I've had some trouble with the P. venusta larvae and bullying. There had been some minor chasing and displays of dominance over the last month. Last week one larva went missing and I noticed the bullying had escalated. Three of the submissive larvae were removed from the tank leaving the two more dominant larvae and the unknown blonde. I had hoped that the two venusta would pair up but that was not the case and they had to be separated as well. Currently the most dominant is living with 30 picasso clowns of her same size in a clownfish grow out tank. She is very happy with them. The second most dominant is still in the original tank with the unknown blonde and they are now buddies. Unfortunately the three submissive larvae died from what I think was a bacterial infection. When I moved them from their original tank they had no signs of physical damage but I think the aggressiveness towards them had weakened them and along with the stress of moving the infection was able to overcome them. I had treated them with antibiotics and I wonder if it may have been too much for them as little as they are and in a weakened state. I feel so sad for their loss and have learned more about this species which brings up more questions for their future captive rearing and especially grow out techniques.
To end on a happier note, here is a more recent video of the unknown blonde larva taken a week ago. You can see the dark blue on her pelvic fins. We are into 5 months now and this larva has still not completely gone through meta and I'm still not sure what she is!
http://youtu.be/SdK2nq_esYk
Monday, April 21, 2014
Monday, April 14, 2014
Hi Everyone,
I've posted a short overview of the larval rearing for the P. venusta on the Rising Tide Conservation blog.
http://risingtideconservation.blogspot.com
The last P. venusta larval trial with only cultured foods came to an end after two water quality issues. One was a heater that went nuts and over heated. The other was that I had purchased a food grade Rubbermade trash barrel for water storage and after conditioning it with fresh water and letting it sit out in the sun I stored some salt water in it. A few days later the area around the barrel had an odor similar to cat spray (urine). Sometimes neighbors cats do visit my fish garage so I grumbled to myself about cat spray and went on to use the water in the barrel. Then realized the odor was coming from the inside of the barrel! This was strange since I've always used these barrels without a problem. I don't know what the cause is with this one but I rinsed and dried the barrel, refilled it and a couple days later it smelled again. So it is no longer a water storage barrel and I just wanted to pass along this info in case anyone else has a similar experience. Don't use the water if it smells like cat urine! (How crazy is that)!
Otherwise, the cultured food only P. venusta larval run was going fairly well (not great but good) and I will be starting another as soon as eggs are available.
Still no spawn from Faith and Fabio or any of the other pairs.
I've posted a short overview of the larval rearing for the P. venusta on the Rising Tide Conservation blog.
http://risingtideconservation.blogspot.com
The last P. venusta larval trial with only cultured foods came to an end after two water quality issues. One was a heater that went nuts and over heated. The other was that I had purchased a food grade Rubbermade trash barrel for water storage and after conditioning it with fresh water and letting it sit out in the sun I stored some salt water in it. A few days later the area around the barrel had an odor similar to cat spray (urine). Sometimes neighbors cats do visit my fish garage so I grumbled to myself about cat spray and went on to use the water in the barrel. Then realized the odor was coming from the inside of the barrel! This was strange since I've always used these barrels without a problem. I don't know what the cause is with this one but I rinsed and dried the barrel, refilled it and a couple days later it smelled again. So it is no longer a water storage barrel and I just wanted to pass along this info in case anyone else has a similar experience. Don't use the water if it smells like cat urine! (How crazy is that)!
Otherwise, the cultured food only P. venusta larval run was going fairly well (not great but good) and I will be starting another as soon as eggs are available.
Still no spawn from Faith and Fabio or any of the other pairs.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Rising Tide Conservation
I'd like to pass along a link to Rising Tide Conservation if you don't know of them already.
http://risingtideconservation.blogspot.com
The venusta breeding and larval rearing will be shared through them to growers in an effort to further captive breeding of marine ornamentals.
I will also continue to post updates here so stay tuned.
http://risingtideconservation.blogspot.com
The venusta breeding and larval rearing will be shared through them to growers in an effort to further captive breeding of marine ornamentals.
I will also continue to post updates here so stay tuned.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
It's been almost a month since my last post. I can't believe how fast time has flown by and how slowly the P. venusta larvae have gotten their juvenile colors!
Here is an updated video where you can see that most of the venusta have most of their color. The blonde unknown larva is getting dark tips on her pelvic fins and her golden color looks a little more on the golden/orange side of golden.
http://youtu.be/nBX7GPmFc3k
The next larval run of venusta raised only on cultured foods is going well. They did have some set backs in their third week and are behind in development with quite a range in their sizes. I'm not sure if the set backs were related to diet and the larvae have recovered well. There are 21 larvae left at day 36 today. They are currently eating Artemia and cultured copepods.
All of the brood stock are doing great although there has not been much going on in the way of spawning.
Here is an updated video where you can see that most of the venusta have most of their color. The blonde unknown larva is getting dark tips on her pelvic fins and her golden color looks a little more on the golden/orange side of golden.
http://youtu.be/nBX7GPmFc3k
The next larval run of venusta raised only on cultured foods is going well. They did have some set backs in their third week and are behind in development with quite a range in their sizes. I'm not sure if the set backs were related to diet and the larvae have recovered well. There are 21 larvae left at day 36 today. They are currently eating Artemia and cultured copepods.
All of the brood stock are doing great although there has not been much going on in the way of spawning.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Updated videos :)
The P. venusta larvae from trial 5 are 105 days old today. I had wanted to post a video at day 100 but life has been so hectic that it didn't happen. I'm sorry about that but better late than never, so here is an updated video taken two days ago on day 103. I'm very happy that the larvae are beginning to get more color and in this video I focused on the most advanced larva in terms of color/markings. Her fins and tail have filled in and her forehead color is developing. In fact she already shows more color on her forehead today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_jU6OThUWs
I also have an updated video of the blonde larva taken on day 98. She pretty much looks the same, and the only difference I have noticed in her recent development is that she is going to bed earlier. Earlier than the rest of the larvae and earlier than she used to turn in. I have no idea what this means but it scares me when I do a head count before lights out and she's no where to be seen! Thankfully, she's always there with the rest of the gang waiting for breakfast in the morning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xymwZm0ZSUw
The P. venusta larvae from Trial 6 are 12 days old today and doing great on only cultured parvo. They look very similar in development to 12 day old larvae fed wild plankton. I will be transferring them to a clean tank this weekend and will get an accurate count at that time.
We also had a little spawning action from Faith and Fabio a week ago. They produced a good sized spawn yet only 41 eggs were fertile and many of the fertile eggs did not develop well. I started a new larval tank with them but by day 5 there were only 3 larger left. :( The good news is that Faith seems to be more interested in Fabio and they are improving on their spawning dance. Hopefully practice will make perfect!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_jU6OThUWs
I also have an updated video of the blonde larva taken on day 98. She pretty much looks the same, and the only difference I have noticed in her recent development is that she is going to bed earlier. Earlier than the rest of the larvae and earlier than she used to turn in. I have no idea what this means but it scares me when I do a head count before lights out and she's no where to be seen! Thankfully, she's always there with the rest of the gang waiting for breakfast in the morning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xymwZm0ZSUw
The P. venusta larvae from Trial 6 are 12 days old today and doing great on only cultured parvo. They look very similar in development to 12 day old larvae fed wild plankton. I will be transferring them to a clean tank this weekend and will get an accurate count at that time.
We also had a little spawning action from Faith and Fabio a week ago. They produced a good sized spawn yet only 41 eggs were fertile and many of the fertile eggs did not develop well. I started a new larval tank with them but by day 5 there were only 3 larger left. :( The good news is that Faith seems to be more interested in Fabio and they are improving on their spawning dance. Hopefully practice will make perfect!
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Venusta Valentine Spawn
I've started another larval run with P. venusta eggs spawned on Valentines Day. :)
I've been itching to get another larval run going and getting frustrated with infertile eggs from the brood stock that are spawning. The venusta had not been spawning lately so this was a nice gift from them.
I would have liked to set up two larval tanks, split the eggs into two groups and compare wild plankton against cultured live feeds. Since there were only 295 fertile eggs produced this time which is very close to the 284 venusta eggs stocked on the last larval run, I've put them all in one larval tank. So although it is not the best scientific method, I will use only cultured foods this time around in a comparison against the last run which was fed wild plankton as well as cultured foods. I will do my best to keep parameters as close as possible to the last run for a good comparison. There are of course always going to be variables but as long as we learn something from it and move forward I'll be happy. :)
Our previous P. venusta larvae are at day 94 today and I have to laugh at that. They had such relatively fast development in their first two weeks of life that I had hoped they might be fully settled out by the New Year. Now here we are well into February and 94 days old without juvenile coloration!
In the 20 gallon venusta tank I turned up the heat a notch from 26C to 27C in an effort to see if that would help to promote settlement since they are a tropical species. I was worried that it might cause bacterial problems but thought it was worth a try. Unfortunately I can now only see one larva where there should be four….. :(
In the 40 gallon venusta tank some larvae have grown slightly over the past couple of weeks and some seem to have stayed the same in size. The larger are developing more black in the dorsal area towards the caudal and the golden yellow area at the first few dorsal spines is becoming a more vibrant yellow.
All 11 larvae in this tank are looking good including the unknown blonde.
I've been itching to get another larval run going and getting frustrated with infertile eggs from the brood stock that are spawning. The venusta had not been spawning lately so this was a nice gift from them.
I would have liked to set up two larval tanks, split the eggs into two groups and compare wild plankton against cultured live feeds. Since there were only 295 fertile eggs produced this time which is very close to the 284 venusta eggs stocked on the last larval run, I've put them all in one larval tank. So although it is not the best scientific method, I will use only cultured foods this time around in a comparison against the last run which was fed wild plankton as well as cultured foods. I will do my best to keep parameters as close as possible to the last run for a good comparison. There are of course always going to be variables but as long as we learn something from it and move forward I'll be happy. :)
Our previous P. venusta larvae are at day 94 today and I have to laugh at that. They had such relatively fast development in their first two weeks of life that I had hoped they might be fully settled out by the New Year. Now here we are well into February and 94 days old without juvenile coloration!
In the 20 gallon venusta tank I turned up the heat a notch from 26C to 27C in an effort to see if that would help to promote settlement since they are a tropical species. I was worried that it might cause bacterial problems but thought it was worth a try. Unfortunately I can now only see one larva where there should be four….. :(
In the 40 gallon venusta tank some larvae have grown slightly over the past couple of weeks and some seem to have stayed the same in size. The larger are developing more black in the dorsal area towards the caudal and the golden yellow area at the first few dorsal spines is becoming a more vibrant yellow.
All 11 larvae in this tank are looking good including the unknown blonde.
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