Breeding Journal, Species: Amphiprion ocellaris

They're doing really well. My last attempt to get a picture clear enough to get a count of them, there are between 150 - 170 left. This is a picture from this morning (pencil is to give some scale):
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My Ammonia Alert badge shows ammonia has been holding at about 0.05ppm, so I've been having to dose Am-Quel daily. I finally got a sponge filter seeded and set up in their tank yesterday though so hopefully I can stop dosing Am-Quel soon.

They are in the middle of transitioning from TDO B1 to Otohime B2. I only have TDO in B1 and C1 sizes, but I want to use up more of the Otohime I have before ordering more TDO.

MBI finally got my spawn report approved, but I'm still waiting for one more vote to approve my settlement report.
 
And I've now passed the 60 day mark; 68dph to be precise.

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I wasn't as successful as I had hoped. About a month ago, I started having fatalities again. Just one a day for about a week. I had no clue what was causing it. There wasn't any evident damage of the fish to indicate aggression. I wasn't as fastidious in keeping uneaten food vacuumed up off the bottom though, and saw white dust around the food as it broke down. I'm suspecting some kind of fungal outbreak?

I've attempted large water changes, and that seems to stave off things for a day or two before I start finding losses again. I've been hesitant to medicate the tank since I don't know if it's fungal or bacterial. As a result, I've continued to lose a couple of fish a day now for the past week. They start to lay down on the bottom of the tank on their sides, breathing heavily, and then the next day they are gone. Several appear to have pinched bellies after death too. I wonder if they aren't eating for a few days beforehand?

In any case, I will be doing more research and trying to ask for some help in identifying treatment possibilities to save what I have left. It's a bittersweet victory to file my 60dph report with MBI and earn my first fish icon. I made it this far, but I don't know how many I'll have actually make it to adult size. I don't think I'll actually consider it a "success" to myself until I hear word from whoever my fish go to that the second generation started laying eggs.

It's still my first attempt though, so I choose to celebrate what I did right and document where I think I need to make improvements for next time.
 
And, here we go. Round 2.

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Probably about 75% of the eggs hatched last night between 10:30 and midnight. The tile is back in the reef tank for the day so my clownfish can take care of them while I am on duty for the hatched ones.

Changes I'm planning on making this time around:
  • more frequent water changes
  • starting use of ammonia control earlier (just in case)
  • starting with a 10g instead of a 15g
  • building up water volume earlier
 
Hey there, over at unt the marine conservation lab is trying to do a study breeding clowns but they haven't had any luck in the past two years. I was wondering if you had any advice.
 
I'd probably have lots of advice, actually. I'd be happy to exchange emails, or come in to see the setup. Is there someone in particular that I should get in touch with?
 
Umm ill find out. I start working in the lab next Tuesday and had a tour the other day and they told me all of the studies their doing currently. I think the student in charge of the clowns is named jarod. I'll talk to him next week and see if maybe you could come in. They're thinking of putting black on 3 sides of the tanks so that they can't flirt with their neighbors or something. Do you think that would help? One thing I noticed was it looked like they had cyano everywhere so I want to get that cleaned up
 
There are I think 12-15 pairs, each in their own 20 gallon tank. And they each have a pot and some have a plastic plant, but nothing other than that. I'll also ask the professor in charge of the lab. She told me to do as much research as I could before I came and the guys at reef remedies mentioned you so maybe we can get them breeding so we can study their development better :)
 
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