the switcheroo

Well, the Picassos are playing hard to get, as usual.   They just don't want to hatch!  So I'll have to keep them tumbling another day.  Good thing I've trained the Clarkis to lay on a tile.  I'll pull the tile and replace it with another.  Then I can just let them hatch into their new home.

3 in a row

I'm getting ready to hatch out 3 batches in a row.  Picassos tonight,  Clarkis tomorrow and Ocellaris Thursday.  I have to move all the other young and get the bowls ready.  It's a good time to observe the larvae and fry.  Here's that same little Picasso at 3 weeks - just starting to get that crazy color.

Etta and Miles

Here's a peak at my newest pair.  Randy from the Atlanta Reef Club brought me these two to watch over while he is in between tanks.  They settled in to the refugium with the jawfish and started spawning a month later.  I hope to hatch out some of the next batch.  Etta is a Sanjay's Half-Black Photon and Miles is a Black Ocellaris.  So the offspring will be 3/4 Black Ocs and 1/4 Onyx Percula.

Dance of the red-lipped scooters

Brad and Janet, my pair of scooter blennies, are now spawning almost every night. Around 7pm they pair up and do a lovely dance to the surface and back down again and again.  It's awesome to watch.

Alice and Opie

I've been cleaning all day.  It's amazing how fast these tanks get dirty.  I feed a lot, and algae can build up on the glass in a few days so that I can't even see what's going on. It didn't stop my original pair from spawning minutes after I cleaned their tank. Timing is everything.

in the beginning

I use the John Lauth method of removing and hatching eggs.  I remove the eggs from the substrate with a soda straw and syphon them out.  I then tumble the eggs in a small vase for 2 hours and transfer to a flat-sided fish-bowl.  Here's a shot of a Percula that hatched last night.

They stay in the bowl for 2 weeks.  Here's a shot of a week-old Clarki.

I then transfer them to 20g tank for 2 more weeks.   Here's a shot of month-old Perculas.

Pretty cute, no?

Pearly Jawfish

Another mouth-brooder is the jawfish family.  Jenny and Jazz are my first pair of pearly jawfish.  They are now spawning regularly, but Jazz still hasn't held to term.  Jenny gets so fat I know when they are about to spawn, but I couldn't get the camera fast enough.  Here she is post spawn and skinny.

and here's the daddy juggling the eggs.
These fish make a den in the sand and close it up every night.  I set up this "refugium" so that we can see into the den.

The Next Generation

Oh, they grow up so fast. Seems just last year these 2 were in diapers. Now just look at them doing the tango of love :)

This is the first pair I made from Bonnie and Clyde's offspring.  I think they spawned the first time at just 7 months old!  If you look close, you might be able to see an egg hanging.

The Magnificent Fan Shrimp Goby

Jack really is a miracle fish.  I recovered this little guy out of the sump of a tank I was buying.  Apparently , the owner had purchased two of these black sailfin gobies at the LFS, put them in his 125g and never saw them again.  So after living in a sump for a year, He came to live with me.

 I found him a shrimp to share his den, but finding a mate has proven more difficult.  It turns out that this is one rare fish.  Gobies really don't live that long, but this guy is a survivor.  He's only got one eye, but he is one gorgeous creature.  These pics really don't do justice.  One-eyed Jack needs a Jill.