Salt babies at play

[Reef Nutrition]

it's CHADDDDD,

You are the greatest. Thank you. I am set up in your system as a breeder. I've been doing this too long. I did things for a while on my own. Then I stepped it up with the seahorses and got setup as a teacher cause my class was doing seahorses then moved to breeder.

You guys are where I get all my parvo's from. I love the RG complete especially for intense rotifer culture. I just refreshed it when I ordered the parvo's. I am planning on using it with the angel larva/rotifer experiment.

Hey, I didn't seem to get any Colurella adriatica you warned me about (that I really wanted). I used a 25 micron strainer. Are they smaller than that?

Also my Apocyclops seems to be diminishing. Do you think I need a heater. I just culture about 73 degrees. I know not optimal but room temp. I'm using live phyto and an airline. I was going to try to set up your 60 L set up but in a 5 gallon. I've strained out some nauplli to start maturation but didn't get near as many as I thought.

inlet 90 micron outlet 25 micron. only 4400 but more concerning I decided to strain the whole container to check things and not many adults or greater than 90. I put 100,00 nauplli in the bucket. which is about 5 per ml.

DOH!!! I didn't realize who this was. LOL Thanks for filling me in.

I'm pretty sure the Colurella are in there. You may not see them because they are at such a low density. They will not go through a 25 micron screen.

It's likely that the Apocyclops culture is diminishing due to the live algae. If the algae isn't very dense and you don't add it throughout the day, the nauplii will starve. What kind of live algae are you using? I recommend using some of the RGcomplete to get them some more food. They don't care if the algae is alive or not, which is why I really like them! You can add a few mls of it to your 5 gallon bucket.

Hope this helps!

 

[SaltBabies]

DOH!!! I didn't realize who this was. LOL Thanks for filling me in.

I'm pretty sure the Colurella are in there. You may not see them because they are at such a low density. They will not go through a 25 micron screen.

It's likely that the Apocyclops culture is diminishing due to the live algae. If the algae isn't very dense and you don't add it throughout the day, the nauplii will starve. What kind of live algae are you using? I recommend using some of the RGcomplete to get them some more food. They don't care if the algae is alive or not, which is why I really like them! You can add a few mls of it to your 5 gallon bucket.

Hope this helps!

I am using nanno and t-iso but I use it for ease verus anything else. I don't have to dose live algae. Maybe I have it too thick. I'll take some of the nauplli I strained and try RG complete but I don't have a doser so I'll just have to add it myself like 2/day.

 

[SaltBabies]

flame angels continue to provide fertile eggs. I am catching the intermittently.
To keep track of things we will do batches
Batch 1 weak died in cup before achieving mouths
Batch 2 more vigorous died in slide tray with empty stomachs not sure if they had mouths yet tried apex
Batch 3 small amount of larva in an everything container on 6/9 at 3 to 4 days post spawn. Not sure.

B3 is still alive or at least some. Since my apex pods are needing to rebuild. I had a peppermint shrimp container on the counter I had set up with everything. So it has a majority of tisbe pods, rotifers, ciliates, other pods, algae, bacteria and such. I put the peppermint shrimp that went over the sump in there to observe it's a small 1 gallonish column. When it was obvious they survived the bump I then moved them to a larger container and was going to do stuff to this one but didn't have time. So I put the cup larva in there cause it isn't clear if they are 3 or 4 dph to mouths. Different species of Centropyge are slightly different. I also wasn't sure if they are 3 or 4 dph so I put them in thinking the worst that happens is the adult tisbes eat them.

Well I was able to see at least 2 in there. I was also able to get you some really bad pictures and a video. Use the picture to help you place the larva in the video he's about 1/2 way down in the video. There are no other larva in the video all the other junk is that 'everything'.

 

[SaltBabies]

Ok so for today's quick update. I have way too many things going on.
Got the Fowleri isostimga gonna call these my pink cardinals. Some literature calls them redtail cardinals but their tail is yellow others call it crosseyed cardinal though. They have a dark pink body with yellow fins and a false eye spot pretty much like the picture I posted but they don't free swim much they are crouchers.

I'm also not sure they are fowleri isostigma or Fowleri Aurita There isn't that many pictures out there and I'm not equipped to do any biological keying. Live aquaria calls them fowleris isostigma.

But for all new posts they'll just be my Pink cardinals OR..... If the internet likes false scorpion fish.
They sit on the bottom and ambush like a scorpion fish.
Even cooler they are going to be perfect for nano tanks. Also means I don't have to worry about them eating larva floating high up. So the false scorpions will be going in with the harlequins once their nano is set up.

I'll need an informal poll. Tell me what you think Pink Cardinal or False Scorpion Fish.

They really don't appear to be free swimmers think more like a coral croucher or a scorpion fish or angler.
Oh and for your voting pleasure I grabbed some quick pictures. They are still in isolation and scared so they 'sit' more and are more relaxed than this shows.

Pink cardinal or false scorpion fish or pink scorpion mimic
Yellow tail cardinal?
yellow tail scorpion mimic?

 

[F i s h y]

Ok so for today's quick update. I have way too many things going on.
Got the Fowleri isostimga gonna call these my pink cardinals. Some literature calls them redtail cardinals but their tail is yellow others call it crosseyed cardinal though. They have a dark pink body with yellow fins and a false eye spot pretty much like the picture I posted but they don't free swim much they are crouchers.

I'm also not sure they are fowleri isostigma or Fowleri Aurita There isn't that many pictures out there and I'm not equipped to do any biological keying. Live aquaria calls them fowleris isostigma.

But for all new posts they'll just be my Pink cardinals OR..... If the internet likes false scorpion fish.
They sit on the bottom and ambush like a scorpion fish.
Even cooler they are going to be perfect for nano tanks. Also means I don't have to worry about them eating larva floating high up. So the false scorpions will be going in with the harlequins once their nano is set up.

I'll need an informal poll. Tell me what you think Pink Cardinal or False Scorpion Fish.

They really don't appear to be free swimmers think more like a coral croucher or a scorpion fish or angler.
Oh and for your voting pleasure I grabbed some quick pictures. They are still in isolation and scared so they 'sit' more and are more relaxed than this shows.

Pink cardinal or false scorpion fish or pink scorpion mimic
Yellow tail cardinal?
yellow tail scorpion mimic?

I vote false scorpion. Love this thread. Thanks for keeping the write up going.

 

[Weasel1960]

Looks like you are making great progress on you angels...following along

 

[SaltBabies]

So one vote false scorpion. I find myself referring to them as yellow tails but I do like false scorpion.

So angel B3 was no where to be seen this morning. So that's like day 5.

I just got some ECO pods from Algae Barn it's a mix of 4 copepods that contains apocyclops and oithona colcarva copepods. I spent a good while separating out some of what I think were OC's. Might have gotten some tiggers in there. There were lots of copepods in the jars so I think I was able to isolate many OC"s. Put them in live algae tetra, nano, and T-iso. I want to try to culture some see if I can do better than I'm managing with the parvo's. The picture Algae Barn gives you with the ECO pods makes it look easy to tell the difference. But there is what you really see and they are moving at lightening speed. So..... Not sure if I did the separation right. I ran out of patience so only time with tell.

I took some apocyclops and put them on RG Complete from Reed as Chad from Reed suggested. Hopefully I can get those growing better than they are now.

I also am happy to report when I rebooted my main tank due to a leak. I used some pink and purple coralline algae spores and even though it hasn't been as long as they say and my tank is cooler at 73 degrees, I'm getting little pink spots on some of the rocks.

The false scorpions seem to have some kind of intestinal parasite or fluke so part of quarantine is to treat that.
I've been bad at quarantine in the past and am still paying the prices. Wish we could get healthy aqua-cultured fish in marine world Well I'm working on that.

I paid too much attention to other things and lost some of my older peppermint shrimp. I still have some that are settled but I've got to get a better handle on all the maintenance.

And if anyone out there has a line to any of the fish importers / wholesalers. I'm really trying to find a large male yellow banded pipefish or a mated pair.

 

[SaltBabies]

So it's been an uneventful week. I've got some medical issues that have kept me from playing as much as I would like. Just trying to maintain this week. Also give my copepods time to expand their population. I've caught new angel eggs and will be trying again for 7 days. 5 isn't even past starvation probably.

Graduated some seahorses to the weaned tank so time to sell a few. Though I think I'll hold onto some to see if they color up for me. Plus I could use another breeding female. I have 2 adult males that have trouble attracting females for mating. One is a beautiful chocolate but I think I'm going to sell him. He is large and beautiful but I specialize in colors. The other is a beautiful lined horse that has orange knobs and get an almost purple brown on him as well.
Some of my F2 generation had a few babies. They are still small so their babies numbers are small.

Finally got one of the false scorpions to eat a frozen mysis. Unfortunately the other two aren't following the lead. need to get them out of the small quarantine container and start them on metroplex. Most likely put the barnacle blennies in with them for the treatment.

Missed the tiger shrimp larva.

Got too tired and changed the water in my peppermint shrimp larva too fast and lost my settled peps.

The harlequins are beggars. It's funny when they finished their last starfish they came right up to the front of the glass and sat staring at me everytime I walked by. Makes grabbing a picture easy. Their colors are beginning to brighten up. I'm happy about that. I have determined smaller starfish are the way to go. They don't last as long but they don't make ammonia spikes. The chocolate chip ruined the 20 gallon quarantine tank. The orange starfish has no impact.

 

[SaltBabies]

One of the harlequins molted today. Not sure which one. I'll check for eggs in a few days when they might be more visible.

 

[SaltBabies]

My main breeder looks like he might have convinced more than one female to give him eggs. I don't think he's even close to ready to pop. Maybe I missed his egg transfer day. But I think he is only about 7 days into an 18 day gestation.

The false scorps are refusing to eat frozen. Well one will eat a mysis if really hungry.

 

[SaltBabies]

Well that was some break. I had an illness then school started and everything went crazy. Which seems to happen to me a lot

So I've sold all my small seahorses mostly locally which is good because shipping is unreliable right now.

I kept a few girls to grow up. So I'll have another extra or two once I figure out who I want to keep.

I fed the peppermint shrimp babies to the seahorses and the adult peps are in the tank with the horses (display) so I haven't been catching anymore of those.

My angels are still spawning.

I have cut back to once a day feeding to try to reduce nutrients in the display tank so breeding has slowed. I will start feeding 2x a day after I have time to do a large water change. I think I'm going to do a round of prazi as well.

So I'm very excited. The Algae Barn Oithona copepods seem to have established in one of my tanks and I'm going to try to use that on the angels.

I think for Christmas I'm going to break down and get a captive bred male and female pair of mandarins from Algae Barn. I love the ruby reds but they keep jumping out of the tank.

I'm also on the look out for a pair of dragonface pipefish or blue stripe pipe.

 

[AlgaeBarn]

Awesome to hear about the Oithona copepods establishing! Would love to hear updates with the angels!;Shamefullyembarrased We can refer you to someone who makes some cool custom lids if you need one to protect your babies from jumping

 

[SaltBabies]

I find I just don't put lids on. So I'm going to get the mandarins versus the ruby reds. I like the captive bred mandarins and I find in general mandarins don't jump as much as ruby reds (which are tidal pool fish).

 

[SaltBabies]

Ok I did it. My Christmas present is a pair of captive bred mandarins from Algae Barn!
So excited.

One of the projects I'm going to do over the break (from work) is try to get a few frags of a beautiful purple sponge I have. It's fairly hardy. I was told it is a sponge but it seems like something other than a sponge as it is hardy with no discernable openings. Anyways I like it. It adds color to my tank. It's hardy and it grows at a slow/moderate rate.

I'm trying to figure out if there is much of a market for things like small sand stars (micro), spaghetti worms, amphipods and such. I know I like these in my tank to have more of an ecosystem and detris eaters.

 

[AlgaeBarn]

Ok I did it. My Christmas present is a pair of captive bred mandarins from Algae Barn!
So excited.

One of the projects I'm going to do over the break (from work) is try to get a few frags of a beautiful purple sponge I have. It's fairly hardy. I was told it is a sponge but it seems like something other than a sponge as it is hardy with no discernable openings. Anyways I like it. It adds color to my tank. It's hardy and it grows at a slow/moderate rate.

I'm trying to figure out if there is much of a market for things like small sand stars (micro), spaghetti worms, amphipods and such. I know I like these in my tank to have more of an ecosystem and detris eaters.

Is it a purple plating sponge?

 

[SaltBabies]

Is it a purple plating sponge?

I do believe it is what people are calling purple plating sponge.

I got it from my LFS so I"m not sure.

I have take a small clip and it did adhear to a dead gorgonian. It's fairly hardy.

here's a picture

 

[SaltBabies]

So I received my captive bred mandarins today.

They ship directly from Biota. I ordered them from Algae Barn. A female and a male.

They are tiny but as advertised about 1". They are so cute.

I am not happy that the male is skinny. I expected when getting them directly from biota I wouldn't receive malnourished fish. The male does not seem to take prepared foods. I haven't tried everything but will as the days progress. He does eat live baby brine, and copepods.

The female is in better shape. She eats live baby brine, copepods and TDO B1.

The site says TDO B2 but that seems too big. They may need TDO A1 for the best size right now.

So
Pros:
Captive bred does not support wild collection
No wounds, or diseases
Able to get a female/male the same size
Because they are small easier to provide food and wean to other food.
At least the female eats soem pellets.

Cons:
Male too skinny / malnourished doesn't eat well

Male is showing aggression with the female.

Because they were both a little skinny but the male was really skinny I started feeding a mix of live foods and prepared foods. I'll let that go for about two weeks and then I'll work on weaning.

male concave stomach

Male angular side ridge

Female

 

[SaltBabies]

For Christmas I also snagged a female dragonface pipefish from live aquaria.

 

[AlgaeBarn]

So I received my captive bred mandarins today.

They ship directly from Biota. I ordered them from Algae Barn. A female and a male.

They are tiny but as advertised about 1". They are so cute.

I am not happy that the male is skinny. I expected when getting them directly from biota I wouldn't receive malnourished fish. The male does not seem to take prepared foods. I haven't tried everything but will as the days progress. He does eat live baby brine, and copepods.

The female is in better shape. She eats live baby brine, copepods and TDO B1.

The site says TDO B2 but that seems too big. They may need TDO A1 for the best size right now.

So
Pros:
Captive bred does not support wild collection
No wounds, or diseases
Able to get a female/male the same size
Because they are small easier to provide food and wean to other food.
At least the female eats soem pellets.

Cons:
Male too skinny / malnourished doesn't eat well

Male is showing aggression with the female.

Because they were both a little skinny but the male was really skinny I started feeding a mix of live foods and prepared foods. I'll let that go for about two weeks and then I'll work on weaning.

male concave stomach

Male angular side ridge

Female

I am sorry to hear about how the male mandarin arrived! Please DM us and keep us updated and we will share this information with Biota!

 

[SaltBabies]

So I tried some angel larva in a mixed copepod bowl. I can't see the 2 larva I put in there but I've switch the copepods over to the mandarin tank. I don't have a large population of tisbe's right now but the oithona are slow gliders.

Both Mandarins are active and hunting this morning. I continue to put in some dry pellets and some shaved mysis the dragonface is in the same weaning box. She isn't interested in prepared foods right now so they are sharing the live brine.

The mandarins of so cute and small they make the dragonface pipefish look like a giant sea serpent.

I think I'll keep the mandarins in the 5.5 gallon for up to 6 months. Even in my peaceful tank they might look like food at this size.