Clownfish Laying Egss (with video)

The clownfish laid more eggs last night and I was lucky enough to be there to capture it on video!

My New Addition... Torpedo Wrasse

I picked up this torpedo wrasse from NY Aquatic last Friday. It is such a rare and beautiful fish. So far, it doesn't do much other than bury itself in the sand. But, it is still alove and I am hoping it becomes social soon!

Clownfish at 4 weeks

All clownfish are doing well. I have not lost any since just after metamorphosis.

Here are some fairly recent pics, but I think they are even bigger than this now!

All Clownfish ALIVE!

Unbelievably, all of the clownfish survived the trauma of the severe temp drop. My wife called and went to the basement to check if any of the babies had made it. She says, "There are like 50 fish swimming around. What died?" There were no fish on the bottom and they were all orange again and swimming. She gave them a little extra food and they were eating like crazy!!!

Incidentally, I have switched form live baby brine shrimp to the Ocean Nutrition Instant Baby Brine Shrimp. It is a small jar of baby brine in a fluid. The babies love it and they are really starting to grow!

I am also crushing the New Life Spectrum Grow food and putting it in there. Some of them eat it, but they are not fans. I have to start weaning them off the brine.

Woo hoo!!!!! Disaster Averted!!!!

Bad News on my baby clownfish

Bad news.

I think I may have lost all 50 of my remaining babies (which were approaching 1 month old). My heater died last night and when I went to feed them this morning most were immobile on the bottom of the tank. 2 or 3 were swimming barely. And their color went from bright orange to a pale pink. Tank temp was around 70.

I got a new heater in there and fed them, but I think all is lost on this batch.

Will post an update tonight when I get home and check on them....

Lost a lot of baby clowns last night

Well, I hit a wall with my baby clowns last night. Two factors led to the downturn.

1. Both of my brine shrimp cultures crashed the other night, so I was not able to feed them baby brine shrimp at all since Monday morning. I fed them rotifers and crushed flake food Monday night, and twice yesterday.
2. The salinity was rather high in the tank so as part of my almost daily water change I added a lot of fresh RO/DI water. I wonder if the salinity change was too much for them.

Regardless, I lost about 10 babies. The brine shrimp were ready this morning so I fed them a lot to help them catch up. Their color was not good.The bright orange was now pale. I am hoping I still have some babies when I return home this evening.

In addition, the new batch of fry should be born this evening, but I am not prepared for them and so I will let them go.

And finally, it is entirely possible that my bangaii cardinal fish are also breeding. More on that later

Some updated pictures of the reef tank

I managed to snap a few decent pictures of the tank last night.  I really like the way the tank is progressing, considering I almost lost everything 8 weeks ago!

These are all taken after the metal hailde lights were off, so its just actinics (8x39w T5 - 420/460 nm from UVL Lighting)

 

 

You can see the rest here:

My Reef Tank

Another batch of eggs!

Just wanted to post a quick update. First, mommy and daddy clownfish have laid andother clutch. I thought they were on a 20 day schedule. That was the time between the first and second batch. But, apparently not. Because on Thursday I noticed another clutch already there and they were not orange. So they may have been there for a few days.... Arghhh, I had there schedule all laid out in an Excel file and now its ruined.... LOL

And, the baby clowns have almost all passed metamorphosis stage! I lost one in meta. They are looking very cute now and I will try to get pictures tonight.

My 125g 2 year Anniversary in Pictures

Since my "big" tank is now officially 2 years old, I thought I would give a quick recap of how I acquired the tank (for those who are new to the blog) and also show some pictures of how the tanks has changed over time.

History
For Christmas, 2006, my wife bought me a 14 gallon Biocube. (I always wanted a fish tank.) After doing some research and talking to some folks we decided that we could do a saltwater tank. And, thus was the start of my Obsessive Compulsive Reef Disorder, a term coined by my wife to describe by addiction to my reef tank!

Here is a pic of the original 14g Biocube:



Jump forward to the summer of 2007 and my wife and I make a deal, if I quit smoking I can get a bigger tank! So, my quest begins. I looked at all different tanks but had settled on a 180 or 220 gallon reef ready tank. So, I quit smoking and started my search. One night browsing eBay, I found a tank (running) for $1500 located about 90 minutes away. I made a half-hearted offer of $1000 thinking that was way low. The guy accepted. So, off to Mechanicsburg, PA we went, my brother-in-law, his buddy, and one of my reef club friends, to pack up this tank and its inhabitants. What a strange trip that was.

TODAY
Flashing forward to today, my tank has survived a mini-crash, my clownfish are breeding and my fish room has gone through a major renovation. Slightly off-topic, my eternally frustrating and pathetic battle with cigarettes continues.

So, here is the journey of my reef over the last 2 years in pictures...

This is what the tank looked like when I picked it up:



Yes, that is right... full of hair algae and rock, front to back, top to bottom. Barely room for a fish to swim!

And here is the tank, just a week later. Eventually, the tank had all new rock, and all new equipment. The only remnants of that set-up are the tank and stand and a coral beauty!


And after 1 month:


And from April, 2009:







And today:

COMING SOON!  I realized that I have not taken a decent FTS (full tank shot) in a long time.


My next post will show some of my coral growth over the last 2 years.

Day 11 of baby clownfish with pictures

My baby clowns are now on Day 11.  I have lost no clowns in the last 3-4 days and they are now starting to really grow!  Currently, I am feeding them rotifers, baby brine shrimp and some ground up flake food.

At this stage, most of the clownfish have pink/orange bellies, a sign that they are eating brine shrimp.  But a  few still have silver bellies so I continue with the rotifers.  And I am not positive, but I think some are getting used to the flake food.

Metamorphosis is hard to see happen with ocellaris because it happens over a couple of days, but I think we are in the middle of it.

In the meantime, mommy is preparing to lay another clutch of eggs (tomorrow evening I believe). 

So, on to the pics.  Some are better than others.  Without a really good macro lens, my abilities are limited.

 

 

 

 

Clownfish Babies - The Pictures

My clownfish laid their second clutch of eggs 20 days after the first clutch.  So now I have that schedule going.  And on Sunday night, the eggs hatched!  I am now on Day 4 with clownfish fry and I lost count of how many babies I have.  It is somewhere north of 100, but whether it is 110 or 150 I don't know.

A special thanks has to go out to a bunch of people who helped me get through this:
1.  Big Al from the Delaware Valley Reef Club who provided me with advice, rotifers and a link to MOFIB.
2.  Eric, Kathy and Randy at Reed Mariculture who helped me solve my rotifer issues and more!
3.  Kathy and Mark over at MOFIB who helped me create my larvae snagger and talk me through what to expect on hatch night!

And, now, for the pictures.  They are not the best, but you can see the fry!

 

 

  

Clownfish Babies Born Last Night

Well, the eggs hatched last night!!!

No pictures, sorry. But here is an update and observations:

I think I ended up with over 100 fry. I have 2 bangaii cardinals that hung out int he mid level of the tank and just ate them as they hatched and swam to the light. The large amount that gathered outside the filter pad were easy to grab by submerging my rectangular fish box (catcher thing used in pet stores) righ next to them and they flowed right in!

The move to their basement tank went smooth with one, possibly fatal, mistake. In my rush to get them food (which I now read didn't need to happen until this morning), I scooped up rotifers and instead of filtering the water back into the rotifer containers I just dumped that (probably nasty water) right into the fry tank.

This morning I turned on the lights in the basement so they will have ambient light and I fed them (correctly this time) with a ton of rotifers. There were definitely some fry alive, but I noticed that some were on the bottom of the tank. Not sure if they were dead or sleeping ?????

Follow up questions for those following along:
1. What should the bubble rate be in the fry tank? I have a 10g square glass tank (covered on three sides right now). I have a small heather in the middle on the bottom of the tank and a bubble coming up around it to circulate the heat. Because it is a rectangular tank, I also added a second bubble line in the one corner to provide added circulation. The only other thing int here is an ammonia badge.
2. I have read differing stories on lighting for these fish. Too much and they spiral and die. Too little and they can't see to eat. The tank has a fairly powerful light (forget what right now) on it, but it is not on. Its not MH or anything. But I think it is 36w of T5 lighting. When can I turn this on for them?

Now I am away overnight and counting on my wife to take care of these little guys until i return tomorrow night!!! fingers crossed!

In the meantime, my new ATO malfunctioned and flooded part of the basement. To compensate for that screw-up I opened the drain valve (directly to sewer) and then forgot I did it, emptying both my sump and fuge!!! So, in the middle of this birthing I was scrambling to make new salt water and refill the tanks!!!! Not quite done yet, but getting close!!!! ARGHHHHH!

Oh, and my wife bought us a puppy this weekend.... joy!  Its a golden doodle and it is very cute...  I am NOT a dog person, but may be turned around.

My problem with rotifers

So, on to my rotifer problem.

Batch 1: Ordered from Reed. Made a mix of saltwater and split the rotifers into 2 5-gallon buckets. Water was 1.026 and too high I think. Also added them to almost 4.5 gallons of water. Lost them right away. Something was bad. Not sure what.

Batch 2: Ordered 2 rotifer cultures from Reed. Put them each in their own 5-gallon bucket of 1.015 water. Slowed bubbles to 1-3/second. They did really well for 4 days! Feeding roti-diet from Reed.

Then it was time to start harvesting and replacing water. Instead of siphoning them, I poured the buckets through my sieve (from Florida Aqua-Farms) and then literally poured new saltwater from my tank water into the buckets. Water temp was different, salinity was different. and the rush of water may have knocked off all the eggs. Also added phyto from my cultures, not roti-diet.

Lost both of those cultures. No rotifers showing up when I take cupful of water into a clear glass and the water does not clear when I add roti-diet.

Reed has been kind enough to send me 6 million more rotifers (their customer service is awesome) due to arrive on Tuesday. Also received a call from Eric at Reed. He thinks I need to have my bubbles higher, way higher. Lots of bubbles but so much that foam is forming. Also, he thinks my basement may be too cold and thinks small heaters may help (basement is around 68 degrees) and the water is probably too cold.

Also, he recommended getting Chloram-X which I don't have, plus putting in their filter media which I do have.

I am also thinking of bagging the phyto culture stuff and just using the rotifer diet from reed. I know its expensive, but it is sooo much easier than the phyto with my schedule and three kids at home.

And today I picked up a ton of rotifers from a fellow club member to augment my existing culture.  Hopfeully I will have enough for this batch of fry.  After all I will have 6 rotifer cultures going!!!

Quick Clownfish Update

I have a bunch of pictures that I have taken over the last several weeks, showing the pre-mini-crash and post mini-crash.

But, I wanted to give a quick update.  The clownfish have laid their second clutch of eggs.  This happened on Saturday night, during my daughter's 4th birthday party.  It was quite exciting for everyone there!  But, alas, they did not lay on the clay pot I putin for them, but rather deep in the rock between the 2 anemones.  No ida how I am going to get the fry when they are born.... ughhh...

In the meantime, I now have 8 phytoplankton cultures going and 2 5 gallon buckets of rotifers.  I ended up exchanging emails with Randy Reed at Reed Mariculture last week because I was definitely doing something wrong.  But, have no fear, the rotifers are going strong now. 

So, with a water temp consistently around 78.5 degrees, I am thinking 8 days until the eggs hatch.

Oh, and for those of you who have followed along from the inception of this blog, I am now on Day 8 of Chantix.  I am trying yet again to quit smoking!

Clownfish baby update

Well, my rotifer culture arrived today from Reed Mariculture and I have set that up.  I hope it is set-up correctly!  No word from Florida Aqua Farms on my plankton culture.  I hope they ship tomorrow.  In the meantime my rotifers came with a nice sized bottle of the rotifer diet, so that will hve to do.

here is he planned set-up once the breeding station is up and running fully in the basement:

• 2 5-gallon buckets for rotifers
• 2 2-liter bottles for phytoplankton (these are inside a 5-gallon bucket with a compact flourescent light inside
• 2 2-liter bottles for a brine shrimp hatchery
• 1 10 gallon tank for the clownfish fry
• 1 20g tank for the clownfish after they pass metamorphosis and are healthy (probably from 30-45 days on)

All of this is hooked up to a massive aierator and through multiple splitters to ensure that each gets its own air at the appropriate rate

The plan is to NOT do anything with this batch of eggs (which should hatch between Day 7 and 10 (Sunday to Wednesday night next week). 

This is my ramp up period.  I want to make sure that I get the redundant rotifers going well and the plankton stored up and that that process is going smoothly.

The next batc of eggs should be laid in 12-18 days.  Not sure if that is from the date of the last egg laying or from the date of hatching, but Ican wait!

Also, I am going to try to add aclay pot in there in hopes that they will lay the eggs on it, so I can move the eggs into the fry tank and not have to scoop them out of the main tank on the night they hatch!

And the best part of al of this?  I may have finally gotten my kids involved.  My 3  year old wants to bring in a clownfish for preschool show and tell (maybe just a picture instead). And my 12 year old, who had no interest, is going to be a part of the whole process.  Trying to teach her some responsibility and ownership and get her excited about something other than Twilight and vampire books!!!  ( I told her she could split the clownfish profits with me.  OK, so I don't ever expect to get any clownfish profits, but it worked enough to hook her.  I hope the babies keep her hooked!!!!)

New plumbing, a crash, the Alpha 250 and clownfish breeding!

It has been many months since I posted on this blog and I apologize.  Its been a very busy year for me, work and personal.  But, the tank still continues to survive!

Let me give you some updates and then we will talk about the real news.

1.  I had a major alkalinity swing about 6 weeks ago.  I was not monitoring my tank as well as I should have been and the custom salt mix I was using ended up having an alk issue.  My alkalinity dropped to 5 dKh and it shocked my corals.  Then, I made the mistake of bringing it back up to quickly which was just as bad!  Needless to say that I lost a bunch of SPS corals.  And some nice ones too.  So far, I have lost 5 totally and I have another 10 or so that are teetering on the edge.  However, the rest of them have recovered.  They all have a few dead spots but they look like they will make it.

2.  Next, I redid my fish room in the basement.  As you may recall I had a 30g sump and 30g fuge set-up with 2 glass tanks.  Well, one of the tanks cracked and had a slow leak and I felt like I didn't have enough room in the existing tanks.  So, about 3 weeks ago, I ripped out both tanks and re-did the whole set-up.  I now have 3 stock tanks in the basement fish room.

Coming off one overflow I have a 40g stock tank acting as a refugium.   Off the other overflow, I have a 50g stock tank that is my new frag tank (complete with a 250w metal halide pendant over it.)  That tank drains into aother 40g stock tank that is my sump.

The two 40g stock tanks T together and are pumped in a single line back to the tank.  My ATO is not hooked up yet, so I have to manually add top-off water.  But I hope to fix this soon.

3.  Just this past week, I changed out my AquaC EV-180 skimmer for the new Royal Exclusiv Alpha 250 cone skimmer.  This thing is a beast!!!  It is everything that it is advertised to be and more.  The only problem is that is comes with ZERO documentation!!!  And there is not a lot of help on the web. 

Now on to the exciting news!  I was just speaking with one of the ORA guys this past week about my clownfish and lamenting the fact that, though they seem to be a mated pair, they have never bred in my tank.  And, last night, they laid eggs!!!!  Talk about a major coincidence.  It really is mind boggling!

I saw the two fish really focusing on a single spot of rock under the anemone around 7:00 last night.  They were picking at it over and over and the rock was almost white it was so clean.  I also saw that there was a translucent white tube sticking out of the abdomen of the female and her belly was huge!

I grabbed the video camera and set it up on a tripod and went out for a bit.  Sure enough, when I got home there were eggs on the rock!!!!  The male was still going back and forth and fertilizing them!!!!

I have not watched the video yet, but I have included a couple of photos at the bottom of this post.  I spent the rest of the evening reading up on breeding clownfish.  It is not an easy task and requires that you culture microalgae and rotifers to feed them for the first 5 days and then hatch brine shrimp after that....

But, I think we are going to give it a try.  I really think it will be educational for the kids!!!

I will continue to post updates about this but I don't think I will try to raise the first batch.  I won't have my rotifer food ready in time and don't expect to be home when the baby clowns hatch.  But, I will be getting ready for round two which should be about 12-18 days after this first batch is born!!

 

 

Back again

It has been so long since I posted. Sorry, folks! I am back. I started a new job on January 12. You can read more about it here: www.agilenceinc.com or here http://stopshrink.blogspot.com.

Anyway, lots has happened since my last post. The brain who ate my wrasse apparently bit off more than he could chew and has since wilted away to almost nothing. But, he is still alive and in my fuge.

Speaking of fuge, my refugium had become a mess. There wasn't enough sand, there was too little flow, caluerpa algae was intertwined with my chaetomorpha so I basically started over. I yanked out everything and added back clean chaeto, added to the sand and only put back rocks that were not covered with bad algae. It looks so nice now, almost like a display tank!!!

I have been futzing with my RO/DI unti and Auto Top-offs so I don't have to worry about flooding the basement (as I tend to do on occassion). Right now I think I have it working. I have the output tee off and go to both 35g trash cans (one for fresh RO/DI and the other for my water change water). Each one also has a float valve.

Today is the day when I let it run to see if they all work correctly!

Finally, my SPS is doing so well that I had to move some of it. And, since I try to not use plugs (going for a natural look), it becomes difficult to move a piece. But, i have had success and the remnants from their original position become frags for the next batch!!!

I PROMISE to keep this more up to date and to add pictures shortly.

Oooh, speaking of which, I got a brand new Canon XSi ! ! ! ! As soon as I leanr how to really use it, you will be amazed. My pictures have never been able to capture the real colors of my tank. Hopefully, this camera will be able to do it!

Open Brain Coral Eating one of my Wrasses

I have to say I have experienced some interesting things in my fish tank this year.

I recently (December 29) bought three wrasses from Captain Nemos, 2 exquisite wrasses, 1 6-line.

The 6-line made 2 separate trips down to the basement via the overflows and I had to scoop him out of the overflow 2 other times.  Then he disappeared.  Haven't seen him in over a week.

That brings me to the 2 exquisite wrasses.  They are beautiful hot pink fish.  One was nice and big and active and out a lot.  The other disappeared for a few days but has since shown up for feedings.  He is much smaller and I was worried about him.  well, I arrived home from work tonight to find this: