Amphiprion bicinctus (Nest #23)

ThRoewer · May 16, 2020

Day 17:
First finished metamorphosis and changed behavior. Still no interest in the anemone.

Added a skimmer since I started feeding flakes (rubbed through a 250 µm strainer) in combination with Tigriopus.

ThRoewer · May 17, 2020

Day 18
Most have finished metamorphosis.
One single juvenile claimed the anemone.

ThRoewer · May 18, 2020

Day 19:
A few more settled in the anemone:

I kind of feel that they needed a bit more flow but my next stronger pump would just blow them away.

ThRoewer · May 19, 2020

Day 20:

Only 2 or 3 have not finished metamorphosis. The anemone gets by now crowded and there is a hacking order emerging.
They still don't go reliably after flakes and I have no frozen food that is small enough so for now, it is still Tigriopus and later Artemia nauplii stages.

ThRoewer · May 20, 2020

I must have spoiled them rotten with all the live food. So far the reaction to flakes and even frozen cyclops is at best lukewarm. But that is all they will get from now on as I have to preserve the Tigriopus for the Marine Betta and the Artemia for the next bicinctus batch...

ThRoewer · May 20, 2020

Day 22:

ThRoewer · May 21, 2020

Nest #25:

9th day after spawn:

Due to lower temperatures right now the hatch may actually only happen on the 10th day after spawn but to be on the safe side I took the eggs out today and transferred them to the larvae tank.

Unfortunately, I'm short of rotifers right now and the ones I just ordered will have to be reserved for the Marine Bettas so this time I will try to raise the bicinctus with brine shrimp alone.

ThRoewer · May 22, 2020

Day 23:

And they are not even a month old and these stupid frakkers already start fighting. I've seen already shredded fins:

Day 24:

ThRoewer · May 22, 2020

Day 1 (nest #25)

Amphiprion bicinctus larvae from nest #25 on the 1. day after hatch.

This is only about a third of the whole clutch. A third of the eggs died due to the initial way I had them aerated them and another third hasn't hatched yet.

With this batch I will attempt to raise them without rotifers, just roughly day old well-fed Artemia nauplii. I've done this before successfully at reduced salinities (~1.018 - 1.020) but if this also works at regular reef tank salinities (1.024 - 1.025) then it would make it easier for hobby breeders to raise anemonefish without maintaining fickle rotifer cultures.

ThRoewer · May 23, 2020

At the end of the first day, most larvae had their stomachs filled with Artemia:

So, you can without a doubt raise Anemonefish larvae without rotifers!
The key is not to feed freshly hatched Artemia nauplii but rather those that have molted at least once or twice so that they are actually smaller in diameter. That they are a little longer at the same time doesn't matter. Also of importance is that the nauplii start eating and fill their guts with algae and the enrichments you should load them up with.

Over the next few days I will continue feeding them with increasingly older nauplii.
At around day 5 I will start feeding them small amounts of frozen Artemia nauplii to transition them to dead food. The nauplii will be hatched, gut-loaded, and then frozen just for this purpose.
After the larvae accept dead Artemia nauplii I will start feeding the smallest frozen cyclops I can find (which I still haven't)

ThRoewer · May 25, 2020

Nest 25, Day 2:

Nest 25, Day 3:

Feed is still exclusively Artemia nauplii (stage instar II and beyond).
I added some green water to reduce visibility so the larvae don't get confused by the reflections on the glass panels. It also serves as food for the Artemia nauplii.

A good number of larvae are eating well and grow but there is also a significant number of larvae who missed the boat and will ultimately starve to death. In a way this is a selection process and only larvae gutsy enough to go after the large Artemia nauplii will survive. I kind of wonder if you could use this to breed Anemonefish selectively to have larger offspring...
And since this feed is far from ideal I wonder also how the quality of the juveniles will turn out.
The next batch after this I will try to raise entirely on copepods to see how that impacts larva and juvenile quality. It may be quite dramatic:

Using a rectangular glass tank is also far from ideal. It would be possible to raise 90% or more of all hatched larvae in a tank optimized for keeping the larvae off the ground and out of the corners. A round tub with a rotational flow would be ideal. A planktonkreisel should also give better results.

ThRoewer · May 26, 2020

Nest 25, day 4:

Amphiprion bicinctus larvae from nest #25 on the 4. day after hatch, up to this point fed exclusively with Artemia.

Nest 23, day 27: