Reef Discussion

[MagicJ]

Be interested to see the rotifers under the USB Microscope to get an idea of how it goes on smaller things.

The last couple of nights my pair of occelaris have had spells of madly picking at a section of rock near where they sleep. I hadn't noticed this behaviour before. Is this possibly a sign that they're preparing to nest? Or am I being overly hopefull?

I have looked at the rotifers - there are two problems 1) they don't keep still and 2) given the high level of magnification the depth of field is minute. This means that as the rotifers swim from the top of the water drop to the bottom they go out of focus. I played around with them for an hour or so last night before I gave up - I tried soaking up some of the water with some tissue but I kepy soaking up the rotifers as well You can see them quite well - it's just difficult to get a good picture.

The cleaning of the rock is a good sign - but whn they might lay eggs is a different question :)

 

[alan]

is that even if you put the water into a glass slide and squash them?

 

[MagicJ]

is that even if you put the water into a glass slide and squash them?

I don't have any glass slides or cover glass :rolleyes

 

[alan]

ebay :)

 

[Dave001]

I've had no luck capturing a good quality closeup of a rotifer either MagicJ.

Here's a video of rotifers in a coke bottle at 60x.
http://www.adrive.com/public/zk3Nbq/60x Rotifers.avi

and baby brine shrimp at 60x.
http://www.adrive.com/public/RmdsmV/60x Baby Brine Shrimp.avi

 

[MagicJ]

try looking at the nanno and the rotifers under the microscope.

This is about the best I can do with the rotifers

And this is an egg tonight

:)

 

[Dr. Schell]

good video of the rotifers, you can see how they glide though the water. Feed them up on Nanno and they will be green

 

[MagicJ]

Finished cleaning out my second hand tank I bought a few months ago - sterilised, rinsed a few times, put it into position and filled with tap water to check my heater was set correctly and ... it leaked Not a big leak, just a small one which is going to be hard to find.

So, tomorrow night I will have to clean out one of the other tanks I just happened to buy yesterday :)

@Dr. Schell - how do you know how many rotifers to feed i.e. 1 litre or 2 litres ?? And, if I am feeding the rots on yeast and then gut loading the rots with nanno prior to feeding to the larvae how much nanno can I expect to use? I currently have 12 litres bubbling away but not sure if that will be enough.

 

[Dr. Schell]

I usually inoculate the rearing tank with nanno each night and let the rotififer numbers multiply in the tank while the fry are asleep. When they wake, their first meal is ready for them.
The rotifers consume the nanno very quickly if their numbers are high. You will work all of this out once you start the process. Then the water becomes clear, you will need to introduce more nanno. However, you will need large numbers of rotifers!!!! The fry are ravenous from day 2-5 on rotifers. After this, you can switch them over to bbs, but do not overfeed on the bbs as they fry will eat them selves to death. 1 bbs is equal to about 40 rotifers in terms of nutritional value, so best to get them onto these at day 5 onwards.

 

[MagicJ]

The eggs have been consistently taking 10 or 11 days to hatch - that meant that the current batch was due to hatch tomorrow night.

But, the current nest was laid a few days earlier than expected which I suspected was due to warmer overnight temperatures and some nice sunlight early of a morning :)

I came home tonight and the eggs had that very shiny appearance and the female was staying a lot closer to the nest than normal - I may live to regret this but after spending a few hours getting things ready I moved the tile over to the larval tank.

This is a photo from tonight

I will check around 9.45 to see if any have hatched - if not then I will return the tile to the parents.

My main concern is the tank temperature. I have set things up in a colourbond shed and the overnight temperature is expected to get down to 1 degree tonight. I have covered all the sides in foam to act as insulation but I am wondering if it is OK to loosely place some foam on top to retain some heat?? The foam would be held off the tank by the power cords etc so there would be adequate gas exchange etc. Thoughts @Dr. Schell ??

 

[alan]

9:45 is an early hatch isn't it.

 

[TheJordans]

I can't speak for marine so much, @MagicJ, but I've had no dramas with lids on freshwater. You know - the glass ones with the corners cut out for the cables etc? So I'd imagine it should be fine. And if not, you know for next time!
Good luck!!

 

[MagicJ]

9:45 is an early hatch isn't it.

They will generally hatch an hour after dark - turn the lights off and darkness could be at 7 o'clock this time of year.

I would have moved them earlier but I had a few things to get ready - cover the sides of the tank; consider if I should pull the tile; make up a rotifer sieve; fill the tank with water; make sure the heater was set correctly; consider again if I should pull the tile...

 

[MagicJ]

Just had a look - nothing happened so far.

I made a decision to leave the tile where it was - I have a stream of bubbles nearby which are providing a fair bit of movement to the eggs so I am hoping they will be fine.

Or should I have returned them to the parents for another day?? But what if they hatch later tonight ??

This is worse than the birth of my 2 kids :D

 

[Brekel]

How have you set up your hatching tank? What equipment?
With respect to whether or not to cover, the hospital tank I had in the colorbond garage until about 2 weeks ago had polystyrene around all sides and over half the top. The other half had a plastic cover, but with a gap undeeneath

 

[Brekel]

oops - phone went flat.
had a gap underneath, and I had no problems.
I was running a small powerhead in there on a sponge filter, and the outlet had an airline attachment that was sucking in air to help with gas exchange.
I was dealing with adult fish though, not a bunch of fry, so it could be different.

 

[Dr. Schell]

should be no issues sealing it with foam, as long as the air pump graws in fresh air. Please remember that the air will be COLD so this may impact on the eggs

 

[TheJordans]

Good point! My goodness, I didn't even think of that!

Could you put the airstone elsewhere and have a small water pump going to create the flow instead? Obviously you would need to be watching it pretty closely and turn it off when they hatched...

 

[MagicJ]

Please remember that the air will be COLD so this may impact on the eggs

I hadn't thought of that Too late now anyway as the night is now day but I don't think there is much I could have done about it anyway - maybe placed the airpump in a polystyrene box - the heat generated by the pump may have helped a bit ??

Anyway, the eggs didn't hatch last night - it appears that I have been guilty of premature withdrawal :rolleyes. Having said that, the eggs looked fine this morning with no evidence of any going bad.

How have you set up your hatching tank? What equipment?

I will post up some photo's tonight - it's pretty basic but it should suffice.

 

[alan]

in my limited experence, when ever the clows lay early, the hatch is all over the show.

And with hatching, we hatched the 1st two lots at work at 2PM. Lights off, monitors on dull, "inside voices" and wrapped the tank in towels.

Good luck for tonight, you have inspired me to give it all a crack again. I have the rest of the week off, so im going to get creative ready to catch babys, Might even put some fish out in the shed in a breeding tank.... Little cold still tho :(