Captive Care, Collection and Breeding of Mccullochi Clowns

[mrblue]

Lord Howe - Touching Down

I landed on Lord Howe on a picture perfect sunny day like I was awaking to some strange dream. With the chaos ahead I barely slept the night before. The excitement not squashed by my nerves pushed me on. I was met at the airport by the Marine Parks manager. He explained in more detail the allowed collection area and handed me some paperwork on the Marine Park and Lord Howe. I told him about my problems with equipment and lack of boat hoping he could help. Unfortunately he could not. He did explain the source of my problems though.

A few months before I had rang up the local airport and inquired through the Quantas staff if I could book flights and luggage space for my precious cargo. They told me they could not reserve luggage space at such a busy time. They explained that the tourists got first priority and even if I booked anything if there was too much luggage my fish would be left behind. My inquiry caught the interest of this staff member (a Lord Howe resident) and before long word of my collection got around the Island. If people weren’t aware Lord Howe is a very small and very close knit community. What really stirred the community up was when the local paper ran a story about my collection. This led to a town meeting and the decision to try and stop my collection. I believe this happened a little time before I was due to arrive and suspect the last minute cancellations were done to make my collection practically impossible.

Which brings me back to Lord Howe. (I forgot up to this point to mention the trip was booked for ten days.) I ended up flying to Lord Howe with a small private plane operated by one of the locals. The only other way to Lord Howe apart from through Quantas. This local was very helpful and had helped me out with a number of dilemmas when I was planning the trip. With few options and a apparently disgruntled native population I turned to him for help. I couldn’t have picked a better ally. As the only local with a plane he was the source of many scarce supplies. He also owned the only grocery store and one of the most popular café/restaurants on the Island. For these reasons and many others he was highly respected by the locals and held considerable sway.

Luckily he did not agree with their attitude and their attempt to derail my collection attempt and was happy to help. He said that he had some old scuba tanks and an old dusty compressor if all other options fell through. To start with he offered to talk to the other scuba company on the Island to see if he could organize some equipment. I had been tempted to call them before I left but as the brother of the owner was the owner of the charter company that had cancelled on me I didn’t think I would have much luck. I did call a number of other charter companies before I left but I got the same response from all of them. To rekindle my hopes even further the operator of the private plane said he would also talk to one of the charter boat operators to see if he could organize a boat.

[mrblue]

First Sight

In the meantime I got my first sight of my quarry. I had booked a snorkel trip for the first day. Disconcerting was the fact the snorkel operators appeared to see me coming and made a point of telling me there would be no collection allowed on their trips and they would be keeping an eye on me. This would be a recurring theme when ever I met a local. This was soon forgotten as I got a sight I would never forget. Arguably the best ‘dive’ was the first. Amazing sps reefs, sprinkled with lps’ overrun with an outstanding population of gorgeous reef fish greeted me. The first few stops saw a few pairs of Mcc’s, and a few lone juvs. To see such a striking fish, as almost silhouettes to the extraordinary coral backdrops took my breathe away, and emphasized the feeling of drifting through a waking dream. Then we arrived at what I will call Mcc Central. A virtual army of Mcc stretched out before me. A row of acro colonies ran off in the distance and hovering above below and in between were a horde of Mcc’s. To my surprise BTA’s grew in between and on top of the acros colonies. It seemed the two inverts must have been battling for dominance resulting in an extraordinary sight. It all seemed seamless though, I couldn’t see any obvious die-off and all three species seemed almost as one.

The Mcc’s were packed so tightly together I could not work out one pair from the next. There seemed to be as many Mcc’s hosting anemones as there were Mcc’s hovering 1-2m above their hosts. I could only guess the males were hosting while the females kept watch above. It was not long before I spotted nest after nest of Mcc’s. I even got an encouraging sight of a pair spawning. My spirits lifted, we headed back. The size of the populations I saw seemed encouraging but left me with some concerns. Catching a true pair in the chaos I saw seemed a hard task. Removing host anemones out of their protected position amongst the acro’s also seemed a daunting task. Where we had snorkeled was in the protected zone where I was unable to collect so I thought I would wait and see what the green zones brought.

That night I met the operator of the private plane, hoping for some good news. (For ease of telling this I will just call him the pilot from now on, bit of a mouthful saying operator of the private plane.) He said he did not have a definite answer yet. I had expressed an interest in going on some dive tours as well as hiring some gear from the scuba company and he said to start with they were happy to let us do that. I just had to head down first thing to organize it.

Over the next two days we did a number of dives with this scuba company and was just blown away with the beauty of the Island. We would generally do a dive tour in the mornings and then go snorkeling in the lagoon through the afternoon. The diversity of habitats, and the amazing mixture of fish and coral species were a sight to behold. It seemed no matter were we went it was not long before I spotted more Mcc’s. From almost on the shoreline, to 30m depths on the offshore reefs these clowns were everywhere. No where was the population as large as at Mcc Central though. The numbers at depth were probably the most limited. Most of the dives were not in the green zones and I found limited numbers snorkeling so after three days I was still a bit stuck about where to collect. Finding a suitable collection site from the shoreline on snorkel seemed like it would be difficult at best.

[mrblue]

Hope

By the fourth day things improved. The pilot had several conversations with the scuba company and by the fourth day they agreed to hire us scuba gear for collection. I think my face time with the scuba company may have helped but it’s hard to say. Either way I finally had some scuba gear. This was a great relief. I was quite proficient at scuba diving but was unfortunately a little inexperienced with snorkeling. I never really spent any real time snorkeling before I arrived on the Island and would not have liked to try collecting via snorkel. I asked the pilot if he had any luck organizing a boat and he said not as yet. We had been having most of our meals at his café/restaurant and he suggested we come down at a certain time for dinner that night to meet the boat operator and to see what could be organized.

During that fourth day we did our last recreational dive and one of the most spectacular, right up there with snorkeling Comet’s Hole. BTW I did push the dive operators to take us diving on Comet’s Hole but this never happened. Despite the extraordinary reefs in the lagoon the dive operators favored the outer reefs rather then the lagoon. This last ‘fun’ dive was out to Balls Pyramid, 40 nautical miles off Lord Howe. Balls Pyramid is a massive pyramid shaped rock jutting out of the ocean and creates a breathtaking wall style dive. The diversity and quantity of the fish out there was outstanding. As icing to this amazing dive was the sight of numerous Conspic and Ballina Angels( a protected species found no where else, I think), and unforgettable sight to see these two fish cruising effortlessly through the 30m+ depth of this dive.

On returning to Lord Howe we did our first scuba cruise of the lagoon. An occasional Mcc was spotted but still not what I was looking for. It seemed that everywhere we went there were spawning Mcc’s, except where we were allowed to collect, and where it was accessible from the shore. There was a vast green zone on the other side of the Island, a long walk from the dive shop and our hotel. It seemed too far to go with scuba gear but we decided we might try the trek the next day.

Later that night we met the boat operator. The boat operator was quite helpful but didn’t seem keen too charter his boat to us. He suggested some collection tips and areas but was vague about the actual charter. He said he would get back to us but this never really happened. Financially this was a good thing. He had a 40ft luxury boat/yacht (the biggest on the Island) and it would have cost the earth to hire it for the collection. So with six days to go I had scuba gear, still no boat and limited options for collecting spawning pairs. By the next day everything changed.



I’ll have to leave it at that for the moment. I really did not have time to write this up over the last week and rushed it through today. I felt like I was rambling a bit and probably made a bit of a mess of it. Give me another week and I’ll try and sort out the next chapter.

Ryan

[mikegreen]

Ryan - this should be a TV mini-series. Nail-biting.
Thank you.
Mike

[mrblue]

Ryan - this should be a TV mini-series. Nail-biting.
Thank you.
Mike

No problem , thanks for the interest. Sorry again about releasing it bit by bit but after working straight for three and a half years it's really hard to get a clear enough head to do this story justice.

Ryan.

[criccio]

Great stuff Ryan, I get great visuals from your descriptive writing. Keep it coming. That must have been awesome seeing the Ballina angels, they are beautiful.

[mrblue]

Thanks for the compliment on my writing Criccio, I thought with all the chaos and coffee of the the last few years I had killed any writing talent I may have had .

It was unreal seeing the Ballina's. I was so lucky to even get out to Ball's Pyramid(people have gone to LH for years and never had the perfect weather etc to make it to Ball's Pyramid) but to see Ballina's, and not just one was amazing.

That has made me think I should go back and edit in a bit more detail of the fish species I did see. That is if people are interested.

Ryan.

["Umm, fish?"]

That is if people are interested.

Certainly. Please take the story wherever you desire. I've enjoyed reading it, too.

Thanks!

[Clownfish75]

Hi Ryan

You do have a talent for writing, you always told me your trip over there was eventful, never thought it was quite that much of a drama.

I would be very interested to know your species account for the location, that sort of info is always invaluable.

Is balls pyramid part of the same national park as lord howe?

Christian

[mrblue]

Certainly. Please take the story wherever you desire. I've enjoyed reading it, too.

Thanks!

No problem Andy, good to hear even after all the build up people are enjoying the jarn .

Hi Ryan

You do have a talent for writing, you always told me your trip over there was eventful, never thought it was quite that much of a drama.

I would be very interested to know your species account for the location, that sort of info is always invaluable.

Is balls pyramid part of the same national park as lord howe?

Christian

Hey Christian,

Maybe I shouldn't completely abandon the idea of getting back into writing in the future , maybe finish the novel I started years ago. That is if my fishy masters ever give me a break, LOL.

I'll write up the species account in the next day or two, gotta get a good night sleep to remember clearly and I've been pushing 20 hour days lately.

Balls Pyramid is part of the Lord Howe Marine Park but isn't actually connected. A sanctuary or red zone rounds around it.


My next installment may be a few days late. If I didn't have enough to do already the Fisheries rang me today wanting to organize a photo op and I've only got a week to make everything picture perfect. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have agreed, but oh well , it's probably a good thing .

Ryan.

[Morgman]

Ryan,

Thanks for writing this interesting story. Very entertaining and dramatic reading. Good job being persistent and networking to get your dream fish.

Thanks for sharing,

--Morgan

[mrblue]

Hi Morgan,

Thanks for the compliments. Good to hear people are enjoying the story. I always though it was an interesting adventure, but thought perhaps I was a little biased seeing as I lived it .

Ryan.

[mrblue]

Species Account

I should start by saying this account is what I can remember I didn’t take notes so while I am almost positive about what I am about to say I may have got locations mixed up a little and maybe confused one species for another in the extraordinary diversity over there.

I spent a large part of the ten days I was over there in the lagoon so my record of the species from that area is much more detailed then from the other areas. A large part of the population was made up of wrasses, butterfly fish, and cardinals. I’ll start with the butterflies everywhere you went there were vast schools of Chaetodon tricinctus

(I missed half the school, but here are some Tricinctus)



http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/Species ... hp?id=6636. Large adult groups swam freely around the lagoon while juveniles darted in and out of the acro. No where near as many as the tricinctus but schools of Microcanthus strigatus http://www.austmus.gov.au/fishes/fishfa ... trigat.htm were also seen in shallow areas. A crazy mix of pairs and singles of many other species were mixed up in the lagoon, many species of Chaetodon including C.pelewensis http://www.austmus.gov.au/fishes/fishfa ... wensis.htm , C.plebius http://www.oceaneasy.net/images/portfol ... %20Plebius)%20(e).htm , , C.citrinellus http://www.austmus.gov.au/fishes/fishfa ... trinel.htm , C.auriga http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/Species ... hp?id=5557 , C.rainfordi http://www.fishbase.org/summary/Species ... hp?id=6631 and C.trifascialis http://www.austmus.gov.au/fishes/fishfa ... rifasc.htm .

Wrasses were all over the lagoon. Regular sights of the Lord Howe Doubleheader Wrasse (Coris bulbifrons http://www.austmus.gov.au/fishes/fishfa ... bulbif.htm ) were seen both in the large double header male form and the juvenile form. I’m sure there must have been females around as well but I didn’t notice or recognize them. These guys were really friendly, bit like blue groupers. The big males would follow you around checking out what you were up to. One of the dive masters said that some people had fed them sea urchins in the past (their natural food, which they broke open with their double head) so they were now quite taken with humans. Both male and female Anampses elegans http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-08/hcs3/index.php (first picture onthis page) were seen frequently, the male being hard to miss. The familiar Thalassoma lunare http://www.austmus.gov.au/fishes/fishfa ... lunare.htm was always around, as was the Thalassoma lutescens http://www.austmus.gov.au/fishes/fishfa ... escens.htm . Male Thalassoma purpureum http://www.fishbase.org/summary/Species ... hp?id=5647 was also a common sight. There were so many other wrasses it was hard to ID them all but Hemigymnus fasciatus http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/Species ... hp?id=5635 , Anampses neogiunaicus http://www.fishbase.gr/Summary/SpeciesS ... ng=Italian , Halichoeres margaritaceus and Cirrhilabrus punctatus http://www.fishbase.org/summary/Species ... p?id=13028 were often seen. Many of these wrasses were really curious, I would often tap on the sand or on a rock and before I knew it I would have a massive school of wrasses following me around. A saw one pair of Anampses femininus http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/Species ... hp?id=4892 , just gorgeous. I also came across what looked like a pair of Labroides fasciatus that had set up a cleaning station and watched them doing there thing for quite a while. One great thing about the lagoon is that is was so shallow you could pretty much spend all day in it which gave me so much dive and snorkel time. If people were wondering I had a couple of ID books with me over there that I spent large parts of the evenings checking out what I saw and making a mental log.

Which brings me to the cardinals. Vast schools of Apogon norfolcensis were everywhere.



Smaller numbers of Apogon doederleini, Apogon capricornis and Archamia leai were also seen schooling. Quite frequently the three Apogons would be schooling together, generally smaller schools of the A.doederleini and A.capricornis schooling under or above the A.norfolcensis. They didn’t really school out in the open generally above and below acro bommies.


The only angel I noticed but I saw in large numbers in the lagoon was the Centropyge tibicen. Everywhere you went there were Trachypoma Macacanthus perched on rocks and on the sand. Morwongs were also a very common sight, Cheilodactylus vestitus, Cheilodactylus vitiates and Cheilodactylus ephippium were everywhere. Another really common species in the sand areas perched on macro was the Eviota fasciola. Not a fish you would spot as you swam by but sit and watch some macro for a while and you soon notice them everywhere. Another very common species were the Damsel Parma polylepis, big ugly things that were kind of nasty. They would frequently have a go at you, swooping and circling you. They would often get in the road while you trying to collect of observe something and they were fearless, trying to scare them off usually resulting in increased antagonism. There were quite a few other damsel species around but I didn’t pay a great deal of attention to them. One species I did note was a Sergeant, not sure if they were Abudefduf sexfaciatus or vaigiensis but I saw one of them with an enormous nest, easily a foot and a half in diameter that looked like it was laid on the sand, quite impressive.

(Abudefduf nest)

]

Chromis’ were relatively common amongst the acro, both Chromis atripectoralis and hypsilepis were seen. I also observed a couple of pairs of Oxymonacanthus longirostis doing their thing. I noticed a few puffers here and there, Diodon hystix and Canthigaster callisterna. I followed a Peacock Flounder (Bothus mancus) for some distance trying to a get a photo, interesting fish. I also noticed some kind of grubfish, not sure of the species. Something else I nearly forgot about was the Morays, you could see them everywhere, Gymnothorax annasoma being the most common, we even had a huge one living under the rock we attached out fish-trap to.



The only other species I remember seeing at the moment was a massive ball of Catfish, Plotosus lineatus under a wharf down there. On dawn one day I saw quite a number of Lionfish under this same wharf, Pterois volitans and maybe Pterois antennata, they came in a number of different color morphs, interesting to see in one or two species in the same area. There were also a vast array of what I would consider non ornamental fish like Bluefish, Girella cyanea but I didn’t pay a great deal of attention to these kind of fish.

My recollection of what I saw on the outer reefs and on Ball’s Pyramid is somewhat of a blur. All these dives were deep (20-30m) and were short in comparison to the lagoon dives. The outer reefs didn’t have the huge numbers and diversity of the lagoon and Ball’s Pyramid but I did see a few other species of note. The only latz I saw was on the outer reefs. I only say one individual who was sharing a colony of anemones with some Mcc’s and one pair. Apparently they are very uncommon over there. One lone Conspic Chaetodontoplus conspicillatus was seen as well. A few Chaetodon mertensii and the only Lord Howe Butterflies Amphichaetodon howensis were also seen on the outer reefs. The cardinals mentioned above were also common in those areas. Blue-stripped Snapper, Lutjanus kasmira was another species I remember from this area while the Japanese Boarfish, Evistias acutirostris was a real standout, no picture I have seen really do them justice.

Balls Pyramid’s fish life was extraordinary, the quantity and diversity was unmatched and it left my head spinning, not leaving to much of a record. Notable species were of course the Ballina Angelfish, Chaetodontoplus ballinae and Conspic Angel, Chaetodontoplus conspicillatus. Emperors, Pomacanthus imperator were also seen, amazing to see in the wild. Another common aquarium fish who really made an impact on me were the Clown Triggers, Balistoides conspicillum. It was brilliant seeing these guys cruising the deep. Japanese Boarfish, Evistias acutirostris were also seen out here. Schools of non ornamental food fish species were everywhere, Ball Pyramid is a very popular fishing spot. Even more striking then the schools of kingfish and the like (in my opinion) were schools of gorgeous anthias looking fish I was unable to identify, they were mixtures of purples, pinks and blues and numerous forms or species mixed together. Huge schools of blue, yellow backed fish which looked a bit like Yellowtail Blue Snapper, Paraceasio xanthurus but much smaller, around the size of anthias also made quite a scene. Moorish Idols, Zanclus cornutus were another species I managed to remember.

I started to add in links to the species I am describing but stopped even before I got through the wrasses. I was concerned this page was going to time out before I got through them all. I'll try and edit them in later. Before I started this today I didn't realise how big a thing it was going to be and have already spent way too much time on it. I better get back to work . I guess it's a start at least.

Ryan.

[criccio]

Here's a great reference book for Lord Howe marine life... http://www.underwater.com.au/product.php/id/NC012

[kris4647]

Thanks for the link Chris.

Bravo Ryan this is an incredibly fascinating read. You are doing the hobby a tremendous service documenting this here. I can only hope to see a few of your little guys in the States sometime soon.

Truly wish you the best of luck in your endeavors Mate !

[criccio]

You finally made it over Kris, cool. Yeah, that site is great, check out the extensive gallery when you get a chance. Also, Neville coleman has a great library, but you have to order from AU because no one carries his books in the states... http://www.nevillecoleman.com.au/book-index_2.htm

Sorry Ryan, didn't mean to sidetrack your great read.

[mrblue]

Thanks for the link Chris.

Bravo Ryan this is an incredibly fascinating read. You are doing the hobby a tremendous service documenting this here. I can only hope to see a few of your little guys in the States sometime soon.

Truly wish you the best of luck in your endeavors Mate !

Thanks Kris , and welcome to MOFIB.

Here's a great reference book for Lord Howe marine life... http://www.underwater.com.au/product.php/id/NC012

Sorry Ryan, didn't mean to sidetrack your great read.

That is a fantastic book Criccio. It was invaluable on my trip and checking up on it has kept the memories alive of my time there. I had other ID books with me but none did the wildlife the same sort of justice as Neville Coleman's book did. I had thought about mentioning it but I thought it may look like a cope out from linking the species I mentioned. Oh, and no worries distracting from the story, excellent distraction .

Ryan.

[mrblue]

The Hunt Begins


The next day, day five found us somewhat under the weather. The night before, after meeting with the boat operator we got swept up in a local party. While most of the older resident locals were a little unfriendly the young local workers, not true residents, couldn’t have been more welcoming. I’m not sure if it was because of the novelty of our situation or that they saw us more as workers then holiday makers but we quickly got on a friendly basis with many of them and found ourselves invited to a party. After the tiring day we had we had no intention of coming initially. After one of our deepest dives followed by more snorkeling we could barely keep awake during dinner but one thing led to another and before we knew it we were swept off on the back of a ute to one location after another drinking more then was sensible with more diving ahead. I would like to blame it on pressure from my dive partner but to be honest it didn’t take much persuasion. It’s a understatement that I was a little stressed and I thought what can one or two quick drinks hurt, I never expected to be out half the night.

So day five dawned, bright and hot like everyday before it and we struggled out of bed. We were not so keen to go on a long trek to the other side of the lagoon with dive gear in tow so we decided to check out one previously unpromising area out first and leave the trek for the afternoon. My dive partner was not quite as keen to jump straight in as I was so I went ahead while he promised to follow soon after. Fully suited in scuba gear for the first time without supervision I stumbled into the lagoon, cool water clearing my head. I headed out over a sandy area only broken up by the occasional patch of green. We had checked this area out briefly on a previous day but found very little so we left it for more fertile looking waters. Past this sandy area, off in the distance there was a group of rocks left unexplored. In the past we had come across similar areas near this place with no results so we didn’t expect much from this area. It was one of the last accessible areas in the green zones on our side of the Island so I hoped to find something promising.

What I had been hoping to found all this time and had still not located was medium sized sub-adult spawning pairs and maybe a couple of juvs. Not the huge full sized adults like I had seen at Mcc Central, we weren’t really equipped to deal with such big fish. So far we had seen a few lone adults, a few colonies where distinguishing one pair from the next was next to impossible, a couple of non-spawning large pairs too far out to really capture from the shore and a few juveniles, not exactly what I was after. I would never find any medium sized pairs, even at places like Mcc Central I didn’t notice any but while I would never find these dream fish this last location delivered my broodstock.

As I headed towards the rocks a black shape beckoned from beneath a small acro bommie. As I neared a colony of anemones perched around the side of the bommie became clear and in this colony a large Mcc pair resided. There was a couple of juveniles on the fringes of this colony but the resident pair was unmistakable. I snuck a little closer and watched. Before long it became clear one of the pair was preoccupied with something. The other patrolled the colony, paying particular attention to the strangely attired mammal staring at them. I snuck a little closer and got a glimpse of red, the male was tending a nest. I had found what would be my first pair.

(I can't be 100% sure but I think this is that pair)





I waited in the area for my dive partner to catch up and we both mentally logged the location. We then headed into the rocks. Heading amongst the jumble of rock we found a number of lone pairs. It seemed wherever there was a decent colony there was just one single pair. Occasionally a juv of two was found on the fringes of these colonies, but more often a lone anemone or two would be found just off the main colony hosting a cute yellow outlined juvenile. While I still hoped to find some medium sized pairs it seemed that failing that picking my broodstock from amongst these pairs seemed like the next best thing. Collection of the clowns and their anemones would be easiest in this location and while it was still a decent swim, in the scheme of things it was rather close to the shore. It was also quite shallow so I would have ample dive time to select and collect my quarry.

It wasn’t long before I found what would be my second pair. A large rock jutted off the sandy floor and out of the lagoon. In the protected curve of the rock was a huge anemone colony, and in this colony another lone pair, and again it was a spawning pair.

(Very poor shot of this pairs home. At the time I took this to show how close to the surface this pair's colony was but any shots of that actual pair and anemones didn't make it)





After a bit more searching I came across a vertical drop off separating a higher area from a low area. This underwater bank stretched for quite a distance. The bank stretched around a wide corner, forming a rather high wall and on this wall was probably the biggest colony of anemones I had seen on the Island, probably six foot wide and three foot high. In this mass of inverts only one pair patrolled, and again they had a nice bright red nest of eggs. I had found what would be my third pair.

(These shots show part of this pairs home, it seems most of the anem colony was cut out though .)





I would spend the next three days (five, six and seven) cruising between these rocks making the final decisions on which pairs I would collect and mentally mapping their locations. To make thing more difficult by day six the weather turned bad, rain and swell sweeping in. Despite this by the day of collection I could swim from one pair to the next with no trouble. I had planned to collect two juveniles to form a pair and didn’t pick these two out, there were plenty to pick between and I decided on those two on the day. My last spawning pair would be found amongst of jumble of two or three large rocks. One large rock was bordered on the right side and the front by two smaller rocks and the colony of anemones filled in the middle. It seemed like a more difficult spot to collect from but I ended I picking this pair over others because of the ease of mapping it in relation to the others. So including my juvenile pair, I now had five pairs selected, my ten Mccullochi’s.



Sorry about this but I have to leave it at that today. I meant to do the collection as well today but my brain is just too tired. I looked back through my pictures and while they are of very low quality I am going to edit a few in, in the next few days. I am just getting them tranferred from film to my computer.

Ryan.

[mrblue]

I am going to add a few pics today. You will have to forgive the quality. I was taking these with a disposable under water camera and as there was no place to develop film on the Island I had no way of checking how I was doing and improving on it. One of the biggest problems is that for some reason practically all my shots seem to be way off target. I'm not sure if this was because of the camera, or my photography skills under water but even when I was right on top of something I usually missed the target entirely of only got half of it in the shot. A perfect example is the shot of the Abudefduf nest, I'm sure I had it right on target but barely half showed up. I stupidly took the camera down way below it's recommended depth on the second day and it seemed to have problems after that. Unfortunately the film from that day and one I was using in the last few days wouldn't develop. It's a real pity because I documented a lot of the collection, including the collection sites and process with that last film. Here is a few random shots. There are a few more like this if people wont me to include them.

This is one of the few shots above water I took that made it back. This is us off to one of the offshore dive sites.



Really bad quality shot showing how the anemones live amongst the acro.



This is from the same spot, way off target, you can see the Mcc from that anem right down the bottom .



Random Mcc shot showing uncommon green anems, most were brown with green tips.



Pink sps, rare sight on in the rocky side of the lagoon. Compared to what I saw in the 'Mcc Central' area this sps is nothing. Of course the one time I forgot my camera was on that first snorkel.



Depth shot. This show the average depth I was working at.

[mrblue]

I am really sorry I didn’t finish this before now. It has been particularly busy lately. I’ve been rushing to get things set-up for a number of deadlines and still trying to raise fish, including dotties. I meant to finish this within days of the last entry but things just got away from me. I have also been trying to remember some decent detail of the collection but it still evades me. After all the preparation and chaos the actual collection took mere hours and all I recall is a blur. On that note I will finish up this side of the story with mainly the method and equipment of the collection.


Collection

Through a mass of storm clouds day eight dawned. Wind, rain and swell greeted us on the most critical day. This made lugging the collection gear underwater without a boat more difficult, my dive partner getting the rough end of the stick in this regards. My side of the job was difficult enough but from what I remember doing it in swell was interesting to say the least. One upside to the nasty weather was that the lagoon was empty, no tourists and no boats. I remember the first collection better then the rest. I started with the pair living under the coral bommie.

The equipment I used was a barrier net, a pole and a hand net. The barrier net was set around the quarry and the pole was used to drive the fish from the safety of their anemone and into the net. The fish would then be plucked by hand off the barrier net and deposited into the hand net. For this first collection I ran the net from the edge of one side of the anemone colony and around the bommie. I then proceeded to prod the clowns away from their anems and out on to the net. This is harder then it sounds. As anyone who keeps clowns and have tried to remove them from the hosts knows, clown more often dive deeper into their anemones then swim away from them into open water. In this case the clowns circled around the bommie, being rather difficult. A number of attempts later and one panicked, flying away from it’s home and right into the net. With some hesitation I grasped my first Mcc, with it’s body barely fitting in my hand I transferred it from net to net. A couple of twists of the hand net secured it. I had my first Mcc. This is where things begin to blur. I felt as panicked as my quarry. I ached to transfer this first Mcc to the next stage of capture but first I had to capture it partner.

It’s hard to say how long it took but it felt like a heartbeat and again I was plucking a hand sized white striped black fish from barrier net to hand net. Barely had that indignation passed and again I had to harass my future fish. Once the pair was caught I had to transfer them from hand net to container. To purge and separate my fish I would containerize them in plastic take-away containers. These containers where drilled all over to allow water transfer. Expecting smaller fish my containers were not actually big enough to hold these huge adults so I had to cable tie two of the biggest sized containers together, and even then they barely fit. I then cable tied two of these ‘containers’ together to keep track of my pairs. To transfer the Mcc’s from hand net to container my dive partner would bring a container over, squeeze it open (the container was cable tied most of the way around with just enough space to squeeze the fish in) and I will slip the Mcc in. I would then slip two more cable ties into place and seal the fish in. All of these transfers went well, except for one. A surge pushed us just on the moment of transfer and the Mcc darted away. Fortunately it darted straight for the sand and sat there dazed for a moment, giving me the opportunity to swing my hand net and re-capture it. Most of the remaining collection was a blur of black fish, nets and containers. I remember the pair in the jumble of rocks did prove difficult but not much else.

The next stage of the collection was to place the containerized fish into an even bigger container. A plastic garbage bin filled with holes was used.

The fish would sit in here, in the lagoon and purge, ready for shipping. At first we secured the lid with a rope but decided to try something else after the bin was broken into. As a test we placed the bin in the lagoon in the first few days just to see how it fared. By the next day the bin was open, and it didn’t look like an accident. From then on we moved the bin to a new location every day, the last thing I wanted was to collect my fish only to have them released. Instead of the rope we would use cable ties to secure the lid in future and I wrote a warning on the lid. Something along the lines of that this was a Marine Parks and Fisheries authorized fish trap and any attempt to tamper with it would result in a $10,000 fine. Mostly nonsense but it was based on something the collector who trained me told me about.

Over the next couple of days I collected the anems, often by myself. The lagoon was like a big pool but still I probably should have insisted my dive partner join me. I remember once, I surfaced after collecting for nearly an hour and it was like breaking through to another world. The storm had intensified, it was pouring rain and waves buffeted me, causing me to re-treat below the surface for safety, kind of scary. I continued to the purging bin to drop off what I collected and returned to the shore underwater. It was much calmer below the water then on top of it and I guess I was just lucky the lagoon was so shallow and I had got to know it so well. At another dive sight, not following the most important rule of diving of staying with your buddy may have had an unfortunate end. Unfortunately my dive partner while very experienced was not by the book and getting him to follow standard buddy procedures was an exercise in futility. Ironically while his experience dwarfed my own I was technically a more advanced diver, he had never done more then his open water ticket. Not that this ever stopped him from doing anything and everything.

But I am getting off the topic. The anemones were collected with butter knives. You would start by edging your knife under an exposed piece of the foot and then slowly lifting the foot. Once started you would continue freeing the foot by hand. In the sandy areas around the rocks this was often quite easy, but many times determined or unexposed individuals would be abandoned. One further drama followed the collections of the anemones. The dive shop insisted that I provide them with a copy of my collection license. When they realized I was collecting more then Mcc’s they protested. I explained to them I was allowed to collect more then the clowns and had already cleared it with the Marine Parks and Fisheries. Due to their protest a flurry of phone calls and meetings with the Marine Parks manager took place and I was asked to submit a formal request for these extras. Surprisingly this was all organized and with a addition to the collection license in hand the scuba shop let me get back to my collection. This limited how many anemones I could take but I was happy to get any. Ironically, before this latest addition to the collection license, the original conditions of the license would have technically allowed me to collect twenty fish per day of any species not protected. Made me think I should have requested to collect ten Tricintus Butterflies and then collected twenty Mcc’s J. This also resulted in an inspection by the Marine Parks before I left but in all honesty I was surprised this condition wasn’t insisted on originally.

On day ten I dropped into the lagoon on dawn, the sky still dark and retrieved my precious cargo. A number of trips with a wheelbarrow (borrowed from one of the young residents) loaded with buckets filled with containers brought the Mcc’s to our hotel room. A garbage bin filled with water, darkened and aerated was used to pack them. I had originally planned to chlorinate and then de-chlorinate the water but I was unable to beg buy or steal any chlorine and we were not allowed to carry it on the plane. An oxygen tank was rented and shipped to the Island to coincide with the trip.

I wont go into packing and shipping , that was all straight forward. Kathy give a perfect run down in another thread on packing and shipping procedures if people are interested, virtually identical to how I packed and shipped the Mcc’s. The only difference was that my bags were packed a little loose to account for flying in an unpressurized plane. Even with this ’space’ the bags still swelled up and popped the lid partially off one of the foam boxes they were packed in, leaving me with one hand on this box the whole flight. The only other drama was the bags were on the small side for the giant adults I caught, it’s funny that my tank-bred juvs will be shipped in bags two to three times bigger then the ones my adults were shipped in. I should have probably brought bigger bags just in case but I was limited by how much space I could pack them in anyways. I also re-gassed the bags once we landed on the mainland, just in case. In total my Mcc’s traveled ten hours, from bag to tank, and handled it really well. No losses resulted from shipping.

So by midday on day ten we boarded the plane. It was overcast above but the rain had stopped. The plane took off and circled, giving me one last view of Lord Howe, and then it broke through the clouds, and into sunlight. I was home free, with Mcc’s in hand and on to my next challenge.


I will leave the story at that for the moment. I really need to get stuck in to work, and finish the next chapter in my Mcc journey, so I will not even attempt to tell the rest of the story for some time. I still not sure if I want to. Much of what has happened once I got home has been told and there are some things which might be best left unsaid. I never meant to portion this out and am sorry I did, I hope it wasn’t too frustrating.


Ryan.

[mrblue]

Seeing as I have only just posted it and most people haven't probably got through my last installment of ramblings( and I'm sure some people are distracted by my latz news)and the fact I made you all wait so long it's probably a bit much to ask but I was just wondering if anyone has any questions about my Mcc story? I have been keen to ask a few questions for a while now about Mcc stuff that is going on now but didn't want to distract from the story before I finished. I just wanted to check before I started in the next few days. I guess it's probably not a big deal if ask some stuff soonish and people can ask away at any stage if there was anything they were curious about?

Ryan.

["Umm, fish?"]

Sorry, I read this yesterday but ran out the door to go meet Gresham for the first time and forgot to comment. First of all, don't worry at all about the time between posts. We can handle it. And from now on, readers get the whole story all at once.

So, did the locals ever seem to come around? I know you said that some were screwing with your collection container.

What was QT like? Did you notice much in the way of disease, etc.?

And current conditions? How long has it been since collection? Losses? At what temp do you keep these guys?

And, any more luck yet on export permits?

[coralhead317]

Ryan,
I love that you are willing to share all of this with us. I too am a diver and have often wondered what collecting is like (sounds like a headache). I guess that I have a bunch of questions for you, so since you solicited questions from your audience...
I find it very interesting that the residents of Lord Howe were so displeased with your collection. Were they aware of your intent to breed the Mcc's rather than selling them off and then wanting to collect more?
So did the fish remain in the fish trap for roughly a day and a half (day 8 till the morning of day 10)? Was that particularly stressful for them? I guess that I thought that they would have to be moved to some sort of makeshift tank with aeration and filtration prior to packing and shipping. Is the drilled trash can a standard method for purging them?
If I may ask, did you collect all 10 Mccs that you had planned on catching?

And of course the big question is: when can you ship some of those gorgeous babies to the US? (I know that you are asked this daily).

Thank you so much for this fascinating read.


John

[mrblue]

Sorry, I read this yesterday but ran out the door to go meet Gresham for the first time and forgot to comment. First of all, don't worry at all about the time between posts. We can handle it. And from now on, readers get the whole story all at once.

So, did the locals ever seem to come around? I know you said that some were screwing with your collection container.

No need to apologise at all.

Most of the locals didn't really come around. The pilot I mentioned was one of the few who really supported what I was doing, while a few others like the dive operators seemed to grudgingly except what I was doing if they didn't support it. I did try and explain to them that there was some environmental benefit to what I was trying to do but not many understood, or were willing to listen. Most saw what I was doing could not possibly have any environmental benefit. A perfect example was one of the dive masters who was working at the dive shop to support her marine biology studies on the Island. She kept on saying how cruel it was that I was going to stick these fish into tanks. She wouldn't even listen when I told her that many of the tanks they were going to live in would be as large or larger then their original wild habitats. I found it quite ironic to hear this coming from someone who would happily drop a living specimen into formaldehyde for the purpose of studying it, or dissect numerous charming critters just to get the inside story. Not that I have anything again marine biologists, I understand a lot of their 'sampling' is of great importance, I just would have a hard time doing it myself.

I did get a surprise from one of the young dive masters though. This guy was a classic Aussie surfer type and with out even trying to explain it to him he understood at least part of what I was trying to do. I couldn't believe it when one day he told me he thought what I was doing was great and that he could see how a captive breeding project could help a species with such a limited natural habitat. Imagine hearing that from someone with the appearance of an beach bum and the broadest Aussie twang I have heard in a while .

This was very refreshing amongst all the grumbling. Would you believe that part of the other dive shops argument against hiring me gear and helping me collect the Mcc's was that it would take business away from them because people wouldn't have to come all the way to Lord Howe to see Mcc's.

What was QT like? Did you notice much in the way of disease, etc.?

And current conditions? How long has it been since collection? Losses? At what temp do you keep these guys?

And, any more luck yet on export permits?

Hey, that is the other side of the story lol. I guess it probably easier to just give a quick run down on the highlights rather then trying to re-tell it all.

QT wasn't too bad. It might have been a bad idea but I didn't QT them all. I put two of the pairs into the 6ft and 10ft tank directly. The remaining 3 I QTed. Two of these pairs seemed fine throughout QT but one pair came down with what was initially a mystery bug. It turned out to be a skin fluke and I treated it was trichlorfon. No sooner had I done this then my latz finally became available and I needed those QT tanks. So after 2months of QT they went into their respective tanks. The last two adult pairs went into my Twin 3ft 'cube' systems and the juvs into my 4ft display.

I collected them in January 2006, so over 2.5 years. I was devastated to lose the pair I put into 10ft tanks a few months after I got the last out of QT. They went from cleaning a nest to practically keeling over one day. On death the female really freaked out, crashing around the tank, something I have never seen in any other fish. The male just seemed to give up and faded away in the next couple of days. I still don't know what happened to them and still have them sitting in my freezer. I kick myself that if I had QTed them this may not have happened, but it would have been unlikley any QT would have stopped this. The only other loss was my spawning Mama which I talk about in the disease forum.

Temp has ranged, initially I kept them at 26c which was the temp of the lagoon when I collected them. All but the spawning pair in the 6ft went through normal summer winter cycles ranging from 18-26c. After I lost my Mama Mcc out of the 6ft and added a juv to pair with the remaining male I have started to put them into winter temps. I've currently got them down to 20c and I am concerned the anems will bleach if I lower it any further, they already seem a little faded on the tips. This is something I was going to ask people about once I got through the story questions.

Great news in the export permit front. Between answering questions on the latz thread to this one I rang the Environment and Heritage Dep to see what was going on and they have just approved the aquaculture license I needed from them. All I need to get now is my actual export permit which is not much more then a formality now that I have the other two licenses. It's all happening .

Ryan.

[mrblue]

Ryan,
I love that you are willing to share all of this with us. I too am a diver and have often wondered what collecting is like (sounds like a headache). I guess that I have a bunch of questions for you, so since you solicited questions from your audience...
I find it very interesting that the residents of Lord Howe were so displeased with your collection. Were they aware of your intent to breed the Mcc's rather than selling them off and then wanting to collect more?
So did the fish remain in the fish trap for roughly a day and a half (day 8 till the morning of day 10)? Was that particularly stressful for them? I guess that I thought that they would have to be moved to some sort of makeshift tank with aeration and filtration prior to packing and shipping. Is the drilled trash can a standard method for purging them?
If I may ask, did you collect all 10 Mccs that you had planned on catching?

And of course the big question is: when can you ship some of those gorgeous babies to the US? (I know that you are asked this daily).

Thank you so much for this fascinating read.


John

They were aware of my intent to breed the Mcc's and it still didn't make a difference to them. As I have said above they just couldn't see my side of the story. They considered their environmental perspective was the only one. They couldn't even see that even though the other locations where Mcc were originally found are now no longer populated by Mcc's (Norfolk Island, Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs) that having a captive bred population as a possible back-up could be a good thing.

I am embarrassed to admit that I could have mixed up the day of collection. The Mcc's were supposed to be purged for three days. I was a bit confused at the time whether that meant collecting them on day 7 or 8. I remember discussing this with the collector who helped me, while I was on the Island and I still am not 100% sure which day it was. I'm positive it was day 8 when I replay the events in my mind but common sense tells me it must have been day 7 to properly purge them. Either way I collected them first thing in the morning of either 7 or 8(8-9am) and after all the lugging and preparation they didn't get packed until around 11am, so they were in there for at least 2days.

Back to your actual question, everything I know tells me this would have been stressful on them but the collector assured me this was standard procedure and they would be fine. I didn't worry myself and them by checking constantly but by the time they got to packing they seemed fine. They also handled the trip very well and took to captive life very quickly. While in the purging bin they did have at least some of their host anemones in there with them so I guess this might have helped to relieve the stress. They were also in close proximity with their partners.

Until I talked to the collector I also thought I would have to set-up some kind of makeshift tank as well. Something the owners of the resort/hotel would not have allowed. They got grumpy about me putting a tub of water on the balcony. From what I know this is not standard procedure for collections close to shore or a packing facility. Fish are generally purged in separate containers like I mentioned above though. From what I was told a tub like that is used while collecting. The divers would collect their fish over the day in hand nets etc and drop off the fish into tubs like this between dive sites. This is also done when collecting from great distances, like outer reefs, where the collection boat might be out for days. Although some big and fancy collectors do have on board tanks etc but apparently that is kind of complicated. Apparently fish get seasick on board most boats? This is just what I was told by this one collector so I am not sure if this is standard procedure.

I did get all 10 Mcc's I had planned to collect, my mental mapping worked quite well and all 4 planned spawning pairs were retrieved without issue. I did have a few back-ups but didn't end up needing them.

I'm not sure when I will be commercially sending my first lot to the U.S, no wholesaler will come even close to the Japanese price and I really need to pay off some debts with most of these first lot. Something else which will come up in more detail in my questions that I can hint at now is that a number will be making it to the U.S reasonably soon and will be going to a large public aquarium.

Ryan.