Well after nearly a three year wait my black ocellaris finally spawned. We noticed they we spawning around 4PM Central 11-16-02, at the base of a bubble tip anemone. It is a small spawn, but it is a beginning.
Spawn #2 from jet black ocellaris pair are now 10-days old. They are pretty much morphed now. Please note the second stripe is already visible. We have about 60 from this spawn and the pair is quarding more eggs as I write this.
We are raising the rotifers. It isn't all that bad really. We now have regular spawning pairs of true percula and black ocellaris. We are also going to set up some different clown species.
what are the odds the young will be black? i see they are normally colored now. How many young did you end up with. Im just curious since i have been hatching ocellaris as well. I have noticed some of my normal babies having more black on fins then others and its noticeble after 20 days.
I think the odds are very good that they will all turn black. ORA is now raising black ocellaris and have told me that they breed true. They turn black at a fairly small size, although some will turn faster than others.
I would not recommend crossing a black with a normal because you might not get any black. I was talking about these clowns with Tom Frakes at MACNA. Way back in the 70s he was working with one of the first groups to raise clowns. He said they raised thousands of clowns and once in awhile a black would show up. Somehow the project ended before they were able to get any black pairs and fix the coloration. These come from Australia and occur in small numbers in the wild. My pair were probably captive reared in Australia but I do not know. They appear to have caught (size) a spawn of true percula two days older. They get the second stripe much quicker than true perks. Tom knows a ton more than I do about breeding clowns and he said crossing them would probalby breed out the black instead of putting more on the average ocellaris.
Thanks Leonard I'll holler at you in about three months.
what type of anenome you got those things playing in? I have a pair that have bounced around my tank for about 10+ months together ( they are now inseperable) and there has been an E. Quad there the whole time with no response, they look at it every once in a while and then no looks for a month or so...
I have only had percs/ocell take to an anen after a pink skunk got jammed in a powerhead intake (think percs chased him).. The skunk was a long time resident of the long tentacle...
The E. quad was a gift, and I have had it looking healthy for 14+ months.. Didnt have the heart to tell her no when she showed up on the door step in the hand of one of my best friends.. The old "I bought you an anenome for your tank..." line.
Any hope for a link up in your view. I dont want to buy a Heriactis Mag.. But would love to see them cozy up and spawn with an anen.. Thought I would ask someone with a background much deeper than mine
I have a E. quadricolor that the black ocellaris love, so I wouldn't give up hope. It took about two weeks for them to adapat to it. Notice how all the babies are already turning black. They are now 33-days old. They all appear to have have perfect stripes. There are 64 of them. There is only 2-3 runts in the bunch. Not bad for only the second spawn out of this pair. We have a much larger spawn in the larval stage right now. The ocellaris get there second stipe much earlier than a pair of true perks I have. The true perks produce tons of mis-marked babies.
Hey Dizzy, I thought you werent supposed to use substrate b/c of all the leftover food that settles down to the bottom that needs to be removed... am i wrong?
We start them out on rotifers then go newly hatched brine and then chopped flake food and frozen baby brine. The ones in the picture are about ready to start eating adult live brine as well. Raising clowns requires dedication. It probably wouldn't work for someone that has a normal job and a social life. My wife does most of the mothering, and we pretty much live at our store. Owning a lfs is no picnic.
Chis,
We start them out with a bare bottom tank for the first month. My wife thinks there are benefits to the sand bottom. We keep a few snails and hermits in with juveniles and gravel vacuum the sand layer when doing partials. We are probably not getting the growth rate of a commercial hatchery due to the lack of free water for massive partials. I guess there is more than one way to do things. I'm not saying we are doing things the best way, but we are having some success.