Moca clowns anyone?
Printed From: Utah Reefs
Category: Breeding
Forum Name: Livestock Breeding and Rearing
Forum Description: This is the place to discuss breeding and rearing of our tank inhabitants.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=56260
Printed Date: December 30 2024 at 3:25pm
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Topic: Moca clowns anyone?
Posted By: WhiteReef
Subject: Moca clowns anyone?
Date Posted: May 06 2012 at 8:50pm
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Well my male black clown and orange female clown finally layed eggs the other day. I did not notice until tonight. I have watched the two cleaning off the back wall where they hange out, but nothing more than that for quite some time (months). Then the last few days I noticed that the male was hanging out in the same corner a lot. I investigated further tonight, and to my delight there was a clutch of eggs all fully developed and ready to hatch tonight. Unfortunately I am no where close to raising them. I took some photos, so here you go. Here are some photos of the pair when I got them. They have never hosted in anything in my tank other than the top left corner by a power-head.    Nice silvery eggs ready to hatch!!!  Proud dad taking care of the eggs!!!  ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Replies:
Posted By: Akira
Date Posted: May 06 2012 at 9:23pm
| Way too cool ! I have a pair of mochas and love em . |
Posted By: sabeypets
Date Posted: May 06 2012 at 9:56pm
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Awesome! ------------- Shaun American Fork "Would you leave a dead cat in your kitchen till tommorow?" Builderofdreams |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: May 07 2012 at 9:26am
| I would love to raise them for you |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: May 07 2012 at 11:16am
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Thanks for the offer to raise them, but obviously the first batch became tank food. Hopefully they lay some more. I am working on getting a setup going since my wife basically gave me the go ahead last night. Now to see if they lay eggs again. ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: May 07 2012 at 12:31pm
| Ok let me know if you have any questions. I have a full hatchery all set up. |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: May 07 2012 at 1:37pm
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I would love to see a picture of it as I am just starting out. I am starting my roti culture today, and hope to have a dense enough population by the next round. My plan is to use tank water in a 5 gallon bucket using an air pump for circulation. Feeding them algae paste. For the larvae tank I am using a 2.5 gallon tank with a heater and air pump. From what I understand keeping the temp between 80 and 84 is ideal as closer to 84 helps them grow faster. Along with that I plan on doing a water change daily if not twice a day for the first week. After that every other day until after meta. Also for the larvae tank I am going to cover it with black construction paper. All of this is to see if I can do it and if my wife can handle it. What do you do for feeding them after rotifers? It seems like everyone uses freshly hatched brine. ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: May 07 2012 at 1:44pm
| That is exactly what I do for my rotifers. I used freshly hatched brine shrimp and also finely ground up flake food. |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: May 07 2012 at 2:06pm
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Well I'll have to see how it goes. Thanks! ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: May 11 2012 at 6:48pm
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They laid eggs today. I started my rotifer culture on Wednesday, so maybe I'll halve enough to start feeding them when they hatch. How often do you feed your rotifer culture? ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: sabeypets
Date Posted: May 12 2012 at 12:31am
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I feed and harvest at least 30% of rotifers daily. The more you feed denser the culture. The tricky part is learning to feed enough but not over feeding. Keep the water just green enough you can't see the bottom of the bucket.
I think you will find that 2.5 gals is way to small.
I run my tanks at 80. If the larvae are small I the lights 24 hours a day for a week. Oxygen levels drop with temps in the mid 80s combine that with a small tank full of larvae and rotifers/brine shrimp, 84 is to warm IMO.
Cover the bottom of the tank with white.
------------- Shaun American Fork "Would you leave a dead cat in your kitchen till tommorow?" Builderofdreams |
Posted By: sabeypets
Date Posted: May 12 2012 at 12:37am
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Don't forget to cover the heater light with electrical tape ------------- Shaun American Fork "Would you leave a dead cat in your kitchen till tommorow?" Builderofdreams |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: May 12 2012 at 4:51pm
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Shaun, thanks for the advice. I will probably be asking questions periodically as I have read all I can and know that I will have missed something along the way. As far as a small tank, I will have to see if that turns out to be an issue or not. One thing I did prior to consulting my clownfish book was to paint three of the outside panels of the tank, including the bottom. I painted the sides blue and the bottom yellow. After reading it sounds like painting the tank can cause light to reflect and may adversely affect the larva. Also I am going to wait and see with the first batch how things go. Also I am planning on only using the 2.5 gallon for the first 7-10 days and then I was planning on moving them to a 5 gallon tank. Then once they reach about a month move them one last time into a 10-20 gallon grow out tank (depends on how many survive). I took a picture of the eggs and counted them, wow 570 eggs! My plan is to do basically what Joyce suggested, which is with the lights out use a bowl and flashlight. Basically insert the bowl about half way in, shine the light into the bowl, and then transfer them once you get enough in the bowl.  ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: sabeypets
Date Posted: May 12 2012 at 9:38pm
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I wouldn't move them during meta at 8 to 12 days. I would move to 5 gal tank at 13 to 14 days.
There have been studies done on larvae tank color, and some colors have a negative affect (I think blue was one of them). Black seems to work best. If light reflects off the sides/bottom the larvae will beat them selves up banging into the sides/bottom.
570 is a great start! Good luck! ------------- Shaun American Fork "Would you leave a dead cat in your kitchen till tommorow?" Builderofdreams |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: May 12 2012 at 10:52pm
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I was thinking after meta, but just had the timing off. Also with the tank color, if it proves to be bad I can just use the 5 gallon and run it with a little less water. Also I was reading that reducing the salinity to 1.0018-20 seems to help in the survival rate through the different phases. The suggestion was to slowly lower it over 2 days. Right now my concern is that my rotifer culture won't be ready. I am using a used 5 gallon bucket from fire house subs pickles. It is a red bucket, and although I rinsed it out it still has that pickle smell. I went to harvest some and found almost none. It seemed like my feeding from Wednesday was consumed by Friday evening, so maybe it is growing. ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: May 12 2012 at 11:06pm
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Well I just checked the alkalinity and it read 8 meg/l which is double what the tank parameters, and the ph is lower than what ican test for. Not sure if I am going to have a viable culture. On another note, when you harvest do you replace water in the culture when you harvest or how often? ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: ptronsp
Date Posted: May 12 2012 at 11:09pm
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This is really cool to read! I think you will enjoy raising them. I used a 10 gallon tank and I just used black card stock to cover all the sides and a piece of white paper for the bottom...worked like a charm! Pam ------------- The only clowns I like are in my tank! |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: May 18 2012 at 11:24am
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Well they are going to hatch tonight. My only issue is that I am really sure my rotifers are either dead or not growing much. Either way I will see how it goes. I think to help me out next round I am getting another culture started. ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: May 20 2012 at 10:17pm
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I was wrong about the hatch. They still have not hatched yet. Odd that they are so developed and silver looking tonight that I was sure it would be the night, but still nothing. I'll wait and see if these are eclipse babies or not. ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: sabeypets
Date Posted: May 20 2012 at 11:04pm
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They should hatch tonight! ------------- Shaun American Fork "Would you leave a dead cat in your kitchen till tommorow?" Builderofdreams |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: May 21 2012 at 7:21am
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They did, but I only managed to catch 4 of them. The rest hatched after I gave up and went to bed. Learned a bit this go around. First the room needs to be darker so they hatch sooner, and I really need to get the rotifer thing figured out. Well, I am going to take a break from this as there are some things going on, nothing bad, that are just taking to much of my time to really be able to do this. ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: June 05 2012 at 8:15am
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Well they laid eggs yesterday, but I am not setup the way I need to for this to work yet. ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: June 05 2012 at 11:57am
| Well I have a full setup up and running and would love to have another set of babies. Any chance you could catch them for me |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: June 05 2012 at 7:03pm
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I will see if I can catch them this go around, and if all goes well you are welcome to raise them. ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: June 05 2012 at 7:13pm
| That would be awesome thanks |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: June 11 2012 at 9:27am
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Based on the last hatch, these eggs should hatch on either Tuesday or Wednesday. This morning their little eyes showed up, so my guess would be Tuesday. I'll let you know, and let me know how to get them to you. ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: June 11 2012 at 9:31am
| What method do you use to catch these little guys? I can come and get them from you on the night that they hatch. |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: June 11 2012 at 10:25am
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I was going to just use the cup/bowl and flashlight method. This is because the eggs are on the back wall of the tank. I just need to make the room darker to encourage them to hatch sooner than later. My lights go out around 9PM, so I just need to make sure that I leave all lights off in the living room. I'll PM you my contact info. ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: Kaiden32
Date Posted: June 11 2012 at 11:10am
| Good luck! |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: June 12 2012 at 9:54pm
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Well they are hatching tonight. I turned the lights off 1 hour early, waited a bit for the lights to cool down, covered the tank with blankets, and turned off the pumps. Magic! They started to hatch. Now to see if Mitch and I can catch them. ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: ch3tt
Date Posted: June 12 2012 at 10:39pm
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If you guys need help catching them in the future i have a larva catcher that is pretty cool. I would be happy to help you guys. ------------- Red Sea Reefer 625 XXL |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: June 12 2012 at 11:05pm
| Well we caught 9. I'll post some pics when I get them home and all set up |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: June 13 2012 at 7:48am
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Well, not all of the eggs hatched. There are still lots left to hatch. Let me know if you want to try getting the remaining ones. ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: backwards32
Date Posted: June 13 2012 at 3:21pm
| Maybe I will have to try again in two weeks. I just found out I have to go out of town for a week. Bad timing |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: July 26 2012 at 2:08pm
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Sad day! The orange one (female) took a dive outside the tank! Needless to say she did not survive. Maybe later on when I get the black one paired up again things will start up. ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: paul.brandon83
Date Posted: August 03 2012 at 2:50pm
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sorry to hear that :( Is anyone planning on selling the babies?
------------- 150 Gallon Reef |