Oh that sucks. It seems what I get from Wilkerson is that every subspecies is a bit different; she does not seem to cover perculas. I've been in touch extensively with Andrew Keskes and he has very kindly guided me along as there are some things that I was doing that were not optimal; I flagged them early enough to correct course. I don't know if it's beginner's luck in my case, dedication to the extreme, or really healthy genetics. Mrs. Clownfish is likely wild caught and has never been bred, and given that she's 20 and survived so much, she has sturdy genes. Mr. Whitey being platinum is likely less genetically diverse but he's held his own. Although we are creating a hybrid, these are fresh genes in the pool.
I lived in the horse world and dog rescue world for a long time, and humans breeding animals does not always have a desirable outcome when we are breeding for color, patterns, and not health and genetic robustness, you know what I mean?
You will figure your Balis and their offspring rhythm out in time.
I do have to say that I test the heck out of the tank. 2 times a day: ammonia (Hanna), ammonia (Salifert), PH, nitrite (Salifert), PH, SP, dKH. Lunch time nitrate (Hanna), ammonia (Hanna or Salifert if lazy), PH, dKH. We use
brightwell xport rocks extensively, and use Erase-CL to reduce ammonia, and had to use PH buffer to keep PH and bump dKH. I siphon twice a day. Water changes as indicated per Wilkerson. I do a night check at 3 am to feed and if I'm still tinting, tint. I also test rotifer density like mad the first few days and keep it 15/ml - 20/ml for the first 3 days. I find it really pays to do that because a number of times, for whatever reason, within hours the fry tank would suddenly be at 5/ml or lower, especially in the later days (after day 4) when they eat more. I adjusted the rotifer density constantly, probably every 2-3 hours.
What I learned from Andrew was to start TDO-A after 24 hrs (I started day 5). He also starts feeding BBS day 5, I had not planned on that. At day 6-7 I tried to get the water volume up to 9 gallons fearing ammonia through meta when I would feed more TDO; but with that volume I could not keep up my rotifer count and my culture nearly crashed from overharvesting. We course corrected and sieved that water out back to 7 gallons that day. So I'm doing that differently the next spawn (it's on day 5). I ordered decapsulated BBS from brineshrimpdirect. Also Andrew does not up the volume until after meta. So this time I will start at 5.5, add 1/2 gallon a day until I'm at 7 and then stay there until I'm no longer feeding rotifers (and likely through meta given the timing).
I also found it's tricky to know how much TDO-A/B1 to feed but tracking what's left on the bottom helps. I got a "smidgeon" spoon (I kid you not) that is 1/64 teaspoon. That helps.
This has been my full-time job for 2 weeks, I sleep very little (better now with only 1 check at night, a quick feed). I think experienced breeders like you can look at a tank and see it's off. Since I'm new, I don't have that skillset yet and I have to rely on testing so I can alter course as soon as possible. Either I'm terribly lucky or that has paid off.
Ours also are very small; I wonder if it had to do with them not hatching until day 11/12. We had the one headstripe yesterday and no more today, although I see some tail swaggers and elongated body. Because I had a two day hatch, the second batch seems very small and there are some stragglers that are just teeny tiny. I've not had any losses since the 3 on day one so far which can simply be called a miracle. The current spawn arrived at day 7 instead of day 10 (we have been feeding them more). So I also wonder if they might hatch sooner. The second tank has arrived and I'd better go set it up ... I am keeping my fingers crossed for yours that survived. Any offspring is a good result!
