Amphiprion ocellaris Darwin / Black breeding log for MWP

[mpedersen]

WHOOO HOOO!

5-8-08 - 3:15 PM - I walked by the tank and was stunned with what I saw. No forewarning of any kind....and there they are, my Black O's are SPAWNING!

If anyone can find my old link(s) on my Black Ocellaris over on Reef Central, please LMK where they are...no biggie I suppose, but I wanted to try to figure out how long it took etc. I can probably dig it up in my own records.

(EDIT - THANKS FOR DIGGING THIS UP ANDY - here's PART 1 of the Breeding Log that went on Hiatus - http://www.reefcentral.org/forums/showt ... did=963740 )

I have video in the camera..will post it soon!

Matt

[DThom]

Awsome Matt. How long do you THINK you have had them?

[mpedersen]

So doing my homework while the videos upload..here's what I have in my records:

11-1-2006 - Obtained my first pair (from Fish Planet in Deerfield). I believe at that time they were already kindof a pair (i.e. 3 were in the tank, and 2 were bullying the odd man out...I got the 2), and they were fully black??? Don't remember though. (Edit - female was solid black, the male was not)

1-10-2007 - the male in the pair simply went missing, vanished. Never found a body.

1-14-07 - added a replacement male, given to me by Joe L.

1-18-07 - the new male got covered in Velvet. They got FW dips with Methelyne Blue

1-21-07 - they got another FW bath. In between, I'd been doing 50% water changes daily

1-24-07 - moved them into QT (ah, that's what started the infamous "falling out" between me and RC...that's when I had to sell off that batch of 17 day old percs!!)

I don't have any record of what happened for a while...i.e. I don't know when I took them out of the hospital tank and into the 6 gallon tank! It may have been somewhere in April.

6-21-07 - I have a note that they have started to do some nest clearing in the 6 gallon tank.

And that's it...I remember them cleaning the filter intake for a while and then nothing. I know I've had the temperature turned up to around 82F for at least 6 months now. I have no clue what the tipping point was, if anything, other than patience.

Matt

[mpedersen]

Here's the Vids!

[youtube]4OMGVg2IVMM[/youtube]

[youtube]pnaq4Ae9v6o[/youtube]

[damer]

they look good Matt,

how big are they?

["Umm, fish?"]

Congrats!

Here's the link: http://www.reefcentral.org/forums/showthread.php?s=29f93523cabe9ba410b94aeb8a570660&threadid=963740

[mpedersen]

Thanks for finding that link Andy!

they look good Matt,

how big are they?

Damien, I took the ruler to them, and the estimate is that the male is around 2" TL, the female around 2.75"-3" TL.

[mpedersen]

5-8-08 (yes, still the same day)

So, 8:00 PM, there were 4 eggs left.

9:00 PM - nest is gone.

I wonder if this is really their first time or if they may have spawned before??? I've been wondering for a while now in fact...are they just ravenous egg eaters?

6 hours between spawning and nest gone....as if it was never there!

[KMB]

My Black O's ate all of their eggs within 24 hours of spawning for the first seven or eight spawns. Now they take good care of the eggs. Just hang in there, I bet your fish will figure out how to be good parents too.

Karen

[mpedersen]

Yeah, looks like I'm going to have a rather "typical" pair of Black O's on my hands

I'm gonna see what I can do about really ramping up the food and water changes. Technically, that's part of why I'm surprised they spawned at all...the don't have quite the appettites of my Percs, and the female never seemed to be putting on the weight needed to produce eggs in the first place!

I'm also going to take the opportunity to give them a tile to spawn on...that flat suface may not hurt nad may help when it comes to actually rearing them!

Thanks for the encouragement Karen.

[Colby]

Congrats man...

[rkelman]

Congrats that's awesome. My Black O's decided to eat most of the last nest they laid. This is the first time they have done this (they have only laid I think 5 nests so they are still new) I believe it was stress related. My Blue Carpet was covering the eggs and I wanted to count them so I used tongs and pushed the carpet back so I could photograph them. Its after this that they started to eat the eggs. I've since stayed out of the tank totally except for feeding and they have stopped eating the eggs. I don't know the situation with your fish but I thought I would share what happened with mine in case it helps yours

[FishboyBT]

geez, how many spawning pairs do you have now?Thats a lot of clowns

[mpedersen]

6-8-08

Something is up with the female this evening...breathing heavy, not feeding. I noticed that her left gill is considerably flared / swollen. So at 9:00 PM I did a 50% water change and a carbon change. No clue what's going on at the moment, so hopefully this will do the trick?!

Matt

[rkelman]

I hope it recovers for you. Sounds like an infection possibly? Good luck with it.

[mpedersen]

6-9-08 - 10:45 AM

No feeding for the female again today. I'm prepping a FW Bath (in case this is Amyloodinium...I'll want the cysts to fall off then, or if Flukes, FW should again alleviate the problem) and may follow up with Maracyn and daily water changes...that's about all I can do for her right now!

Matt

[mpedersen]

15 minute FW Bath over lunch was tolerated well by the female. She emmitted some white stringy feces in the container. No worms or cysts of any kind that I could see. So now I've removed the carbon and purigen from the tank, squirted some Amquel in (The FW Bath seemed to have reduced the slime coat...she got stung by the RBTA when returned to the tank) and am treating with Maracyn SW.

FWIW,

Matt

[rkelman]

It sounds like your doing everything possible. I hope she pulls through for you.

[mpedersen]

6-24-08

Well, things have turned around. Medicating with Maracyn SW may have been what did it, who knows. At any rate, about 7-10 days after I started medication, the swelling in the gills was gone, she was back to her oldself, and her appetite has IMPROVED over what she had pre-illness.

For the last 2 days now I've seen some interest in nest cleaning again. I'm going to give them a nice water change soon, and maybe dig up an extra tile for them to spawn on this time around (I don't think they're particularly fond of the craggy live rock they chose they first time). The female does look to be ripening.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

[rkelman]

I'm glad to hear she's on the mend congratulations. Mine are taking a break from baby making apparently...

[mpedersen]

7-31-08
(Yes, posting this a day later...I've been busy!)

The evening of 7-31, the female's ovipositor was down and she was noticeably thinner. NO EGGS can be found anywhere. I suspect a spawn, and I suspect that it was again immediately eaten.
FWIW,

Matt

[Miles]

Hopefully thats whats happening to my B&Ws. The female is bigger than the 2 Os I have that spawn, but I have yet to see eggs. I keep my fingers crossed everytime I look in the tank.

[mpedersen]

8-25-08 - 9:00 PM

The female's ovipositor is down, but I have not seen any eggs or spawning behavior in the pair. She is also rather fat, so I don't think they've already spawned. Maybe tonight, or if not, maybe tomorrow? I'll be paying close attention!

[mpedersen]

9-16-08 - 2:35 PM

I walked into the room to feed the Black O's this afternoon and at first noticed that the female was missing! I was about to just lose it, but then I noticed her hiding in the back. She didn't come out for food, but I realized quickly that her ovipositor is fully extended. Once I stepped back for a minute, she and the male quickly returned to cleaning the rock surface at the base of their RBTA.

I'm hoping this time will be different, so I stole one of my extra tiles from the Fire Clowns and gave it to the Black Ocellaris. I simply rested it leaning against the base of their spawning rock, not covering their spanwing site, but immediately below it. I feel like they'll gravitate to the flat spawning surface...at least I hope they do!

FWIW,

Matt

[mpedersen]

9-16-08 - 3:20 PM

Small Victory - the FEMALE Black O is now cleaning the TILE.

Matt