A. percula ("onyx") x A. percula ("picasso")

[KathyL]

Where is all this color coming from? In my experience clownfish larvae are transparent until meta... This is new to me.

["Umm, fish?"]

I don't know. The yellow is coming from hitting them with the flash, but they are all a grayish-brown color to my unaided eyes against the black background of the inside of the tub. I did see the yellow through the viewfinder before I took the picture in the one that had come out with the water change so it is in there, but the flash really highlights it. The video is more like what my unaided eyes see, and you can see there that they are _not_ transparent.

["Umm, fish?"]

Jay Hemdal has a picture of a 4 day old perc that looks pretty similar:

http://microcosmaqx.typepad.com/jay_hemdal/2009/08/raising-clownfish-one-more-time.html

[Zooid]

Where is all this color coming from? In my experience clownfish larvae are transparent until meta... This is new to me.

My ocellaris/perc hybrids seemed transparent also. My black and white ocellaris seemed a darker gray. These onyx/picassos seem even darker than the black and white ocellaris. But I love the colors that are showing in Andy's pics.

["Umm, fish?"]

Personally, I think BBS are about the grossest thing ever. Fortunately (or not, depending on how you view it), the clown larvae seem to disagree. It's probably a little late to be introducing BBS, but I completely spaced out how short the rot period is with these. The larvae gave me a couple of dirty looks when I first added the BBS, but soon gave in to the dark side and started eating. I am, of course, still adding rots and copepods as well.

["Umm, fish?"]

This one was rushing around the tank like a fish on speed, so I pulled it to take a look.

[landlord]

Andy - If you're ever in the Northern KY / Cincinnati area your photography skills would be most welcomed in my breeding room, simply fantastic imagery.

Kurt

["Umm, fish?"]

Well, thank you. And certainly. It's all just practice, though. Well, practice and lots of pictures. I still throw away many for every one I keep. As I've gotten better, the number I throw away has gone down. But there are still lots of them.

["Umm, fish?"]

urprisingly the copepods are still alive and it seems there are more and more. I'm surprised because I thought Nanno would not be sustainable for them. I've even been putting in some RotiGrow plus in the hopes that there are some O. marina in with them and that they can reproduce quicker than the pods can eat them hehe.

BTW, Gale, I never really responded to this and meant to. I'm really glad to hear that they are growing with Nanno. Their nutritional profile will not likely be too good until you've found a way to enrich them with something better, though. But it's good to know that there an even cheaper and easier way to maintain them between larval runs. The O. marina was able to outgrow my copepods for a while when I was adding algae paste to the culture tank and while the pod population was still small. I'm just about to set up another O. marina culture, though, because my pods are now clearing the water so quickly that I really need to go to twice per day feedings. They are easily taking down two gallons of dense O. marina per day now, and I'm not really even seeing a dent in the copepod population with heavy 2x/day copepod harvests for the fish larvae.

["Umm, fish?"]

Day 7 (woohoo!):

I think I had the flash slightly wrong or there's just more ... stuff ... in the water column today, reflecting light from the flash back to the camera.



And I _really_ wish the eyes were more in focus on this one:

["Umm, fish?"]

Day 8. They've certainly deepened quite a lot and have started the clownfish waddle. They've also darkened considerably, which is showing up under flash as yellow but to my eyes is dark grey/brown. I started some powdered dry food today. Some seem to really like it (Hikari S, mortared)

Side shot (with a little distortion from shooting across the water at an angle):



Top-down:

["Umm, fish?"]

Day 9. A question: Do clown larvae have nighttime colors? I could have sworn that several had started head stripes first thing this morning, but then couldn't find them a little later. But, maybe a little white on this guy? The one from yesterday didn't have that and I have a photo of another one from today without, too.



And a shot into the center of the group at the other side of the barrel. The blue is a reflection from the unpainted rim.

["Umm, fish?"]

Movie from yesterday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNz2-IwxSwg

["Umm, fish?"]

Day 10. A milestone in their development: They now get worried about things above them. Sadly, it makes it much harder to get photos. But, a couple still:





New BBS arrived today. I decapped some for tomorrow, so hopefully I can start to clear out some of the debris.

["Umm, fish?"]

Day 11.

["Umm, fish?"]

Day 12 or, "Head stripes?!? We don't need no stinkin' head stripes!"

The kids give a big high five to the folks at Brine Shrimp Direct. They are digging the new BBS. The difference in hatch rate is astounding, honestly.

["Umm, fish?"]

Day 13:

Bad hatch on the BBS again. Sigh. I tried to decap and maybe didn't use enough de-clor. Sigh. I have two hatchers running now to be sure that I get _some_ BBS every day. In the meantime, lots of mortaring and siphoning for me today.

The babies don't look much like babies anymore:

["Umm, fish?"]

New movie for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U4bvM0cwC0

Here's a crop of the baby clown jumping: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YshBPnE8O6w

["Umm, fish?"]

Day 14! Two full weeks.

Fish seemed to really put on some growth last night. They were hitting the copepods really hard before lights out. Maybe that was the reason. They seemed psyched to again have some BBS this morning, though.

First photo, note the copepod naup in the top, right corner.



Second photo, several copepods and one BBS:



And a zoom on that shot. Is this guy bucking the trend and actually starting to develop some head stripes?!?

[KathyL]

These are really interesting pictures! I've never raised percula, but the color and development of these are fantastic. What's your temperature?

["Umm, fish?"]

Well, like I say, the flash is picking up colors that I can't really see. But I'm old and blind and they are small and move. To me, they look two-toned these days: orange front half and dark gray behind with the lighter color on the top of the head standing out. I guess you can kind of see it there.

Temp is 79-80 or so. I don't have a backup thermometer on there right now (I should) but I had one checking this heater for months and it was right on.

BTW, that O that I got from you is still bopping around. It's very robust and healthy and _very_ dark. It almost looks like it wants to be an onyx perc but can't quite. Very pretty.

["Umm, fish?"]

Day 15:

One dead body today, the first since about day 4.

["Umm, fish?"]

Day 16:

Some of the kids have started orienting themselves towards the walls of the tubs and have started defending little territories in the algae or whatever that's starting growing there. Oddly to me, none are claiming any of the bottom of the tank. It's all along the wall near the surface. Meta!

I need to get rid of a whole bunch of oversized brine shrimp....

[KathyL]

...

BTW, that O that I got from you is still bopping around. It's very robust and healthy and _very_ dark. It almost looks like it wants to be an onyx perc but can't quite. Very pretty.

Was it supposed to be a black ocy? The parental fish of most of my oranges are very dark on top, but they are pretty old by now.

["Umm, fish?"]

No, just a regular O. It's a very pretty fish.