Day 44 Paracentropyge venusta

Well we are at day 44 of trial 8 for the P. venusta and we've started having a few deaths.
In an effort to get all of the larvae moved into clean tanks I had to move some into a 20 gallon grow out tank. I moved a total of 34 larvae to this tank over the last few days and they have settled in fairly well. This is quite a change for them at this early age.
Here's a video of them exploring their new home.
http://youtu.be/P0k1Obu8bBs

Once they were moved and I could set up a new tank where they had been I moved the rest of this batch (56 larvae) to a clean larval tank. So we currently have a total of 90 larvae and I do expect to lose a few more over the coming days after all this moving.

I also have a photo of one of todays dead larvae and would like to share that as well since they are so beautiful at this stage and the video doesn't do them justice.  This is one of the larger larvae which is 1.6cm total length.

It's day 33 of trial 8 for the P. venusta

It's day 33 of trial 8 for the P. venusta and things are going well, (knock wood).
The larvae are currently feeding on Artemia with a supplement of copepods.
We are at approximately 25% survival which is great. I don't know the exact percent survival since I am estimating the number of larvae at 120. We'll know better when all the larvae are moved and counted.

Here's a video taken today. You may notice that I'm getting better with the camera. :)
http://youtu.be/Q7yztLYo2t8

P. venusta Trial 8 day 13

We left off on June 27 hoping to get a good batch of eggs on the new moon. You all did a great job at keeping your fingers crossed and we had another large spawn. I collected the spawn, took it out to the fish garage and set it on top of one of the water storage barrels. As I bent over and reached around to grab an air line I knocked the barrel with my rear end just enough to jiggle the beaker of eggs and cause the top 2mm of water in the beaker to slosh out over the top. About 90% of the eggs were floating in that surface water and were now all over the top of the water storage barrel.  All I could do was clean up the mess and go to bed grumpy.

The following night the venusta pair produced a smaller spawn of 424 eggs. All were fertile and Trial 8 was finally underway.
Today we are at day 13 and the larvae look great. We've had very good survival and I estimate there are currently 120 larvae. I've been keeping the food density at 2 to 4 items per ml. and temp. at 25 to 26C.

Here is a video taken this morning. Like my other videos it goes in and out of focus but there are some good glimpses of the larvae.
http://youtu.be/q4akT-GlvTE

The last 'cultured food only' larval trial with the P. venusta was looking good at day 5. The larvae I sampled had nice full guts and were looking healthy. Then on days 6 to 8 things were not looking so good. The number of larvae was declining rapidly and they did not look as healthy. Most larvae had empty guts on day 6 and I wondered if the larvae I had looked at on day 5 were the best of the bunch and these empty guts were there but not sampled. I think from the way things were looking that most of the larvae did not start to feed and the larvae I had sampled were the fat/healthy ones up in the water column that I could see. At any rate the run was not going well and I stopped it in order to prepare for a new one. The time required to bring up the copepod cultures for the next run would set us up to start around the new moon which is perfect timing.

So here we are at the week of the new moon. I've been watching the P. venusta pair and was able to collect over a thousand eggs on Tues. evening (3 days before new moon). Unfortunately those eggs were not fertile. I collected another thousand on Wed. evening. Also not fertile. Last night (Thurs. evening) there was no spawn. Tonight is the new moon and we're all set to go so please keep your fingers crossed for a fertile spawn!

Here is a video I took earlier this week of the venusta pair 

http://youtu.be/mH44iP4wPxY

I've also been setting the egg screen for Faith and Fabio and checking for eggs from Jaws, Connie and the fish from the Rising Tide project. I have not gotten any eggs from any of them yet. I'll say it again, Patience is a virtue!

Back in Action

I've started another P. venusta larval run and we're at day 5 today. This run is a cultured foods only trial and the larvae are looking good so far. I've also decided to throw in some additional variables so we're running at a higher temperature and have started with a higher stocking density. I know some of you are probably thinking, "well that's not very scientific" and you're right. My decision to go this route is based on the successful P. venusta run which was unbearably long. This species is a tropical species and that run having taken place in a subtropical climate during the winter months led me to opt for the higher temp of 27C. As far as the higher stocking density goes, I was unsure as to what level I wanted to stock the tank at and was going to stock it the same as the successful larval run but there was a healthy spawn of 1079 fertile eggs….. If I've made a mistake and stocked too high it will most likely be evident early on and I'll just have to start over again. Going with cultured foods only is a no brainer since that is one of my top priorities. Keep in mind that there are always many more variables going on and hopefully as we move forward we can tease them out.

blondie the unknown larva identified

Well it looks like our blonde larva is turning out to be Centropyge acanthops!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI5hP9QCy6A&feature=youtu.be

If you remember I had added 20 C. acanthops eggs to the P. venusta run at the start. I could tell the difference between the two species with the acanthops larvae having a longer, narrower body shape. I thought I had lost them all early on during the run but blondie must have persevered! I hadn't thought she was C. acanthops since her body shape was higher as she approached metamorphosis.

This has been great fun and she is turning into a cute juvy. She also gets along very well with her P. venusta tank mate (for now anyway!).

I'm currently waiting until the end of May for my hand to heal after carpal tunnel surgery and will start back up with both the Rising Tide work (focusing on P. venusta, C. potteri and C. jordani) and the side projects with whoever spawns (hopefully Faith and Fabio or Jaws and Connie).

Happy Mothers Day to all you moms!!

160 days

Well we're at 160 days and our little blonde girl is still going through metamorphosis! I still don't know what she's going to turn out to be and maybe she's taking her time cause she doesn't know either!

Here's a video taken today. You can see that she is getting some darker markings (which look darker in person) on her body and darker pigment through some of her fins. Her behavior has changed slightly in that she is sleeping in even longer than before and tends to run for cover more often. You may also notice that her swimming has more of a wiggle to it now which also doesn't seem to show up as much on the video. It's more of a clownfish wiggle or maybe it's a little hula.  :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SKFVoMuWew&feature=youtu.be