Recent content by Martin Moe

In my experience there were two reasons why clownfish eggs did not hatch within the proper time. The first was temperature. When temperature dropped below about 78 F the hatching time was extended to 8 to 9 days (A. ocellaris) and if it dropped to 76 - 75 F, they might not hatch at all. The...

Louis, The angelfish larvae survived only a few days after first feeding began, as I recall, maybe 3 days or so. We did have quite a large quantity of cultured copepods, we had two of these large tanks. We did have to seive out the adults and replace them in the tanks to maintain the...

This is a very interesting study by Elizabeth Clarke. I remember touring her rotifer and phytoplankton labs a while back. It points out very well that the culture of promising larval food organisms is just beginning. I think that there is more to the situation than just successful culture...

Hi Chris, I don't have any experience with Bill Addison's larval food for clownfish, but I have reared clownfish on a good quality dry flake food ground to the right particle size (small, you have to experiment) followed by brine shrimp. Not many make it through and the quality of the resulting...

You don't have to remove the eggs. Let them hatch in the main tank, this will happen about 7 to 9 days after they are laid, probably 2 days after you can see the eyes. Watch at night about a half to 2 hours after the lights go out for a tank full of tiny larval fish swiming about in the dark...

Breeding clowns are not difficult, but it does take some facilities and a good bit of time, especially at the beginning. 1. True that young ocellaris clowns will adjust their sexes to create a male female pair. However, success in developing a mated pair might be better with 3 to 5 small fish...

Hybrids are not too hard to develop in closely related clowns, the tomato complex for example. Unfortunately most tomatos look a lot alike as juveniles and the hybrids don't bring any more (at least they didn't some time ago) than the "purebloods". The effort and facilities necessary to develop...

Yes I do. It's a small 13 foot Boston Whaler with a 40 hp Mariner engine. Unfortunately, the motor at this time is not running very well. I have to get it fixed or explore the mysteries of carborator cleaning and repair myself. Both options require some partition of time and money, neither or...

Louis, I can't answer for David, of course, but I'll toss in my opinions and what I know from what I've done with this group. I would guess, if David's experience is similar to my own, that the last of the larvae dies on day 12 and that most of the mortality occurs before day 9. Evidently a few...

David, Interesting post. I worked with Centropyge for some months a few years ago, the flame and the cherb fish, and my survival results were about like yours, maybe a day or two shorter suvival, and I was using wild plankton seived down to the 20 to 50 micron range. Only a few copepod napuli...

Interesting topic. I remember when.... (Indulge me a little here) Back in the early 1970's I raised clownfish in commercial quantities (100's to 1000's) when no one else knew how... It was fun till I tried to sell them. The shops and wholesalers said, in essence, "Wow, tank raised marine...

Hi Frank, I guess I'm not supposed to post a personal message on this forum, but I don't know how else I can respond to your now not so recent email. I've been trying, but my reply always come back to me.... So I'll put it here and hope for the best. Martin Hi Frank, Terry I've been trying...

I want to express my thanks to all of you that participated in my recent survey on the status and activities of marine ornamental hobbyists, commercial breeders, and scientists. I received 325 returns from hobbyists, 34 from commercial breeders and 49 from scientists. And this was enough to...

Steve, Sure, you can use the data any way you wish. An acknowledgement to Florida Sea Grant would be nice. Martin

Ladies and Gentlemen of the captive reef, I need a little help. The Marine Ornamentals 2001 conference, sponsored by Sea Grant, is being held in Orlando, Florida on Nov. 27 to Dec. 1, 2001. The theme of the conference is Collection, Culture, and Conservation. Www.ifas.ufl.edu/~coferweb/MO This...