Breeding Journal: Amphiprion Percula

[rosebud161616]

Breeding Journal DataSheet

This first post should be updated regularly to include new information as events take place
or changes are made to your system

General
Species: Amphiprion Percula
Social Structure: Mated Pair
Size of Individuals: Female -2", Male - 1.5"
Age of Individuals: male - approx 1.5 years, female - unknown but older than male
Date added to Tank: Female - 2/10, Male - 10/10

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank: 100 gallon cube plumbed inline with 65 gallon frag tank and 75 gallon sump
Substrate Details: Aragonite sand
Filtration Details: 75 gallon sump, fuge, and MSX200 skimmer
Water Changes: Whenever we get the urge, typically 30%
Water Temperature: Temp stays around 78*
Lighting: All LED, main display are SOL fixtures, frag tank has DIY fixtures
Lighting Cycle: 12 hours on, 12 hours with blues dimmed under 10%. Lights have a ramp up/down schedule.
Other Tank Inhabitants: Sixline Wrasse, Yellow Coris Wrasse, Banggai Cardinal, Citron Clown Goby, 2 Green Clown Gobys, 3 Red Firefish, Hectors Goby, Orange Spotted Blenny, Candy Hogfish, 6 Barnacle Blannys, 2 cleanershimp, various snails/conchs

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types: Feed homemade blend of frozen foods once a day and TDO 1-2 times a day
Feeding Schedule: Frozen fed at night around 8-10PM, TDO fed in morning or after work

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn: 10/1/11
Spawn Time of Day: Night
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: 10/21/11, 11/12/11
Courtship Details:
Egg Size: 1mm
Egg Color: Orange
Egg Count: most recently was 200

Hatch Details
Hatch Date: 1 week
Hatch Time of Day: night
# Days after Spawn: 7
Larvae Description:


Larval Tank Details
Temperature: 76*
Size of Larval Tank: 5 gallon
Substrate Details: none
Other Tank Decor: none
Filtration Details: spong filter
Lighting: ambient
Lighting Cycle: 12 hours on/off
Water Changes: none till after meta

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types: rotifers, San Fran strain BBS, gold pearls, TDO
Feeding Schedule: Minimum of 3 times a day

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start: NA
Days after Hatch: NA
Date of Settlement End: NA
Description of Fry: NA

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature: NA
Size of Grow-Out Tank: NA
Substrate Details: NA
Other Tank Decor: NA
Filtration Details: NA
Lighting: NA
Lighting Cycle: NA
Water Changes: NA
Size at Transfer: NA
Age at Transfer: NA

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types: NA
Feeding Schedule: NA

Additional Information
Miscellaneous Information:
Our clownfish first met in our 37 column which we have since broken down. They lived in our 65 fragtank for about a month before we got our 100 cube. They had about 6 anemones in the 65 cube and they were living the high life. They spawned for the first time in the 65. We moved them into the 100 cube shortly after the first spawn and we fully expected them to stop spawning but they have not.

Here is a picture of them from about a year ago:


The female is Wild Caught from Papua New Guinea and the male is a CB from Doni's Reef. The female has similar markings to Rod's Onyx and came from the same area where his came from. She has since started loosing some of her black. I have read this is common when they live in bubble tips.

[rosebud161616]

Spawn 1

This was a very small clutch. A turbo happened upon the eggs one day and ate 75% of the eggs that we had. They laid their eggs on a rock, so I moved the entire rock to the frag tank the night of hatch. Fungus took over and we didn't get any fry.

Spawn 2

We got a bigger clutch of eggs. Again they laid them on a rock. I used a dremel to cut the area off of the rock the night I thought they were going to hatch. 2 hatched that night. I left the small bit of rock in there until the next night and they turned white with fungus. We did get 4 more to hatch, but the rest were not viable. The fry tank at the time was a 10 gallon and a cycled sponge filter.

The fry survived for approximately a week. I fed them rotifers 3-4 times a day and after 4 days started feeding newly hatched San Fransico strain brine shrimp. Their bellies turned orange so I could tell they were eating the BBS. Night 6 I tried the 100-200 micron golden pearls and I believe a few started eating them. On night seven we bought a 5 gallon tank since a 10 gallon tank was just too large for 6 fry. We did a 100% water change, moved the same sponge filter over, and had a total loss by morning.

Spawn 3
They laid their next spawn partially on a tile, partially on rock on Saturday. I will need to try a larger tile in the future. This time they laid the eggs during the day so we were able to watch and get some video of it.



They laid an even bigger clutch of about 300. They laid them under an anemone, so I'm not sure if the anemone will harm the eggs. The flow in the tank was also very high in the tank when they were spawning, so I don't know if this changed the amount of eggs that were able to get fertilized, but it seems that only about half of the eggs developed eyes. The male has now removed the other half that did not appear to be fertilized..

We are thinking of trying a larvae catcher this time since we are having trouble getting enough flow over the eggs in the fry tank. They seem to fungus much too quickly. We expect them to hatch this Saturday night, so stay tuned for updates.

[CableGuy]

Very cool! Nice nems!

[larryandlaura]

sweet video! Love the spawn news.

[rosebud161616]

We built this larvae catcher to try this clutch. It's pretty basic. There is a rubbermaid tub that has a large square cut out of one side and then a small hole cut out of the other. I bought a rubber grommet at Lowes and installed it in the hole. The PVC can now fit very snugly in that hole without any glue/silicone/etc. needed. On the large square hole I silicon-ed some window screen.

Then for the PVC, there is basically one straight pipe of PVC that ends slightly above the water level. We dropped an airline down that tube and it makes an uplift tube. The fry get sucked in the bottom, and spit out into the tupperware container. Kind of hard to understand but the pictures, and video below make it easier.

Whole thing:


Rubber Grommet:


Window Screen:


The amount of flow it moves:


We tried it last night but the eggs didn't hatch. I'm hoping tonight is the night. I'm still getting used to being able to tell when they hatch.

[PPi]

Kudos on the larvae catcher, definitely going to try that!

[rosebud161616]

Kudos on the larvae catcher, definitely going to try that!

Glad I can be of help. I forgot to mention some things about it:

I have the end pointed right near the eggs in hopes that they will immediately get sucked up. At night we turn out all lights of in the room including the sump light. No moonlights, etc. I place a small flashlight on a table right in front of the bottom of that tube so that if the fry don't immediately get sucked up, they will swim toward that light. With all other lights out in the room, they should swim right over.

I also turn off all but one of the pumps with is an MP20 in night might mode and I turn it all the way down. It's just barely enough flow to keep proteins from causing big long strings, but not strong enough to push the fry away from the uplift tube. I also **** off the RBTA so that he closes up for the night and doesn't make a snack out of the fry that are immediately below it when open.