Finally laid eggs, now need help"!!!

frezel · Nov 22, 2013

well after a long road my new female Ocellaris and very young male snowflake (8 months). She laid a half dollar sized nest, which i did not witness, the egss on day 2 are still cream colored and the male is eating them, understood for the first nest and will just let time run its course. i am not sure if he even fertilized eggs as he is very young and looks like he doesnt know what to do with them. so.... questions

i want to place an order from reedmaniculture, i want to get some L type rotifers and rgb complete for food, any recomendations for size of rgb complete, 6 oz. or larger

i also need a fail safe way to grow the culture step by step, i hear so many people crash their cultures thats my biggest hurdle.

also was going to buy otohime food, what size do you guys recomend i buy before i can switch to food i can get in LFS. i was thinking about getttiing size A,b1,c then hope i can buy food from store or do you recomend i buy more sizes..

also if someone could help me with the transfer of the eggs from the pot to the grow out tank, i have read alot and just wondering if anyone with personal exp could help me with things i might not know.....

anyway im excited to this and hope the next nest is bigger and he does his male duty and get some better eggs, in the mean time i will remain happy and hopeful

Bow · Nov 22, 2013

Lol mine laid earlier this week. Must be something in the air. Good luck with them

tektite · Nov 22, 2013

On the TDO, if you're buying sizes separately, don't bother with A unless you're going to start feeding it to them when they're still too small to eat bbs. It is an incredibly fine food. It will also require your system to have a very good biological filter to handle it. B1, B2, C1, C2 would be good ones to get. The faster you can get the larvae to eat the TDO, the faster they will grow. I was amazed at the difference switching to TDO made from feeding the larvae newly hatched bbs, huge growth rate difference. The TDO hobbyist pack is a good one to start, so you can see the sizes and know what you'll use the most of as they grow.

The rotifers I've always found to be easy. Best way to ensure against culture crashes is multiples, so if one bucket crashes its no big deal. I use several covered 5 gallon buckets with an airline running into each of them. No airstone, about 2-3 bubbles per second is what I go for. You don't want the airflow to be too high. I feed them once a day with RG. Its worth it to get a 53 micron sieve for them, makes it SO much easier to strain them out to feed the larvae vs. something like a coffee filter.

Aqua fire/medic · Nov 22, 2013

Following along.... Mine also laid earlier this week

frezel · Nov 23, 2013

so it turns out my male is very young and new to my older female, he ate most of the eggs there are abiut 50 or so.left that are a nice dark color, this is theor first nest so I am going to leave it alone. What nest would u guys recomend pulling? And how do u guys steal the pot without disrupting the pair, do u put abouther pot right back in or leave it out till the hatch?

tektite · Nov 23, 2013

Either swap the pot out for a new one right away or leave the pot in and catch the larvae after they hatch. Either way I would wait until they've laid a few more batches so they're more comfortable in their ritual and a change like a new pot won't throw them.

temper76 · Nov 25, 2013

Food wise.buy the breeder size kit it brings everything unless you have 15 pairs and collecting lavae every week dont go for the big size get the kit under 65 $ after that get nls its for small fish or get the next level after you finish the stages of the kit u can go with tdo or golden pearl .