Breeding Journal: Amphiprion Percula (picasso varient)

[FlynnFish]

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 (picasso varient)
Social Structure: Pair
Size of Individuals: female- 2.5 inches, male 1.8 inches
Age of Individuals: ~2 years
Date added to Tank: June 2011

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank: 20 gallons of a 120 gallon system
Substrate Details: bare bottom
Filtration Details: filter sock, deep sandbed, live rock, macro algae, skimmer, biopellets
Water Changes: 30% bi weekly
Water Temperature: 78.9
Lighting: Vho
Lighting Cycle: on @ 9:30 off at 10:30
Other Tank Inhabitants: crabs, spaghetti worms, bristtle worms

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types: Homemade seafood blend, New life spectrum Thera A pellets
Feeding Schedule: three times a day

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn: May 11th 2012
Spawn Time of Day: afternoon
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: 5/11/12, 5/25/12, 6/7/12*
Courtship Details: pair spends all their time together. both tend to the eggs, male more than female.
Egg Size: 1-2mm
Egg Color: orange
Egg Count: ? Hundred maybe 200

Hatch Details
Hatch Date: 6/16/12
Hatch Time of Day: 1 am
# Days after Spawn: 8 days
Larvae Description: silvery in color, bright clear silver eyes, no yolk sac noted


Larval Tank Details
Temperature: 77 F
Size of Larval Tank: 5 gallon
Substrate Details: bare bottom
Other Tank Decor: heater, air stone
Filtration Details: water changes
Lighting: LED
Lighting Cycle: lights on at 6:30 am, lights off at 11:00pm
Water Changes: none as of yet.

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types: Rotifers
Feeding Schedule: feeding large supply once maybe twice a day

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

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

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types:
Feeding Schedule:

Additional Information
Miscellaneous Information:

[FlynnFish]

female


male


i've had these fish since January in a 24 gallon nano cube and moved them over to my breeder system in June. the female has always nitpicked at the tile here and there, and always kept the male at bay with chasing him to a corner and biting him to the point i could see scales floating in the water after she bit him. last night I was sitting in front of the tank watching my fish while listening to making sure my son was going to go to sleep in the room above me. I noticed the male and the female were together and the female was strongly picking at one of the tiles and then rubbing her belly against it. she wasn't laying eggs, but the male was nip-picking at another tile. So i am hoping this is some type of prespawning behavior.

sorry the video is sideways, i took it on my phone and was holding it sideways.

Possible courtship display - YouTube

[larryandlaura]

lol nice video

[FlynnFish]

lol, i'll learn to use my phone right one of these days. no eggs yet and the male s back to his usuall corner. so maybe it was some type of courtship display but not a "i want to get down and dirty" display. lol.

[FlynnFish]

It's been a while since i updated. Things have been going well. The pair have finally been getting along. Back in April i tried egg foster with the pair. I took a clutch of eggs from my ocellaris pair and put in with the picassos.

egg fostering video by shannyfly - Photobucket

After taking care of three batches of Ocellaris eggs I found these.

the first batch of Picasso eggs on May 11th. this batch ended up getting eaten.
the pair laid another batch on May 25th and they hatched on June 2nd with a batch of regular percula eggs. I failed to put the air stone directly under the eggs so only a few hatched out. I crashed my rotifer supply from feeding old food that sat in the fridge too long. so I only have two fry left from this batch, I am unsure if they are picasso offspring or regular percula offspring, only time will tell.
another batch was laid on June 7th and they hatched out early this morning around 1 am.
I filtered the parent water through a 54 micron sieve into a 5 gallon tank. I fed with rotigreen and filter rotifers this morning.


all is doing well.

[fishtobe]

nice video.. My clowns just spawn eggs too last Monday. I had some success raising the baby clowns. I have 3 suvivors from my first batch. My last batch, 11 survived but died after 15 days. I don't know why. Anyway, can you spare me some rotifers or tell me where I can get it locally (I am in Rochester Hills, MI). I don't want to pay an overnight shipping fee each time I need it. I tried to culture it myself but it crashed after about a month.

[FlynnFish]

It's been a while again since I updated this thread. The lastest batch of picasso babies are doing great!!! I had 11 survive past meta. they are a bit over a month old now and are looking fantastic. i have 4 platinums and 1 other is showing neat patterns on his face already. the other six are still look like plain perculas, but have not started getting their stripes yet.
here is one picasso from a earlier batch about two months ago.


here are two of the platinums with a regular perc and the one picasso with a eye spot and a cheek spot


here is a picture of the other two platinums










in this last picture you can see the eye and cheek spot of the picasso.

[MizTanks]

Thanks for the update!! Was wondering how the lil ones were doing. And you too of course