Clownfish Log

[Hawkeye]

Saw all the little clowns the other day very cute.
Though the middle tank could use a bit more light Phil.

The middle tank ones were on display today at Adventure Aquarium and are now a permanent part of their display! mbodell got them to take them for their class/team. I wish I was there but I had to run to get back to a work-related meeting. I'm looking forward to keeping in touch with them to see how they do. All 4 appeared to be mis-barred so if they grow up - it should not be hard to spot them.

 

[Hawkeye]

Pics of my last and possibly final batch of clowns. The parents do not like the new T5 fixture and to my dismay stopped laying eggs. Hopefully it is a temporary hiatus.

"FTS"

i had a hard time taking these pics - I used Aperture-Priority to get it right. But I forgot to turn on the AF on the lense:

With the AF on:

 

[Inquisitive]

grins...they are adorable!

 

[blange3]

Pics of my last and possibly final batch of clowns. The parents do not like the new T5 fixture and to my dismay stopped laying eggs. Hopefully it is a temporary hiatus.

So yours stop and mine have started up again. Hopefully the urge to start raising again is a temporary hiatus from sanity! ;D

 

[Hawkeye]

good to hear yours are starting again. Honestly I don't mine a break!

After one feeding of cyclopeeze - the fish have colored nicely - they no longer appear "see-thru" with fat bellies.

 

[Hawkeye]

Re: Clownfish Log (they are breeding again!)

So about 4 months ago a big change for my tank was adding an anemone (thanks jrwohler!) and thankfully it has finally situated itself relatively in the middle of the tank. I noticed the male clown tends to hover under the nem (below the tentacles.

Anyways i finally noticed today that it appears the reason for it hanging out there is that it's cleaning the eggs!

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

now i have to ping steaman/blange for some rots and get the equipment set up again. Just when summer break is here - I guess the fish want to keep me busy.

I will try and take some pics.

 

[TanksNStuff]

Glad to hear you're back in the game Phil!

My pair had recently spawned some eggs, and I've seen the male cleaning them, etc. There was only maybe a couple dozen eggs, but I never saw them hatch. After a couple days went by they were all gone. This happened like 3 times over the past couple months.

Then, one morning last week, my male was upside-down dead on the sand. Not sure exactly why he died. Only thing I can think of was the Eibli Angel that recently went in the tank. He was a bit aggressive at first but the pair of clowns, the hippo tang, and the neon dottyback would have nothing of it. They fought him away for a couple days until he ended up staying on the other half of the tank.

It's possible that he went after the smaller male clown after dark or something. During their run-ins before that though, the Angel never attacked him that I know of. I watched them the first couple days almost constantly, and as soon as the Angel got close he was scared off without ever getting close enough for contact. The last couple days now, the Angel has been allowed to hang with the others to an extent, but he's still a bit skittish at times and escapes into the rockwork for no apparent reason.

Anyway, sorry to hijack your thread, but I was sad that mine had finally started laying eggs and now that's over before it could begin. I bought a new gold-stripe maroon this weekend on impulse because I couldn't wait to see if it would happen again. He's in QT now, so in a month I'll be hoping they get along. 8)

As always, I'll keep posted for your progress posts.

 

[blange3]

Hey Phil,

You start up again and I just shut down again! I have a dozen babies at the 8 week stage. My LTA went walkabout and acutally moved the rock the clowns were laying eggs on. I moved eveything back where I want it and they have taken a break from spawning.

Unfortunately I shut down the rots a month ago; but I'm sure Steaman can help you out.

Good luck!

 

[magic]

Phil

Once I've recovered from the crash and when they are ready. I would like to get a pair to start my tank again.

Bob

 

[TanksNStuff]

Phil

Once I've recovered from the crash and when they are ready. I would like to get a pair to start my tank again.

Bob

That's good to hear Bob! Glad you plan to get back in the game. ;D

 

[NikkiT]

Re: Clownfish Log (they are breeding again!)

So about 4 months ago a big change for my tank was adding an anemone (thanks jrwohler!) and thankfully it has finally situated itself relatively in the middle of the tank. I noticed the male clown tends to hover under the nem (below the tentacles.

Anyways i finally noticed today that it appears the reason for it hanging out there is that it's cleaning the eggs!

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

now i have to ping steaman/blange for some rots and get the equipment set up again. Just when summer break is here - I guess the fish want to keep me busy.

I will try and take some pics.

I second the YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Congrats Phil! I can't wait to follow along on the journey

 

[Hawkeye]

Well the eggs hatched on Monday night, July 5th. At least we think they did - it's possible the female cleaned house. I didn't have any rotifer culture set up yet and none of my tanks were ready so this was more just a confirmation to see that indeed those were eggs. The location is a very poor spot for photography but logical in that it is right below the anemone (when fully inflated) and directly next to the anemone (when deflated).

I am surprised the yellow tail blue damsel hasn't tried to sneak in for a meal when the clowns are not guarding it (which happens whenever I come to the tank as they think it's meal time).

george - it's possible your clowns just ate them or simply they hatched when you weren't watching. Many will just become food for the tank or be sushi due to the powerful pumps we have in the tanks. Normally I shut down ALL pumps (overflow especially) except for a single tunze which i keep on super low/30% power.

bill- a dozen! that's awesome. I will have to come by and check them out! ;D Maybe I could marry one of yours with the one I still have in my display.

bob - you got it man. of course I can't count my fish until the eggs hatch...

nikki - 8) thanks.

 

[Hawkeye]

Just to recap:

120 gallon display tank.
Mixed reef - although I guess it's mostly caps/sticks. I do have some lps and about 8 polyps/zoas.
3 tunzes (fourth out to repair)
external reeflo return pump
mrc with extension skimmer
a lot of chaeto
black sand - though unfortunately my pumps have caused parts of the tank to be barebottom.
I stopped using gfo/carbon. Mainly because I found changing the stuff out of the reactors/bags to be a pain...I'm just too lazy. I should probably post some up for sale.

Inhabitants:
Female perc/false-perc? clown (had for about 3 years now, saved her from a tank breakdown)
male clown (had for less than 1 year - from aqob)
juvi clown (its' from the last batch - as depicted on the june 9th 2010 post here)
2 blue-eyed cardinal fish (ogII)
1 pearly jawfish (aqob)
1 yellow-eye kole tang (aqob)
1 yellow-tail blue damsel (rescued from tank breakdown)

I feed once a day. I know it goes against conventional wisdom but that's just the way my schedule allows. I should probably feed more heavily in order to get the female to have a larger yield/eggs. I feed a mixture of dried cyclopeeze wafers and some small pellets. If i am not lazy - they get some pe frozen mysis. one of these days i'd like to just use that rods' stuff.

I change out about 40 gallons of water every 2 weeks - sometimes every week if my schedule allows.

oh and i have two urchins and two mexican turbo snails. I really need something for the sandbed as I am seeing some minor algae growing on the surface.

 

[TanksNStuff]

Thanks for the reply on my situation Phil. I figured they were just eaten, but I suppose they could have hatched and then got tossed around by the vortech or gotten eaten then.

I was just wondering something if anyone knows... My new male clown is a gold-striped maroon by my female is a true percula, will that matter as far as breeding is concerned? I guess I should have thought about that before buying it, but he was a cute lil bugger and I couldn't resist. Will they even mate up?

Oh, I highly recommend fighting conchs for the sand bed. I have two in my 75 and they keep it fairly clean.

 

[NikkiT]

Thanks for the reply on my situation Phil. I figured they were just eaten, but I suppose they could have hatched and then got tossed around by the vortech or gotten eaten then.

I was just wondering something if anyone knows... My new male clown is a gold-striped maroon by my female is a true percula, will that matter as far as breeding is concerned? I guess I should have thought about that before buying it, but he was a cute lil bugger and I couldn't resist. Will they even mate up?

Oh, I highly recommend fighting conchs for the sand bed. I have two in my 75 and they keep it fairly clean.

It is possible to hybridize maroons and true percs.

 

[malulu]

tag along...

 

[JRWOHLER]

Great to see your back in biz. Welcome as always, my little Nemo is still doing good so thanks to you also.

 

[blange3]

bill- a dozen! that's awesome. I will have to come by and check them out! ;D Maybe I could marry one of yours with the one I still have in my display.

I'll hold one for you! And for the record, they started laying again. :

 

[Tazmaniancowboy]

Great to see your back in biz. Welcome as always, my little Nemo is still doing good so thanks to you also.

+1 my two are doing great also...They were the centerpiece of discussion to many visitors in my house and I proudly told all that they were tank raised by you! That always blew them away in amazement. Good work Phil!

 

[Hawkeye]

long long time no posts...but i just wanted to report that there is one last captive bred clownfish in the hawkeye household. I thought he was lost with hurricane sandy but apparently was hiding in some live rock in my sump. I cannot move the juvi back to the main display as it was obviously chased by mom and step-dad. Need to think about if i keep the juvi in the sump, or post it on the chain gang. Based on this log I estimate the fish to be about 2 maybe 3 years old. Might be 3 inches in length.

will try and take a pic.