The Lightning Project

I let Jake Adams break the news on ReefBuilders, sending him shots in the late/earlier hours (depends on your frame of mind).  I’m quoting an excerpt from Jake’s great writeup from ReefBuilders here, because he really presents an objective view.

“Even though the maroon lighting maroon clownfish was paired with a related Premnas biaculeatus from Papua New Guinea, we don’t think anyone really expected to see expressions of the lightning pattern in the first generation of the lightning maroon’s offspring. All observers of the lightning maroon project who know anything about mendelian genetics realistically thought that we might see some traces of the lightning pattern in the second, F2 generation of lightning maroon clownfish once they were back-crossed with each other a bit. However, for Matt to observe the lightning pattern in his very first batch of offspring from a half-cross of lightning maroon but full cross of PNG maroons clownfish must be very encouraging…“

Since my last update, I DID opt to start feeding brine shrimp nauplii.  They are being rinsed well.  I’m using 16 month out-of-date decapsulate eggs from SeahorseSource.com / Dan Underwood, and they’re still hatching great (I keep them stored in my fridge).  I’m doing daily water changes, occasionally siphoning the bottom, and I’ve been using nothing but Marine Environment salt by AquaCraft (thanks Mike Del Prete – who contributed enough salt to last me and the Banggai Rescue project years).  I also started offering the APBreed TDO A1, as well as older Otohime A I had on hand from Reed Mariculture.  I cut way back on the RotiGreen Nanno I was adding; basically just 10 drops or so once or twice per day, just to keep the rotifers in there from dying en-masse.  I am currently trying to weed them out.

These photos (and the video at the bottom) were shot after midnight, so technically this morning (7-9-2012, but almost 24 hours ago now).  This puts these larvae/juveniles at 10 days post hatch, and most have gone through settlement. I have included multiple variations / crops / zooms of most photos so you can get a sense of scale and overall view, as well as the maximum zoom I could give you.

MORE TO COME….

So this evening I did my water tests after letting things settle down.  Salinity / Specific Gravity has once again crept up to 1.011, so I brought it back to down to 1.010 with RODI water.  Important to keep the salinity at the right levels…1.010 is better than 1.011 for hyposalinity treatment.

Lighting Maroon nipped at Formula 1 Pellets and Cyclopeeze.  It has already learned to pick up food off the glass bottom.  It has also learned to feed from the surface.  Now we just need the female to shake her funk and start eating.  Brine shrimp hatchery set up, decapped brine from Dan Underwood @ SeahorseSource.com incubating.

pH had dropped a little bit, so I dosed a half dose of Seachem’s Reef Buffer.  Ammonia was possibly slightly elevated, maybe 0.25 ppm on the one test I used.  Just above the 0 ppm level.  So, dosed with Seachem’s Stability, since no doubt I’ve killed off some of the nitrifying bacteria or created more waste than they can handle (via Formalin dosing).   Lights are out,  and they’re sleeping.  The Lightning Maroon has taken to sleeping in the corner up by the surface, which I just don’t like.  All we need is for this fish to be up by the surface, getting inspired to check out what’s going on outside the tank…

One last thing – THANK YOU for all the continued support, both publicly here and privately via email.  This has been a very nerve-testing experience.  We all KNEW this was a possibility with WC Clownfish, but hey, we’d like to think we’re gonna get lucky.  I’m doing the best I can, which is great part due to the continued advice from the project advisers!  It is admittedly tough to make decisions when there are multiple routes provided, all of which have fact and experience behind them!