My first hatch - lightning maroons (one day too early)

[andrewkw]

While I won't be able to raise these guys it was still real exciting. My lightning maroons laid their first eggs around July 30th. Of course just before a holiday weekend I have been unable to get rotifers in time. They are scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Hopefully they will arrive on time and I will be able to get my cultures going well in advance of the next batch.

I am really surprised just how big the babies are! I thought they would be way smaller. I did catch a few just to get a better look at them, and to see how hard they are to catch. Will post a couple of video clips tomorrow. It was a real challenge to pair these guys and I'm really looking forward to the challenge of raising babies. I am just a little worried however as about 12 or 13 years ago my naked clownfish laid eggs once and never again, although I'm not even sure those ones hatched or what. I know that is very uncommon and the maroons should be on a schedule from here on out.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Congrats! A trick for next time, is if you don't have enough rotifers at the time, to turn the lights off until the next available feeding (max time period being somewhere around 24 hours I think?). This tricks the larvae into thinking its night, so they don't waste time thinking that it's day time and zoom about (waste calories) looking for nonexistent food.

 

[KingTideCorals]

Making me want to get that mate for my maroon more and more!

How awesome! Such a cool thing to see in a personal aquarium.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Baby brine or frozen rotifers will work

 

[andrewkw]

Baby brine or frozen rotifers will work

Wow, thanks for the info, I wish I knew this earlier. Is it because the maroon babies are larger than percula and ocellaris?

I gotta finally pick out a microscope today and tomorrow pick up some more buckets and 2x4s to build a shelf for all this stuff, so truth be told I am not ready. That being said the few babies I collected as practice catches still are alive in a bucket. I let it drop to room temp thinking it would slow their metabolism down. IF they are still alive when the rotifers arrive today I will try feeding them some, but really I should be thinking about growing the culture. I got 3 16oz bottles of L strain but it actually doesn't say what density they are so I'm not really sure what I got...

 

[KingTideCorals]

Wow, thanks for the info, I wish I knew this earlier. Is it because the maroon babies are larger than percula and ocellaris?

I gotta finally pick out a microscope today and tomorrow pick up some more buckets and 2x4s to build a shelf for all this stuff, so truth be told I am not ready. That being said the few babies I collected as practice catches still are alive in a bucket. I let it drop to room temp thinking it would slow their metabolism down. IF they are still alive when the rotifers arrive today I will try feeding them some, but really I should be thinking about growing the culture. I got 3 16oz bottles of L strain but it actually doesn't say what density they are so I'm not really sure what I got...

Feel like those maroons are some tough little suckers, and you may be surprised and find even more in the DT!

Friend of mine had clowns lay/hatch and he was finding small babes almost a week after the night of hatching! Just depends on the system. I feel as though you provide an excellent environment for that to possibly happen!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Wow, thanks for the info, I wish I knew this earlier. Is it because the maroon babies are larger than percula and ocellaris?

I gotta finally pick out a microscope today and tomorrow pick up some more buckets and 2x4s to build a shelf for all this stuff, so truth be told I am not ready. That being said the few babies I collected as practice catches still are alive in a bucket. I let it drop to room temp thinking it would slow their metabolism down. IF they are still alive when the rotifers arrive today I will try feeding them some, but really I should be thinking about growing the culture. I got 3 16oz bottles of L strain but it actually doesn't say what density they are so I'm not really sure what I got...

Once eating, they grow fast. A tupperware small tub would also work well as a temporary tank.

 

[andrewkw]

Will rotifers survive 2 day shipping? I am still hoping they come today but just checking the status "Held at Terminal". The terminal is about an hour + away from me so while I could go get them a pain to drive 2+ hrs when I have to head that way anyway tomorrow.

 

[californiarob]

Wow, thanks for the info, I wish I knew this earlier. Is it because the maroon babies are larger than percula and ocellaris?

I gotta finally pick out a microscope today and tomorrow pick up some more buckets and 2x4s to build a shelf for all this stuff, so truth be told I am not ready. That being said the few babies I collected as practice catches still are alive in a bucket. I let it drop to room temp thinking it would slow their metabolism down. IF they are still alive when the rotifers arrive today I will try feeding them some, but really I should be thinking about growing the culture. I got 3 16oz bottles of L strain but it actually doesn't say what density they are so I'm not really sure what I got...

I would wait for the next spawn, Marrons will lay again in 6-8 days depending on temp and food, then hatch will take place 7-9 days after, you will also get 2 hatch nights with Marron's so check more than the first hatching, so in 2 weeks you could have all your rots, fry tank, lighting, airlines, stones, air pumps, etc. ready to go and not be rushed, if you purchase from reedmariculture they sell 1million density bags of rots that ship overnight, but get the food of your choice for the rots as they will be plenty hungry, i dont use the dead paste they sell and actually grow my own strain of Nano microalgae as it keeps the ammonia down in the fry tank much better, but in your case order the paste type microalgae to keep the rots alive and to use in the fry tank. keep us posted

 

[andrewkw]

I would wait for the next spawn, Marrons will lay again in 6-8 days depending on temp and food, then hatch will take place 7-9 days after, you will also get 2 hatch nights with Marron's so check more than the first hatching, so in 2 weeks you could have all your rots, fry tank, lighting, airlines, stones, air pumps, etc. ready to go and not be rushed, if you purchase from reedmariculture they sell 1million density bags of rots that ship overnight, but get the food of your choice for the rots as they will be plenty hungry, i dont use the dead paste they sell and actually grow my own strain of Nano microalgae as it keeps the ammonia down in the fry tank much better, but in your case order the paste type microalgae to keep the rots alive and to use in the fry tank. keep us posted

I wish I could purchase from reed but not possible from my location.

I got these :

They don't advertise the density but the water they come in is very green. I purchased 3 bottles but got 6. They were sold with "concentrated phyto" which is supposed to be good for 2 or 3 months in the fridge, longer in the freezer. I stuck it in the fridge but will freeze some shortly.

A bit of a pain I had to go 2+hrs to go get these but better then having them sit in the box another day.

 

[californiarob]

I wish I could purchase from reed but not possible from my location.

I got these :

They don't advertise the density but the water they come in is very green. I purchased 3 bottles but got 6. They were sold with "concentrated phyto" which is supposed to be good for 2 or 3 months in the fridge, longer in the freezer. I stuck it in the fridge but will freeze some shortly.

A bit of a pain I had to go 2+hrs to go get these but better then having them sit in the box another day.

Good stuff, it only takes a couple of days to get a million rots from just 1000, they are fast breeders and will populate very fast if you keep phytoplankton density high, the only issue with dead micro is it can pollute so add only enough to green the water for 12 hours, the rots should clear and produce like mad, keep the salinity low to get max production from rots1.014-1.010, hope that helps

 

[andrewkw]

New clutch!

Looks like there are more eggs this time! My rotifer culture is getting denser but it's still a ways to go, so hopefully between now and when they hatch it will be good to go. To be fair I am measuring in a very crude way. Taking 1ml of water and putting it on a spoon, then using a clip on macro lens to count them swimming around. I did however order a microscope today.

I am hoping one of my friends can find me a vossen trap. He is not local to me so it would have to be shipped for the 3rd batch but brs wants like $45 to ship here when pre pandemic I'd cross the border and get it shipped to my US box for $3cad. Of course who knows how long it would take to reach me is the other issue besides shipping.

Still I think I can catch a decent amount. I didn't post about this but I actually kept ONE fry alive for 4 days in 69 degree water. I just poured some of the rotifers into a bucket and left it at room temp. I didn't have everything ready but wanted to try catching some fry since I wasn't sure how hard it would be to do.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Nice! Have you tried a DIY larval trap using a yoghurt container and funnel?

 

[andrewkw]

Nice! Have you tried a DIY larval trap using a yoghurt container and funnel?

No but I am looking at them now. The 10 or so I caught I just used a tupperware container

 

[KingTideCorals]

Okay!!!! Its official. Im waiting for a fry from your clutch to attempt the pair.... If you would... and be willing... I shall compensate!


I believe!!

 

[andrewkw]

So I just got my microscope. I'm just wondering how to accurately measure the density of rotifers? first of all a drop is much less then an ml. Second the rotifers are moving around so fast they go out of the field of view very quickly. Should I refrigerate a drop of water to slow them down?

 

[ichthyogeek]

I think it depends on the pipette that you're using. I bought a bunch of 3 mL pipettes a few years ago, and it turns out that they hold about 30 drops (or 10 drops/mL). Your best bet is to figure out how much volume the pipettes are supposed to hold, and then count out drops until you can figure out how many drops / 1 mL, or the equivalent.

Refrigeration could work, but once that drop comes back to room temperature, you're back at the same problem of them zooming around. I've used a KCl solution (same salinity, but just KCl) to paralyze cilia in starfish larvae, so you could give that a whack if you can get KCl. If you bought a digital microscope, or can take photos, you can also just take a picture, and count rotifers that way!

 

[andrewkw]

Good idea about just looking at the video. It came with a phone holder but since I have an iPhone 7 I can’t use the remote shutter.

Since posting videos never work here is a screen shot. Certainly seems like there are a lot!

 

[andrewkw]

These shouldn't hatch until tomorrow night at the earliest, but they look ready to pop tonight!

As I've learned my rotifers are a) contaminated and b) super low density, I have new rotifers coming next week so I will use what I have to feed this hatch and I've already bleached my buckets to start fresh. I'm not 100% sure on the new density but the seller sent me some video clips where you can clearly see a ton and told me that I will not be disappointed. The previous company seems to focus on pods / phyto, where as this new company the guy also breeds fish himself. In the mean time I have continued to feed the rotifers I have and transferred them to much smaller containers where they are slowly getting more dense.

I will also have a vossen trap for the 3rd batch. While there are way more eggs in batch 2 vs batch 1, I still gotta manually catch these guys so I don't think I will end up with a ton of fry.

The costs for everything have kinda added up to more then I expected but that's everything in reefing. I have most of what I need either in hand or on the way. There have been some bumps but this has been pretty exciting.

 

[andrewkw]

They did end up hatching, which I guess is 7 days since it technically was Monday morning.

I caught roughly 200-300. This is just a guestimate. I used a tupperware container to scoop them. They are in a 10g tank with about 5g of water. I kept them in the dark overnight but got up early and started feeding them rotifers. I don't think I have enough to sustain them all but I will try with what I have. As I mentioned they are contaminated so I want to use these all up, then bleach everything, so rather then just pouring them out and waiting for the next batch this will be a practice raise and by clutch #3 I should have a stable supply of rotifers.

Who knows maybe I will have enough. I seem to finally have about 10 per ml of rotifers but given I have probably less then 3L of water that means less then 30 000 rotifers. I added about 1/3rd of my supply in this morning and will add more daily. While I will split my remaining supply if they appear denser, I plan on eventually dumping this entire supply with this batch then will use sterile equipment for the new supply which should arrive Wednesday. So given 3 day min to get going those will not be ready for these guys but if I get a decent amount they should be ready to go for round 3.

I wish it was easier to photograph or take videos of them but don't want to make it too bright for them.