Little Nemo Diary

[-Nemo-]

Day 44

Baby Count: 8


Nothing much new to report. Fed some more flake food and BBS today. Still continuing to feed them 3-4 times a day at intervals of about 3 hours.





Clutch 4
Day 18

Baby Count: 9


Tried offering them some flake food again today and they decided to nibble! Looks like 3 or 4 of them decided that the small green and orange particles which magically fall from the sky and float above their heads, was food to be eaten! Still continuing to feed them mostly BBS for now, will be sticking to flake food once a day.

The swarm of them

Clutch 5
Day 5

Baby Count: 10-15?


Well, not too sure what happened here. Mass die-off last night it seems. Tested out the water, everything was fine except of an ammonia level of 0.5ppm. Since the pH is at 7.8 though, it shouldn't have been too too toxic. With nothing else to go on, however, I guess it's best to assume that's the cause.
Disappointed to say the least.

List of improvements later in the post.

Baby Picture

Clutch 6
Day 2

Turning Gray.

With the failure of clutch 5, I'm implementing the following changes; not all of them are directly related, but should help with their overall health and getting them to meta:

- Water Changes EVERYDAY for the first week
Most likely just small ones, like 1/2G. Just enough to keep the levels down
- An additional external filtration added
Not entirely sure what yet, I have various sponge filters, and I've been working on an airlift filtration system which may be "soft" enough for use in the larvae tanks. One or the other will be added.
- Ammonia testing everyday for first week to ensure no high levels
- Introduce BBS at Day 6


We'll see how it goes for Clutch 6

 

[Hawkins]

They look great.

The pretend anenome made me laugh

could you not just use one of those horrible fake ones?

 

[-Nemo-]

Lack of updates had a reason. Only came on here to quickly read new things. End of the semester at school so lots of things to finish up! I got bombarded with finals this week and next


Day 47

Baby Count: 8

So these guys are developing their black pigment quite nicely. All of them are at very different stages for this. Boss has a ton of black pigment on his fins, while 2 or 3 only have a little bit, and the other
four or five not showing any signs of black pigment at all. Last three days I have been just feeding them a rotation of BBS and flake food. Did a 1G water change for them today. Prior to the change their water stats were as follows:

Salinity: 1.0225 --> little lower than I like
pH: 7.8
NO3: 20 ))

I also cleaned off their fake anemone for the first time, it was getting rather yucky. They got upset. I had to even persuade a couple to leave it as I was pulling it from the water. And then they ran straight back to it as soon as it was back in its spot.


Here's Boss with all his cool markings

And here all 8 are in the same spot (only 6 viewable in picture) glad to have their anemone back as they stare at me with frown faces as I continue to clean the tank

Clutch 4
Day 21

Baby Count: 9


Getting to be big fish! All visibly and voraciously eating flake now. Have changed their feeding now to BBS twice a day and flake food twice a day. It looks like all of them have the black pigment on their pelvic fins now, no sign of a third stripe yet. They also appear to be much more orange in color compared to clutch 2, however, they are in different lighting conditions and in a different set-up, so perhaps not.
These guys got a water change today as well (spent 3 hours doing fish stuff today )

Stats prior to the change:

Salinity: 1.0255 --> little too high..
pH: 7.8
NO3: 20 (Another smiley )


Here's some of them swimming around

So clutch 5 was a total loss
After my previous update, the next day all had died.
Learned my ammonia lesson the hard way...

I concluded that the reason I never had this problem before was because I had never had so many fry hatch before.
More fry = more fry which die within the first 4 days.
More Death = More ammonia
More ammonia... well we know what happened.

So here's my regimen for the next clutch:
1. Dose amquel on either a) The hatch night or b) ASAP the next morning
2. Siphon the bottom of the tank everyday (unless of course it's not needed)
3. Actual water change Day 5 or 6
4. Still working on a filter solution... Might just end up implementing more sponge filters





So, Clutch 6
Day 5

No picture because the lights went off already, but they're doing well.





Misc.:
So clutch 6 is due sunday night/monday morning and my cleaner shrimp is due monday night. I'm hoping to attempt to raise them this time around. Both are carrying eggs at the moment (fertilization was 5 days apart from each other). They've carried before just hadn't gotten around to setting anything up. If anyone is interested in them let me know and I'll update on them as well. They're quite difficult from what I understand. Very few people have been successful in raising them and even fewer successful in raising many at a time. I was lucky, however, to personally speak to two people who have done it first hand and had varying degrees of success. We'll see how it goes I guess!

They look great.

The pretend anenome made me laugh

could you not just use one of those horrible fake ones?

The big babies have a fake one and it looks nice and they love it, but I don't love the price

 

[SBL]

Ohh, shrimp topic. C'mon Nemo, your up to it. You need to atleast try it. think, more babies raised equals more moola in your pocket

 

[mattyg12uk]

Ohh, shrimp topic. C'mon Nemo, your up to it. You need to atleast try it. think, more babies raised equals more moola in your pocket

Cant wait to hear about the cleaner shrimp!

 

[-Nemo-]

Day 49

Baby Count: 8

Not much new with these guys. Fed some flake flood and Nutramar ova. 1/2G water change.





Clutch 4
Day 23

Baby Count: 9

So I mentioned earlier that I wanted to add these guys to the same tank as the older ones, so I took the chance and added them in today with no divider. Acclimated them to their water (because small change in salinity) and then I had to acclimate them for temperature because the older ones had a much higher temperature for some reason. But nonetheless, after about an hour of acclimation I added them and watched for any aggression. It was successful
They don't even give a second glance at the little ones and even let them into their anemone

It looks like they're just starting to get their third stripes now.

I like the little ones much better with the big ones, I can look at them much easier now.
I discovered this little baby (he's teeny) who has a bit of a head stripe misbar

Here's a little bit of a size comparison between two ages. It seems they double their size in a month! You can also see a little how much more orange the smaller ones are compared to the larger ones. Hard to tell so much in the picture, but they really are.

And here's an overall picture of them together. Most of them are present in the picture.

And a little video of them just swimming around.

Clutch 6
Day 7

Nice and silver, hatch night tomorrow.

The shrimps!
First one should give birth on Monday night, setting up the tank for her and them soon. The second one is due on Saturday the 12th.

Here's a picture of the two of them in their favorite spots.

And a a close-up picture of the eggs of the one who has been holding for 7 Days now.

 

[-Nemo-]

Little bit of an update, exams have got me all tangled up!


Big Babies, Day 53
Not too much different for these guys, I have to get another picture of Boss up, his black pigment is nearing completion, the others are just starting or have yet to start at all.

Little Babies, Day 27
Still with the big babies, having no problems they are all getting along except for the occasion common baby fight. Eating like crazy, looks like the majority have their third stripes now, only the 2 or 3 smallest have yet to gain it.

^^
Did a water change on their tank today, stats prior to change:

Salinity: 1.023
N03: 20ppm ))



Even littler babies, Day 3
Very few hatched on hatch day, and there was no chance to even put them back in the dark to hatch more, because the eggs had already gone bad. It's starting to become frustrating why the eggs keep dying when I move them. My next step is to start dipping them in Formalin before putting them in the fry tank to hatch, perhaps a fungus is killing them because of the lack of attention from the daddy clown. I'll try this with the next clutch which is yet to be laid.

I counted either 9 or 10 in there. I will be starting them on BBS this weekend. None seem to have died since hatching. I used the amquel the night I put the eggs in there, and then again today. I tested the ammonia today before I did a water change and there was some ammonia, but only a teeny amount, barely readable. N03 was at 20ppm, salinity at 1.025




Cleaner Shrimp:
The one who's eggs I was planning on raising, ended up releasing the larvae a night earlier than expected, so no babies from her. The next one is supposedly due Saturday, so I will be moving her to the tank on Friday to have her babies incase she decides to release them early as well.



Pictures, video and bigger update next time!

 

[SBL]

We! Nemo, you may aswell be the one that supplies your nearest LFS that caries marine Tank Bred Occelaris Clowns.

 

[-Nemo-]

Day 54

Baby Count: 8
Full Body Length: Estimated around 2cm


Here are a couple pictures of Boss. The black pigmentation on his soft dorsal and anal fin look complete. Now it looks like his caudal fin is starting to darken up more again.

From Last night

From Today

Clutch 4
Day 28

Baby Count: 8
Full Body Length: 1.5cm


I checked on them this morning and one of the babies was laying on his side not doing well and within 10 minutes had died. Unsure why. The only abnormality I could spot was a red sore bump on his side which was definitely not there yesterday (I look at these fish too much to have not noticed it). I do not know if it was the cause of his death or if it occurred as/after he died and the others started to go after him.

Here's a picture of the spot

Keeping an extra double check on them all today to make sure no one else starts to show any symptoms but at the moment, they all seem perfectly fine.

It looks the remainder have small third stripes, and the small baby with the head misbar, seems to have fully grown the stripe in.





Clutch 6
Day 4

Baby Count: 8... I think


No more deaths it seems. All eating well. Still cannot get a definite count with these guys, but it seems I am cursed with the number 8. 8 Big babies... Now 8 smaller babies... and 8 really small babies...

Small Group of them chowing away

One of them staring at those yummy white specks... to eat or not to eat it...

And a little video of the big baby tank doing what they do all day long... swimming. Ignore my conversation in the background, or listen if you like.

 

[Hawkins]

Well done Nemo, you seem like a very clever person.

 

[seffieuk]

Oh my goodness, those babies in the video are too cute for words, how do you ever get any work done?

Is there any chance we could see a video of Boss and Baby?

Seffie x

 

[-Nemo-]

Sorry for lack of updates, but I am currently battling some type of ailment with the babies.

Including the one i already mentioned which died, another from clutch 4 came down with the same symptoms and also died earlier this morning after I attempted to treat him.

A third now, this one from Clutch 2, is starting to exhibit the symptoms which include:
A bloated belly
small red marking underneath the belly
Slight Pop Eye
Vertical Swimming


The current has all the symptoms minus the swimming, I've isolated him and did a 3 minute freshwater dip and treating him now with formalin. The rest of the babies got a water change and are being treated with a smaller dosage of formalin.

I have not quite pinpointed the disease, but I think it might be an internal fungus, where it came from I don't know. It's very disheartening to have put so much work into trying to keep them healthy and then this pops up

 

[Haych]

am so sorry to hear that youre having problems, and i can understand you being upset, its alot of work.

The babies look really well, so i am suprised theyre ill

ps, love the amercian twang !

 

[Knox213]

if you sell the fry.

you'll be a billionare XD

------
EDIT : sorry for your loss'es

 

[seffieuk]

Just love that picture of them all in their nem, looking grumpy

It must be very difficult losing some of the babies after so long

Seffie x