gioNVA

It's always nerve wracking whenever I go on vacation due to worries about issues with the tank. This time, I came back to something good happening. My female snowcasso from Doni's first batch was breeding again. The male was purchased from ChrisTran and is from Doni/Onyx parents. The first batch of eggs hatched on 8/24 but I was unprepared for it. I do have a few from that batch that are at 6 days old but this time I have new rotifers and new Rotigreen Omega. Here's a video of the parents: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7Dp1WMlPXE The eggs were laid on 8/26 and I am expecting them to hatch in about 3 days. I will post more to keep a log of my progress. At this time, I am going to start feeding LRS fish frenzy in hopes of getting a bigger nest. The nest is still small at about 200 eggs.

Saw this tank the other week. Looks better than ever. One of the best tanks I've seen.

Marine scene had them also. You can check with them.

Nice! You have any other photos of that clownfish?

Nice! Where did you buy the tank from?

What size are the helmet picassos you have in stock? I am looking for a male or a smaller one.

From what I remember, the closest I've seen is the Coralvue Reeflux 12K for DE bulbs on an electronic ballast. I think it was around 2008-2009 when I ran them. I preferred the Radium on M80 ballasts but you may also want to look into the switchable electronic HQI ballasts.

I started with an old minibow. I think it's 7g. But I only had about 5g to begin. After the 1st day, I started to drip about 1/2g of RODI water to lower the salinity a bit. I think after day 4 which is my first water change, I upped the volume to about 6.5g. I had them there until 30days and then moved them to a 10g for more volume. They are still in the 10g but I also added a small HOB filter. I will be moving them to a 20g next week.

ouch...yeah they don't like big changes. I now understand how they can get light shock. My fish finally laid eggs on tile and they all hatched. When I turned the lights on, I forgot to put the 3 sheets of paper that I normally put to block off light. Most of the fish dropped dead instantly and I was left with about 30 that were shocked.

Hey Rob, any updates?

Here they are at almost 6 weeks. Some picasso markings are starting to develop. The shape is excellent on these. I think the black coloration starts to develop at the 3 month mark. Hopefully they will be like the Rod's/Cquest onyx that develop black/onyx early.

You can try ordering some here. http://www.petsolutions.com/C/External-Parasite-Ich-Fish-Medications/I/Formalin-MS.aspx I have some that I can bring to work if you can get to Fairfax.

I don't plan on raising any babies as I have about 50 babies now but I just moved my onyx/snowcasso pair. Hope they start laying eggs again soon. I will keep you in mind if I don't end up raising clownfish again.

Here they are at 22 days. Looking to transfer them to a bigger tank probably next week. I like the color and shape that these guys are developing and they look more like the Rods/Cquest shape. I have a total of ~45 babies and looks like 5 will have helmet patterns on the head stripe, a few will probably have regular picasso pattersn and the rest are regular perc patterns. Still feeding flake/pellet and starting to add some freeze dried cyclopeeze in there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX6eeQLVoy8

Thanks PK3! I love watching them. They are starting to become territorial. Rob, I still feed them TDO B1 as there are still a few that are small but they also get fed crushed flakes (prime reef) and crushed pellets (NLS Thera A). I think I took off the black sides after they 10 days. I think mine hit meta at day 8-10.

Here they are at 16 days old. Stripes are starting to get thicker and I am starting to see body stripes on a few of them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfER9Isdvpg

Nice Rob! What kind of tile are you using?

the hobby pack is more for convenience and consistency. You may be able to get away with crushing flakes/pellets but I don't have any experience with that. I will try them after day 15. At the minimum I'd get A and B1.

Yup, no baby brine shrimp...didn't want the hassle of trying to grow/maintain another setup.

I didn't get a chance to take photos or videos at 10 dph. They are at 11 days at the moment. Some are developing thicker head stripes and I see a few with sideburns. I also see some white on the body starting to develop.

More head stripes at 9 dph. All of them have been eating TDO B1 at this point. They only get fed rotifers when I leave for work in the AM. This gives the something to pick on during the day.

I am going to fast track. Here's a photo at 8 dph. Some are going through meta and some have head stripes already.

They hatched in the display tank and I had to catch the fry. I have added a few tiles hoping that they would lay eggs on it. They still chose to lay eggs on the rock. I would suggest using a 4" air stone to aerate the eggs. Just make sure that the eggs get enough movement and the bubbles are large enough that they don't stick in between the eggs.

Oops.. Changed privacy settings. Let me know if that works

Not much has changed in day 6. Started introducing TDO B1 and slowly weaning them off the rotifers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IoW9d7x6E4