a Wisconsin Reef... my raceway dream come true

[Alpha Aquaculture]

More pics coming here in a bit!

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Ok here is my best update ever!!!

First time ever successfully raising baby clownfish!


First ever babies almost 2 months old!!!

Then there are some other babies that are only 2 weeks old!

Check out the hatching system where these guys are growing

Let me know what you think I'm so proud of my babies

 

[johnanddawn]

way cool - great job!!!
this summer i'm am going to have to take a road trip

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

way cool - great job!!!
this summer i'm am going to have to take a road trip

Thanks!!! Just pulled two more clutches of eggs, some picassos and some more onyx! You def should come by and visit. Your welcome here anytime!

 

[oceancube]

interesting setup kris, slow drip from a sump it looks like???

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

interesting setup kris, slow drip from a sump it looks like???

Whatup Rudy! Thanks for joining. The hatching system is one 15' powder coated steel stand three levels, ground, about 3' and about 6'. The bottom level has an 8' sump 2' wide. The entire 15' system is 2' wide. The mid level has the hatching tanks, 6 x 5g and 6 x 10g, 12 total. Each hatching tank is essentially a small tank in a large tank. There are channels that surround 3 of the 4 sides of each hatching tank with one viewable pane. The channels are heated so that we won't have heaters in the actual hatching tanks to burn up the babies. The walls will act as heaters. So far its working well. We would have over an 8 degree temp swing from broodstock to hatching systems at a certain time of the year without this. The 12 hatching tanks are divided up as follows. 6 x 5g tanks share one channel, 2 x 10g tanks share the second channel, 4 x 10g tanks share the third channel. This way I have some control over hatching eggs acclimated to 3 different temperatures as well as redundancy in case of heater failure. The third level finishes over 7' tall. There is a 120g on both sides with a 75g in the middle. All the hatching tanks and all the tanks on top are starphire glass with no plastic rims on the top or bottom. The system is beautiful!

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Showoff!!!!

So I setup the tank for a photo shoot of these guys and when I was going in to remove the pot the female freaked out and tried to shoot out the back hole in the pot. She got through it after a second of struggling. Unfortunately her struggle to go through the hole tore up her dorsal fin a bit. So that's what you see in the photo. Uggh, I'll try for another photo shoot next week where I will be approaching the pot from the back so she exits via the front. Still though she is gorgeous! Perfect face and jawline. All her fins are in totally perfect proportions. She even has perfect pelvic fins, very hard to find Onyx perculas this nice with perfect pelvic fins.

 

[MarvinsReef]

Man, that's an awesome pair! Should produce some good looking babies.

 

[Tabasco1]

You are right, absolutely gorgeous! Just out of curiosity, what constitutes a "Perfect" pelvic fin? :nerd:

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Man, that's an awesome pair! Should produce some good looking babies.

Your right! They haven't even fully matured yet. In the past month the females tail has become completely black. That doesn't happen for most Onyx. Also, the males front fins are starting to fill in. They probably will also mature to completely black. Its gonna be interesting to see what kind of babies they produce but also just to see how they will mature themselves.

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

You are right, absolutely gorgeous! Just out of curiosity, what constitutes a "Perfect" pelvic fin? :nerd:

In my experience, a large percentage of captive bred designer clownfish have abnormally small pelvic fins compared to wild caught. Everyone is too caught up in looking at the patterns that they forget to focus on whether or not all of the clownfish's fins are in the correct proportion. A lot of times they can be little stubs and not something that the clownfish can use to navigate. They don't make the clowns more nimble and agile like they should. Its all relative but if you look at a more extreme case of abnormal pelvic fins you can see the clowns wouldn't stand a chance in the wild. They don't swim correctly. Its like the rudder of a boat, without it the boat wouldn't be able to turn correctly. If the pelvic fins look smaller than average they probably are. In the case of the Onyx I photographed above, I didn't take the time to get the best photo of them because the female's dorsal got scraped and I decided to cut the photo shoot short. Even though the pelvic fins are only partially extended in the photos you can still see that they are large. In my experience, compared to other Onyx, especially ones with extra white and black, the ones in the photos above have perfect pelvic fins. When I photo them again I'll try and get a good shot of it. Then there is the issue of percula vs ocellaris. Perculas like Onyx and Picasso that have been captive bred more for colors have a higher percentage of pelvic fin deformities because of poor breeding and selection for pattern over correct fin proportion. Ocellaris which are relatively new in the designer game have a bit less of these problems.

Check out a few examples of perfect pelvic fins

The female below is wild caught and has perfect pelvic fins, the female and male above are captive bred and also have perfect pelvic fins. You can clearly see the pelvic fins sticking out properly. The clownfish even appear to be more agile in the photos. Its because they are I took a video of the ones above last night I'll try and get it posted so you can see them swimming.

Just look at those pelvic fins! Gorgeous!

 

[MarvinsReef]

Hmmmm... I'll have to check out my clowns. Great observation.

 

[oceancube]

very right, kris your observation in clowns is very good, im the same way, i want to make sure i have the 100% best looking pairs to produce some nice looking fry,from head shape to color and fins etc... great way to start off collections, i see other people that have nice fish but they have small defomities which sucks when the fish has awsome patterns and they want to breed them..

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

very right, kris your observation in clowns is very good, im the same way, i want to make sure i have the 100% best looking pairs to produce some nice looking fry,from head shape to color and fins etc... great way to start off collections, i see other people that have nice fish but they have small defomities which sucks when the fish has awsome patterns and they want to breed them..

Yes I agree, getting good clownfish broodstock is not as easy as buying the one with the cool pattern. Perfect form and lack of deformities are more important.

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Just had to show off these beauties! Unbelievably rare and unbelievably perfect in every way.

Perfect jawline, perfect gills, perfect pelvic fins, perfect pectoral fins, perfect dorsal fins, perfect pattern, perfect temperment, perfect!!!

 

[MarvinsReef]

Awesome pair Kris

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Awesome pair Kris

I think they are a perfect pair for each other. Their patterns are very similar and they both have that V on their forehead.

 

[skinz78]

Very nice Clown's Kris, what make and model are they?

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Very nice Clown's Kris, what make and model are they?

Thanks! They are both SA Fancy Snows. I've got more of them that are super nice. I'm gonna start releasing some of them next week to some very lucky people that keep an eye on my site. Not this pair though they are staying with me

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Hey just wanted to let everyone know that we made it into Advanced Aquarist! Check the article below. I took the pics and video

Sustainable Aquatics releases some really awesome Naked Clowns to Alpha Corals — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog