Clownfish breeding project

[gar732]

Time to bring my breeding thread on over to the new forum. I can't call it my picasso breeding thread anymore because I have more clowns breeding now. Here are some pics of my current laying broodstock.

Of corse here are my picassos that at back on track since their hiatus. Mom


And dad


Here are my snow/onyx pair. Crappy pic but the only one I have at the moment.


And my newly breeding frostbite and reg occy pair. These guys just started laying today!


And here is dad tending to the newly laid flock.


I had a picasso hatch on 10/30, it was small and it was their first since they stopped but I haven't raised any fry in a while so I figured why not. I'm estimating no more than about 30. I wanted to raise the last snow/onyx clutch but they all disappeared before they were due to hatch. That pair has been a little off too since I moved everything around. The new frostbite/occy clutch is actually a good sized clutch. I'm not too surprised since the female has laid before but this is the males first clutch so we'll see how he does with them.

The rest of my baby picassos are doing well and getting bigger but they are not growing as fast as I though they would. I feed flake, crushed pellets, cyclopeez, and what ever reef frenzy is small enough for them to eat. I feed at least 4-5 times a day and when I'm around to feed more I do but the oldest clutch (they were 3 months on the 28th) is only about 3/4" at the largest. I'm guessing it'll be a couple more months at least until I can rehome them. I'm seeing some great patterns on the younger clutches and now that they are a little bigger I can take some better pics. Look out for those later in the week.

 

[sassAwrasse]

How are your maroons doing?

 

[Vaiodude]

It must be fun watching the fry progress even though it is a slow process.

 

[gar732]

How are your maroons doing?

They are doing well. I finally got the morse code in the acclimation box in the tank with the lightning maroon. The lightning maroon is deathly afraid of the acclimation box. He's been in the corner of the tank since I put it in there, he wouldn't even leave the corner to eat. He's usually a very hardy eater, I had to put the food right in front of him to get him to eat. Hopefully he gets over it soon.

It must be fun watching the fry progress even though it is a slow process.

It's great to see them progress and it's awesome to see the different patterns come in. Everyday it seems I have a new favorite. I'm excited to see what I get from the frostbite/occy pair.

 

[gar732]

My latest picasso hatch is doing well and pretty much all rocking head stripes at this point. I was hoping to hatch out my first frostbite clutch last night but it was a no go. Yesterday morning all of the eggs were there and doing well. I was expecting a hatch either last night or tonight so I was going to pull the pot last night just to be on the safe side. I went to feed yesterday afternoon and all of the eggs were gone. I can only imagine that the parents ate them but what is weird is that they ate them at such a late stage. They had taken care of the nest perfectly until then and all the eggs looked heathy and well developed so it just doesn't make sense to me. The female is already getting bigger so another nest should be coming soon, hopefully I'm able to hatch this one out.

In other news I've picked up some new broodstock. I wanted to try something different and I like the look of A. thiellei clowns but they are rare and expensive when you do come across one. They are thought to be an orange skunk clown/ occy hybrid so I figured I'd give a shot breeding them. I've picked up a pair of orange skunk clowns that I will pair up with a couple of occys, I will have a pair with an occy male and the other with an occy female. This pairing has been attempted by others and I've heard of success but I haven't come across any documentation and a lack of updates from others who have started this same project. Hopefully I have some luck with these guys.

My lightning maroon pairing isn't going too well at this point. I have the morse code maroon in an acclimation box but the lightning maroon seems pretty aggressive through the acrylic window. I'm pretty sure that if they were together the morse code would be pretty rough looking. If anyone has any tips on pairing maroons I'm all ears.

 

[gar732]

Finally got some new pics...



Some updated pics of one eyed willie, this guy won't stay still.


His other side.


And some more random pics








And check out the color in this guy. Those blacks are coming in nicely. I haven't seen this in picassos so small, usually they get the black when they are older. He is going to be a looker.

 

[Blitzie]

Awesome job

 

[gar732]

Thanks.

I had a another small picasso split hatch on the 19/20th and I have a decent sized frostbite/occy clutch that I'm pulling today. They should hatch today or tomorrow. I'm excited to see what I get from this pairing, I have no idea what the offspring will look like. I'm trying to make things work with the limited space that I have but I'm running out of space for new hatches.

I think I have a good idea of what I'm going to do for my growout system and I need to get started on it. Realistically that probably won't happen until after the holiday when I have a little extra cash and time. I'm thinking I'm going to go with 3 20g and 4 10g on a rack with as large a sump as I can fit. I'll be running kaldnes k1 bio media and a lifereef skimmer. I'm probably going to go with an ATS if I can fit it into the system. The system is on the smaller side but I'm making in a way that I can easily add to it. The skimmer is upgradeable as well and I'll leave enough room to be able to add more k1 if need be. This way the only thing I may have to replace is the return pump when adding o the system. I was originally going to go with 6 20g tanks but I figure the 10's will be good for a small clutch or separating by size or grade.

 

[SaltAddict89]

I have a 55gal just sitting if you want it

 

[gar732]

Thanks for the offer but I really couldn't work it into the setup.

Frostbite clowns hatched tonight, good sized clutch too. We'll see what it looks like in the morning. It's a full house right now, no more room until I move some of the older clowns out. The biggest ones are about an 1" right now. I've read that people sell them at this size but they just seem so small. I'll have to do some research and ask some questions, I want to make sure they are hardy enough but I may have some available soon.

 

[misael888]

Following, awesome progress!!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I love this! Awesome!

 

[gar732]

I think we are due for an update on these guys. The first clutch of frostbite clowns I lost in its entirety. With my schedule it makes working on things near impossible sometimes and I rushed the setup. One thing I've come to realize is that the hatch out tank need to be thourouly cleaned in between hatches or I'll have poor results. I usually scrub with a brush and use vinager to clean. The tank I used was new and I was short on time so I just rinsed the tank out real good with hot water, well not good enough. Lesson learn, if I can't do it right I won't do it at all. I did have a new hatch on the night of the 3rd with good results this time around. The female in this pair is my largest and puts down some huge nests. I'm not sure what I'll end up with as far as patterns go but it looks like we're going to find out. I usually start to get head stripes on day 7-8 with the rest of the stripes taking up to 3 months to come in however from what I've read occys develope their stripes faster than percs so hopefully I won't have to wait as long to see what I'm going to end up with.

 

[gar732]

I told my daughter she could have her pick of the picassos, one eyed willie was her first pick well before his pattern came in and he turned into one of the nicest clowns I have. She has been debating which she wanted to pair him with, today she made up her mind. Well kind of, lol. This is what she walked away with.

 

[fishroomlady]

so cool!

 

[RG81]

Gotta say that's awesome. Well done!!

 

[Paulywalnuts]

That is fantastic! Love it

 

[gar732]

Thanks guys. The little ones in the pic are from my next available clutch, they are close to an inch but still a little too small to let go of. They went into my daughter's biocube 14 and so far they are handling the flow from the stock pump just fine. I was a little worried about how these small fries would do but they seem to really like the new "reef" environment. She will have to make up her mind eventually since all those clowns can't stay in there long term but right now they are loving it.

 

[gar732]

Well I wanted to know what I'd get from my frostbite pair and this is it. Along with these I'm getting normal stripe, snow flake, and I have one that has a random dot between the second and third stripe. I'm interested in seeing if that random spot comes up again in future clutches and to varying degrees. I have a huge clutch cooking right now so hopefully I'll find out. Unfortunately I'm still not sure if I'll be around to hatch this next clutch.