Pickle's N-R Breeders Lounge

[Pickle010]

Ok... I'm too excited... have to share:

 

[oceancube]

Ok... I'm too excited... have to share:

 

^^^ looking good , what percentage are coming out that color??

[Pickle010]

^^^ looking good , what percentage are coming out that color??

 

 

Rudy - I didn't breed him - I just added him to my brood stock yesterday. He is a Blacker Ice clown from Proaquatix that is going to be paired up with my spawning B&W. He is currently just over an inch and I have him paired with a standard (non-spawning) Occy for right now. I want to let him mature a bit before I attempt to pair him with my spawning female.

[Tmoriarty]

Rudy - I didn't breed him - I just added him to my brood stock yesterday. He is a Blacker Ice clown from Proaquatix that is going to be paired up with my spawning B&W. He is currently just over an inch and I have him paired with a standard (non-spawning) Occy for right now. I want to let him mature a bit before I attempt to pair him with my spawning female.

 

Lol, you can't ever keep things secret for very long

 

Also last night, only had one hatch, figured what the heck and dropped him in the fry tank. As far as I know he is still doing fine and hopefully will be joined tonight by his brothers.

[Pickle010]

Lol, you can't ever keep things secret for very long

.

 

 

Inorite? I just stink at this game!

 

I hope it works out - I've never added a hatch to water that was pulled and tinted the day prior although I have thrown smaller hatches that didn't go well in with other hatches and they've done fine. So hopefully it works out for you.

 

Today should be D-DAY for you. I often have a couple that will hatch a day before the main hatch.

[hooligan_78]

Nice fish Mike! It's hard to keep a lid on things when you're excited! Speakin gof excitement/ my big onyx female, who did not want anyting to do with the tiny onyx/picasso male, is finally letting him in the pot more and more.

[Tmoriarty]

Inorite? I just stink at this game!

 

I hope it works out - I've never added a hatch to water that was pulled and tinted the day prior although I have thrown smaller hatches that didn't go well in with other hatches and they've done fine. So hopefully it works out for you.

 

Today should be D-DAY for you. I often have a couple that will hatch a day before the main hatch.

 

Indeed it was. The transfer went through just fine. I did have a few that didn't make it but honestly they were not looking great before the transfer. Swimming on the sandbed not moving much in the DT. Wouldn't swim up to the light beam.

 

The strong ones swimmed right to the top and went to town on the pod population that had gathered (quite a few).

 

The ones that I gathered that seemed strong from the start seem to still be doing good. Between 15-20 of them have been doing great for the last couple days. I have sucked out a few that didn't make it, but that all seemed to stop after about the first 48 hours, and I didn't think they were going to make it from the start, but had to give them the chance.

 

I might have been able to keep a few more though if I had acclimated to the slight differences instead of just pouring them into the fry tank, but I was excited and needed to bucket to get the next set of fry

 

I did figure out a few important things to do, on both the rotifers cultures and the fry tank. I was adding in the rotigrow+ straight to the fry tank and the cultures to tint the water, what I noticed with this is that it seems to clump up a little and not disperse. In the fry tank I had some that just went straight to the bottom and sat there stagnant. I know that is not good to help keep ammonia levels down so I now mix in the amount of rotigrow+ I am going to use into a small cup of the tank water, then pour it through out the tank. I notice this way it mixes evenly and doesn't create as much potential for water fouling.

 

For my rotifers I am almost restarting them once every two weeks. I use a 1/4 inch hard drip line and just siphon out 1 gallon into a new batch of salt water mixed at 1.018. I do one of my cultures one week and the other culture the next week. That way if one crashes I can restart it with the other culture on the water change (one gallon into one bucket another into a second bucket). This allows me to only get the rotifers and not any of the built up gunk on the bottom. I have considered sieving out the remaining water to get the rotifers but until I have more fry going I do not need to do this.

 

Another issue I saw (from reading Mikes information) is that adding the rotifers to the fry tank can bump the ammonia. To prevent this I run a cup of clean salt water over them then add them to the tank. While this hatch has been quite small I have not had any problem so far with ammonia (patch still reads nothing).

 

Its like Mike said, on small hatches its almost like having a third roti culture going, just keep the water tinted to maintain the rotifer population. Everything so far seems to be going ok, I was worried about sucking the fry out through a drip line (1/4" hard line) but in the end it didn't seem to be that brutal on them. The avoidance of the hassle of trying to gather them in a cup made it much more worthwhile, even if I lost a few because of it.

 

Heres to hopping I get a fast Meta and start to see stripes within the next week.

[Pickle010]

Tyler - you're a quick study man.

 

You should do just fine - one of the reasons I always use a clean bucket to do water changes is just in case I pull any fry with the old water. They are a lot tougher then you'd think. I've pulled water and come back later in the day and found fry swimming around in my dirty bucket. I net them out with a small white shrimp net and they don't seem any worse off then the rest.

 

If you get them hitting on the Oto then you should see meta pretty quick.

[oceancube]

Tyler - you're a quick study man.

 

You should do just fine - one of the reasons I always use a clean bucket to do water changes is just in case I pull any fry with the old water. They are a lot tougher then you'd think. I've pulled water and come back later in the day and found fry swimming around in my dirty bucket. I net them out with a small white shrimp net and they don't seem any worse off then the rest.

 

If you get them hitting on the Oto then you should see meta pretty quick.

good luck with the pairing , any updates on snow babies... i got a couple hundred that should be ready soon.. gotta see some of the picassnows that i raised there looking great , there black is getting bolder .. keep us updated pickle looks great sofar!!

[jedimasterben]

Has anybody ever used Brine Shrimp Direct's Golden Pearls as a replacement for any of the foods you feed to the fry? I read on their website that some use the different sizes 100% to feed fry and after meta and everything, and my fish all go ape#### for them. Just curious if anyone has tested their claim.

[Tmoriarty]

Looks like my pair is on a 14 day laying cycle with eggs hatching out at 10 DPS. If that continues at least I will know when things will happen.

 

I think I may prefer a little longer cycle, it allows me to possibly raise a couple clutches right after one another.

 

So far babies are still looking good, growing fast. Need to do a water change tommorow but than I do not think I will do anything but suck up debris on the bottom until they go through meta, I don't want to disturb them to much.

[Pickle010]

Your time between hatches will mostly decrease over time.

 

And as far as your water changes - there is no harm in adding some fresh clean mixed SW. I've seen paople back off durring meta but I haven't seen any difference in just doing the water changes regularly throughout.

 

But I also use an airline and regulator to drip my water in over time - some go faster but I've always done it that way and it works so I haven't changed it up.

[Tmoriarty]

Your time between hatches will mostly decrease over time.

 

And as far as your water changes - there is no harm in adding some fresh clean mixed SW. I've seen paople back off durring meta but I haven't seen any difference in just doing the water changes regularly throughout.

 

But I also use an airline and regulator to drip my water in over time - some go faster but I've always done it that way and it works so I haven't changed it up.

 

Some of them are looking big, like they will be going through meta soon. Its hard to predict because they are half perc half ocellaris, so their cycle could be anywhere in there. I thought I saw one today swimming normal instead of darting, but that may just be wishful thinking .

 

Either way my water quality still is good, I am sure because of so few fry, so I kinda want to wait until I am through meta to do any water changes. I know I am probably safe to, but I just don't want to lose any more out of this batch. I havn't had any real losses after day 1/2 so Id love to keep it that way.

[rb1685]

Interesting article for you clown breeders:

 

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/probi...arval-clownfish

[Pickle010]

I think rrgc50 was experimenting (or testing) Probiotics last year some time. Good read and reminder - thanks!

[Seamonkey84]

Ok... I'm too excited... have to share:

 

 

Wow looks alot like my black phantom! Nice pickup!

Here's mine in his rose bed

 

As far as golden pearls, I've read a few threads with people using golden pearls instead of OTO

Here's a good link, post number 53 is the good stuff

http://www.reef-geeks.com/forums/aquacultu...lownfish-3.html

Edited December 6, 2012 by Seamonkey84

[Tmoriarty]

10 DPH

 

Still no more losses since day 2 Pickle, I am at least pretty happy with the results so far. I did have a rotifer crash in the fry tank a few days ago (missed a morning feeding). Performed a waterchange when I got home (first one so far) and re-added some rotifers.

 

Most if not all of the fry are weened onto oto A, I am fully on board with ignoring BBS, I can see it is nothing more than a complete waste of time. I had 0 losses so far with the new food, and all the fish show what appears to be full bellies (some mostly orange with oto, others mixed orange and silver with oto and rotifers).

 

New guys should hatch in a couple days, I guess we will see how that goes. I have not decided if I am going to raise them or not yet. I do not think my wife wants to see another tank setup in the house right now, so I may have to skip a batch so I can move the oldest fry into growout.

[Tmoriarty]

I am uploading pictures from a few minutes ago, these are the fry at 10 DPH. I am also uploading a video.

 

Edited December 10, 2012 by Tmoriarty

[Pickle010]

It's interesting watching the development of these guys being that they are a hybrid it looks like they are taking on the developmental traits of percs rather then the Occys.

 

 

As far as the Mrs is concerned it's always best to not tick her off too early and sneak the extra tanks and equiptment in over time.

 

Wow looks alot like my black phantom! Nice pickup!

 

Looks like you got a winner yourself! Nice clown.

[Tmoriarty]

Yah, they are def. waiting a while to get stripes. While I am pretty sure they have gone through meta, they have not started getting stipes yet, at least that I can tell.

 

She is ok with me getting the larvae trap, so I would think she knows what comes with that . I would like to build a rack to keep in the house for the fry, where I could have a couple growouts and at least 3 fry tanks.

 

That will be in work after the first of the year (got to get through christmas present time). I also think that I may get Steves B/W, while she has never laid yet, she is def. plenty old enough to. I was thinking about keeping her and the snowflake in my refugium section, its approx. 18 gallons and should be plenty enough for the pair to breed (plus they would be in a system with breeding fish already).

[fishguy717]

Just finished reading the entire thread. Great job Pickle (and friends). My girlfriend and I have been planning a broodstock set up, stand and lighting is complete and the tanks go in Friday. We are doing 2 70 gallon tanks that are divided into 4 sections each. They are a little bigger then necessary, but we were able to get a good deal from a breeder looking to get out of the game. We were also able to pick up some of his laying pairs too! So it looks like I finished the thread just in time. Unfortunately my girlfriend is still only on page 10....might have her just look over your cliff notes version. Hope to be able to contribute some pics soon....she is a photographer so I know she will be shooting a bunch. Thanks again for a great source of information....hope to contribute to it soon.

[Pickle010]

hey Fishguy - welcome to you and the other half! Don't hesitate to post if you have any questions or just want to keep people updated on your progress.

 

I don't post as often because I don't run into as many problems but if you've read this thread then you know I've had my fair share and there are a lot of great people here that will help you out.

[fishguy717]

Thanks. I will definitely ask any questions that I come up with. That is one of the things that I have enjoyed reading about this thread....everyone is wiling to help everyone out. That isn't always the case. One question I did have for you Pickle.....somewhere about 80 pages ago you mentioned a spreadsheet that you use to document everything....is it possible to get a copy of that spreadsheet? I am a big proponent of taking very detailed notes to be able to track and see trends...as well as identify and eliminate issues. I want to make sure I am more then prepared. Thanks.

[Pickle010]

I have one - PM me your email address and I'll get it out to you.

[fishguy717]

Got it thanks. Install is not going as smooth as I was hoping, but hopefully will be completed tonight.