Ron Popeil

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?

what is recommended for lighting microalgae? nyles suggests 24 hour photoperiods. ive heard 18 hour photoperiods...whats the consensus?

i will admit. its dangerous. even more so if you start at the beginning with the dvds. there are no commercials. no week long waits inbetween episodes. you just plow right through 40 hours worth, and dont even realize youre doing it. and then, since you know the origins of all the confusing elements of the show...youre done for. you have to keep watching. im having a hard time deciding who id rather marry: emilie de ravin or matthew fox.

whats so special about them?

nyles, what are arctics?

i guess im the only lost fan. the only passionate lost fan. sigh. such a sad little man ive become.

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.

from the brief moments ive spoken with him, hes always been a gentleman and a scholar. i hope the weekend recharges you, and things start looking better jason.

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. 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.

youll probably have a tough time getting a maroon clown to tolerate other species. a female maroon is full of scorn and contempt for anything but her anemone. theyre aggressive clowns. it will be best for everyone if you remove her, or any other clown in the tank. clowns in general are fairly intolerant of other species in the same tank. if you can create a visibility barrier in your tank, like a small cove with the sebaes and clarkiis and a rock wall that will obscure them from the bubbletips on the opposite, you may have some luck. but expect aggression between conspicifics. perhaps try some occellaris and pink skunks. theyre typically timid enough to work in larger tanks together.

just a few more days now. oh, and juliette....i hope you dont mind a bit of electricity yourself.

i doubt youll find a small one. ive never seen one for sale less than five or six inches. and oh boy, do they like getting ich. theyre also pretty intolerant of other tangs. i think that only adds to their stress, and then successive ich outbreak. good luck in your search. however, like the others have stated, i doubt youll find one from another hobbyist.

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): 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?

the fact that its nearly 3 am and im really disappointed in myself. i set up the skeleton for my closet hatchery, played far too much halo...and then got suckered into the internet. i found the song "youre so cool" from the true romance soundtrack. and i felt like sharing. infact, i will share with you my favorite hans zimmer songs. backdraft main theme. Gortoz A Ran - J'Attends (im pretty sure he did this) from black hawk down. broken arrow main theme. crimson tide main theme. Chevaliers De Sangreal from davinci code. driving ms daisy main theme. days of thunder main theme. charge on fort wagner, and the closing credits theme from glory. zoosters breakout from madagascar. injection from mission impossible 2. pearl harbor main theme. the rock main theme. power songs. great songs to listen to while stuck in traffic. or in a fist fight. or robbing a bank. or saving a child from a burning building. or when you need that extra bit of motivation to algae scrub. his themes make even the most mundane tasks seem exciting and life threatening! YEAH!

no really. for reals. that man, he really knows how to compose some music.

thank you for the compliments joel. as far as i know, ive only read of two hobbyists who have bred this particular species of clownfish. i know there have been attempts and alleged successes at ORA and Eco Tropic, but for whatever reason they dont continually work with this species. it was always hoped to happen for me, but never expected. as for reeds mariculture, i have heard great things. the more i read about raising microalgaes and rotifers, the more split it becomes on how to do it: either culturing your own or using precultured products. it appears a growing number of breeders are prefering to use the reeds instant algae products in place of culturing their own algae. at the moment i have zero experience with this area of marine husbandry, so im ready to fiddle around with culturing myself to see how much of a burden it will be. ill have plenty of chances to experiment, especially with a new batch of eggs expected every 8 to 14 days. in theory. anyways, thanks again very much joel for your support. i look forward to the help. this is now day five since the nest was discovered. the nest has gotten progressively smaller and sporatic. the other noticeable change is in the eggs, they are increasingly more silvery and more developed. i imagine the eggs will be hatching within the next two days. unfortunately, i have to be out of town until sunday evening, i hope they hold out until that night before hatching. after the eggs hatch, i will try to insert an acrylic tile in place of the nest and keep my fingers crossed they use it for future nests. im not prepared at the moment to raise any fry from this nest, however, if anyone else would like to try, let me know. i know that the eggs typically take on the color of the adults, but this batch seemed much more paler than expected. so i have really upped my feeding in hopes of increasing future nest size and health, perhaps even egg color. my female is....really rotund at the moment.

well, from what ive been reading, its good to use in addition to. the guys were swearing by it in the thread, but then ceasing its use later on. i still have a bunch more to read. this literature is endless. ps you and i have seven bottles of club soda to drink today. i hope youre thirsty.

i think i have about two more days. i hope im here to watch, since, ill be in portland saturday and sunday... but from reading a thread by john hardman on RC, it seems that the breeders on the hobbyist level are tired of the algal crashes and the work put into timing the fry/copepod/algae cultures, so how much easier it is with products like Instant Algae. Apparently a few drops a day provide a significantly dense culture that aids in rapid rotifer population growth. only problem is the stuff is expensive. but it does keep for about three months, or indefinetely if frozen.... check out this site: http://www.reed-mariculture.com/microalgae/ its split into hobbyist and professional use stuff. hobbyist products are like Rotifer Feed vs the professional scientific name Nannoclopsis O specifics...let me know what you think. perhaps we can do a split order. as for the amquel, using chlorX is the other product recommended as well, because it helps keep the ammonia down. which rotifers produce a significant amount of, and it allows they better water conditions, is what i gathered. however, i purchased my seven 2 liter bottles yesterday. now i just need some rigid airline tubing, a small shelving unit...and i should be set. LETS GET STARTED!

jansen...im beginning to think that something from Reed Mariculture may be a better alternative to culturing phyto....its expensive, but apparently far more potent and easier to deal with....and apparently AMQUEL increases rotifer count... fascinating stuff.

what are the dimensions of the 25 gallon?

as long as the clown remains the only clown in the tank, she will take on the female gender. this can happen in as little as a month. however, the behavior youre witnessing is like powdertang said, the clownfish is making her environment more to her liking. they tend to do this around the base of anemones, but will do it at the base of rocks, corals, heaters....exceptionally frustrating.

thank you everyone for your compliments and support. here are the pictures of the nest today. day four since discovering the nest. at this point the anemone has its tentacles hiding most of the nest. i assume this isnt a problem, but i would also assume the male to take a more active role in shaping the anemone so its not so close. but no one seems to mind. the nest has shrunken in numbers, taken on a more sporatic shape, but the eggs seem to be continuing their development. the current temperature of the system is 79 degrees. later today, i begin work on my algae/rotifer/fry set up...

definetely interested in raising the fry. the world definetely needs captive bred chrysopterus clowns. i think im going to let this nest hatch on its own, while i do some research and set up. and the next few batches try my hand at fry rearing. nyles, be prepared for some collaboration. and jansen, be prepared for some mass rotifer production sooner than anticipated....

the pinnacle of any clownfish nerd is the spawning of their fish. today, some 163 days after their purchase, my clownfish decided to lay some eggs. some 200 eggs. color me excited! this is considered a small nest. eventually, i could be looking at nests with 600+ eggs! the following success is linked to patrick at saltwater fantaseas for the healthy and spectacular amphiprion chrysopterus pair and heteractis crispa anemone. joel at waves for the cube aquarium and parts, and JR at upscales for the oceanpure salt that somehow triggered a spawn. now, for some pictures! here is the nest and the anemone. it looks like a smudge of algae with bubbles, which is what i initially thought it was. but right above the tentacles on the left side is where to look.... the eggs: and some fatherly attention: thanks again!

does anyone have any excess sand laying around they dont want? if so, please contact me.