Ziggy953

Well, actually I do have an update. Not the greatest either. I've had the stuff to redo my frag tank for several days now and over the weekend I decided it was time. I've put a VDBS in the tank so I can have a single flat shelf (eggcrate) along the entire length of the tank. During the process the eggs were lost. The current nest is gone. The male was cleaning them up yesterday afternoon. I expect to see the female lay a new nest by the 12th. For now it is for the best I guess.

Thanks for the info...I'm rather new to the Acrylic DIY thing so any advice is appreciated. I would much rather spend a few extra $$ in the beginning then have a disaster later. thanks!

Just let me know how much and I will get out there to pick them up from you. I work Sunday-Wednesday nights so Thursday would be the earliest I could get out to you...I really appreciate the offer!!! I'll pick your brain and probably drive you nuts with questions while I'm there too.....

This is the first time I've gotten to see it happening! It was really cool I felt like I was part of National Geographic or something. LOL I may have to take you up on your offer for those rotifers...if it still stands...

I just got to see one of the coolest things I've seen since starting the hobby. My clowns laid eggs before the lights went out. Here are some pics.....

Interesting. The site I've gotten most of my acrylic building information uses FF. The only time I've read of him using GP was when building a very large sump.

Excellent. Thank you very much for the information!

Have you had any experience in buying from them?

Hey gang. Anyone know of a local source for acrylic/arcylite ff? I need to build a new sump for my system and finding that stuff is like pulling hens teeth. Thanks for any help!

That is exactly how I was going to count them. Unfortunately my camera will not give me a good enough pic to do that so I'll have to forgo the counting. I do not have rots yet. I may not do anything with this nest. As it is the holiday season getting something quickly is going to be tough. I have managed to clean out my 10g tanks and get them somewhat ready. I'm still planning on dividing my 55 into thirds for grow out. That of course is provided I can get them to stay alive long enough to grow. I'm not sure exactly where purcellville is but I have a feeling it isn't really close to me. Thank you very much for the offer though. I'm going by BRK tomorrow and talk with John about getting some rots in. They say they can get them for me so we will see. I still need to get some instant algae or something to feed the rots with so I think that will be step one. The eggs are developing nicely and based on the previous nests I expect them to hatch on or about 1/1

I got home at 5:45am this morning and I have another nest. This time the clowns decided to lay on the tile I have next to the frogspawn. I will get a pic of the nest later today and post it. I'm going to use a neat little trick I picked up from RC on how to count the eggs and get a good number. It looks rather large I'm going to guess around 650+. We'll see how close I am. Step 1...clowns lay eggs on tile. CHECK! Step 2...Haven't gotten that far yet....

I have thought about using the same but since I have another project in the works that will require live phyto I'll probably just start a culture again. I have grown "green water" in the past so it's not new to me. It is a bit of a pain at times but once I get my system going again it will pretty much take care of it's self. Raising the rotifers is going to be a new task for me as I've never done it. From what I read they aren't to difficult as long as they are feed and harvested regularly. My book should be here any day now. My most recent nest laid on 12/12 hatched on Saturday night. I didn't get to see them hatch or catch anything on film. Maybe next go round. If the clowns stick to their schedule I should have another nest by Christmas.

I'm not going to attempt to keep this nest either. I have ordered Wilkerson's book and I have some other items on the way to start raising them. I have yet to start a Rotifer culture and I don't have any phyto. I'm still a few weeks away from being able to keep them. My sponge filter showed up the other day and I will be putting it in my sump later today. The eggs did not hatch last night so they will probably hatch tonight. I'm going to siphon some of the fish out as they hatch (provided I'm still up when they hatch) into my fuge. I have a GIANT copepod population and I've read they can eat copepods right after the pods hatch. We'll see if any survive, other then that I'm not going to do anything with this nest. I have a tile in the tank with the clowns next to the frogspawn they are hosting in hopes they will lay on it.

That is true, unless you had more then one breeding pair and paired up that way. My clowns laid eggs on 12/12 2 days after the other nest hatched. I still have not set anything up to attempt raising so this nest will go as food. I expect to see them hatch tonight or tomorrow night.

Thanks Doug! I was linked to MOFIB.org from a thread on RC and WOW talk about some learning! Do you have a thread there detailing your method? I know there is no way I can save this batch but I would like to give it a shot in the future.

Awesome! Thank you for the links and you are the 4th person to recommend that book. I'll have to pick it up this weekend.

Yeah I figured they were close to hatching. I never see the skeleton of frogspawn, the coral is normally opened up when I get up. (I work night so I sleep till after noon) Today though my MHs hadn't come on (timer crapped out) so I got a good close look at the frogspawn and how the clowns were hanging around it. I thought it was algae at first then I looked closely and saw the eyes staring up at me. I guess I've missed the opportunity this go round. I believe they hatch at night and will head towards a light source. I have 3 green chromis in the tank with these clowns and my frags so I guess there will be a feast in the next couple of nights.

They are indeed the pair I got from you. I have a feeling this isn't the first time they have spawned. They hang out on a branch of frogspawn and have been doing that for about a month now so I have a feeling they have been spawning on a regular basis.

Anyone have experience with breeding clowns? Know any good links for research? My pair of clowns have laid eggs and they look like they will be viable as I can already make out the eyes in the eggs. I have a feeling it is a lot more work then I'm interested in taking on but I would at least like to learn. Thanks!

Very nice!

Thanks John, I'm going to try and swing by on Saturday.

Are you pretty sure you will be open Saturday? I'm in need of some salt and a couple of other items.

The tank looks great! Lost of nice looking LPS in there!

Looks awesome. Great idea too!

I'm glad you are happy with what you got from me and thank you again!