sometime this weekend.

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I received 200ml of Rotifers (Brachionus plicatilis) today. Specific Gravity on arrival read 1.004. I began two cultures, and will be raising S.G. gradually to 1.020. Hopefully they will increase in number to start distribution by 2/18/07. If not, I will bring some to the March PNWMAS Meeting.

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nyles, ill try the terra cotta soon enough. today i took my piece of acrylic and really scored it up on the cement outside my apartment. its nice and rough now. im going to try this for a while. so far the pair still continues to clean the same site as before. the male seems very unhappy with the new tiles in his way, or anywhere near the anemone. i hope he changes his mind.

 

the micro algal cultures of nanno and iso are proceeding....well. i guess. i dont have any fertilzer for them of any kind, so theyre growing on light alone. and compared to jansens cultures that started with fertilzer, its obvious the fertilizer dramatically helps. in my fish closet i found a large bottle of coralife marine plant food. it contains potassium iodide and bioactive extracted from kelp and other seaweeds. i added four drops to my most advanced nanno 2 liter. perhaps it will work.

 

reynaldo, i have two bottles of iso going right now. i think that should be enough, unless, i get a sudden crash. ill keep you posted, and i definetely appreciate the offer.

 

in a few more days i should be ready to start my dabbling with rotifers. i want to get my bottles a bit more solid green first. if they even will without fertilizers...

 

sometime this weekend a second nest should be laid. my fingers are crossed.

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What I had for distribution at the meeting was Tigriopsis californicus, also known as Tigger-pods, an excellent source of HUFA (Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids). I have several cultures of these, and plan on bringing more starter cultures to the Milwaukie Center on Feb. 18th.

Rotifers are a better First-Food for many marine fish larvae, as they are much smaller. They are about 1/3 the size of newly hatched brine shrimp nauplii. An even smaller food would be ciliates, such as Euplotes.

 

I do not have any Arctic Pods though.

Arcti-Pods (available as a super concentrate of Arctic Copepods) http://www.reed-store.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=16

I will check if they are available live.

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In short the owner of algagen uses 24/7 lighting, the phytoplankton only needs a millisecond of darkness to trigger cell division and is said that they will get this simply by being shaded from the light by another phytoplankton cell. I have ran my lights 24/7 for 4 months, the tiny sample of iso I got fom manrow is already a brown milky dark color in a 2 liter. In short... IT WORKS lit 24/7. I used to run 16 on - 8 off as well because of "what I was told" when I started.

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hey ryan, as of right now im only lacking rotifers. if someone brings a sample to the meeting, that would be all id need brought down. thanks for offering to help.

 

ilham, 18 hours eh? hrm. thank you for the input.

 

well for the past four days ive been running 24 hours. unfortunately without any fertilzer of any sort i wasnt noticing any rapid growth. the iso sample i have appears to be growing the best for me. the nanno cultures are in three different bottles. the first 2L bottle received just over half of the initial small sample bottle. the second 2L got a bit more, and the third 2L received whatever was left. with the iso culture i poured 3/4 of the sample bottle into a 2L and then what was left into another 2L. as you can see from the picture posted a few days ago, all the cultures are in a row infront of a 65w power compact bulb. the salinity in all 2L bottles was 1.016.

 

 

this entire culture was started on the 5th. fertilzer was added to the second nanno culture bottle only yesterday. the fertilzer i used was recommended by nyles and is a liquid fertilzer produced by miraclegrow.

 

as of today this is what i have noticed:

 

first nanno bottle: shows a decrease in growth. the bottle is still a pale green. it is either not doing well because of the 24 hour light cycle i started three days ago, the lack of fertilzer, or perhaps even an increase in temperature due to the closeness to the PC bulb.

 

second nanno bottle: this one received 5mL of the liquid fertilzer yesterday afternoon. it is now a very good color green. a greenish sediment has begun to settle on the bottom of the bottle and on the sides. while the fertilzer is green itself, it is essentially clear when introduced. i can only assume the green is a because of expansive growth of the algae.

 

third nanno bottle: the water is not very clear. there appears to be no green of any kind. i suspect this culture is toast.

 

first iso bottle: a nice light brown. it has increased the darkness of its color in the last few days. it appears to be doing well. without fertilizer or any other additives.

 

second iso bottle: water is slightly cloudy. appears as this culture is not successful either.

 

any thoughts on this?

 

whats next: im going to wait a day or two more, and split most green nanno bottle and begin that culture again. with, and without the fertilzer to see if i get the same results.

i will also split the iso culture, and add some fertilzer to see how it responds.

 

on my search for the fertilzer, i stopped by advanced. ryan donated a sample of tetraselmis, which i will start this evening. thank you!

 

as for the clownfish, no new nests yet. hopefully within the next week. regardless, i definetely am enjoying figuring out this whole phyto culture stuff.

 

does anyone know how well the cultures handle evaporation? how well do they handle salinity fluctuations?

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