Thursday, January 14, 2016

A good start to 2016

Well I spent all of 2015 working towards better larval rearing methods and a better understanding of the larval requirements for the Bandit Angelfish, A. arcuatus. To end the year, I started two larval runs a week apart from each other and with all that was going on during the holidays I suffered a classic case of trying to do too much. This resulted in the loss of the younger batch of fish at day 17 days old. I have learned (again) that it's best to focus on one larval run at a time.

The good news is that the older larval run is 40 days old today and I'm seeing signs that the larvae will begin to settle out this week (knock wood). Here's a video taken today. At this stage the larvae have a fairly bright orange/red color at the caudal area. there is also some darkening on the dorsal part of the body. There are two larvae displaying a thin white stripe down the middle of their forehead which is the start of the juvenile colors coming in. I'm sorry I couldn't get either of the those two larvae to participate in the video.
https://youtu.be/fivhrfWdyV4

There is also some very exciting news to start off 2016 and that is the addition of several adult C. interrupta which will hopefully become future brood stock, (since Faith and Fabio have not come through with enough fertile eggs). I hope these new fish will help us get back on track with the Faith and Fabio project! They are still in quarantine and I'll keep you posted as to their progress.