The Lightning Project

The ongoing saga of the PNG Lightning Maroon Clownfish breeding project.

Yes…it’s that time again, more spawns to just track for now.
First up is the F1 Lighnting X Lightning pair; they threw down a nest on 6/14/2015; the eggs hatched out the following Sunday night leading into Monday, so 6/21.  That was the 13th spawn.
Meanwhile, downstairs in the fishroom, the original F0 pair of fish put down another nest, I suspect on Wednesday, 6/17/2015.  As of tonight (6/22, going into 6/23) they haven’t hatched yet and are not looking fully developed even, so I could be a day off (eg. maybe it was Thursday they laid) or if the hatch tomorrow night, they’ll be right on schedule basically.  This is their 58th recorded spawn.

Yes, the monotonous drone of logging spawns continues….the 57th spawn from the wild pair (Lightning X White Stripe) was found on Saturday evening, June 6th, 2015.

It looks like things are slowly returning to normal here.  The wild Lightning Maroon’s spawn mostly hatched out Sunday night (May 31st going into June 1st).  Oddly though, their eggs, while viable, continue to appear very small.
And then yesterday, June 2nd, the F1 Lightning X Lightning pair spawned…a smaller nest, but frankly they’ve not been getting intensive attention and we’ve taken some trips where the fish just fast for a day or two.

It appears that I had a spawn of the wild Lightning Maroon X White Stripe pairing over the Memorial Day holiday.  I’m guessing it was put down on Monday (May 25th), but it could have been Sunday (May 24th) as well. This is their 56th spawn.

On May 12th, 2015, the wild (F0) Lightning X White Stripe pair threw down their 55th recorded spawn.  It looked like a good, solid, quality nest…and once again, they moved it.  On a related note, I also found a spawn of the unrelated wild PNG White Stripe pair; I didn’t notice it the day it was spawned, but I am guestimating it was laid on May 9th or 10th based on its current progression. This is only their 5th spawn that I’ve actually recorded…they remain a very sporadic pair.

So somehow a spawn simply got by me.  The wild pair moved where there nest was and I didn’t catch it until yesterday, 5-6-2015; this is their 54th spawn.  Their eggs continue to look very “small”, but they are remaining viable it would seem as these are at least 4 days old.  Meanwhile, a day prior, 5-5-2015, the Nebula Percs also happened to spawn.  I’m still itching to rear them to see what they produce!

It’s now 4/30/2015….I was gone last week on a fishing trip, during which the Lightning Maroon X White Stripe (wild pair) threw down a spawn; this would be their 53rd spawn.  Most of the eggs are gone, but what remains appears viable, but VERY small.  Something still isn’t quite right here.
As of “lights on” around 1PM, the latest spawn from the F1 Lightning X Lightning pair has yet to hatch, but is looking solid?  This 11th spawn was laid back on April 22nd; yesterday would have been the 7th night and they should most certainly have hatched by that point.  It’ll be interesting to see if they hatch out today or tonight… [Update – the eggs were still present the morning of May 1st, but gone on Saturday morning, May 2nd. That puts these guys hatching on day 9?!]

So…going back here, it appears that the wild Lightning X WS pair is finally fertile and putting down eggs that might last.  None made it to hatch on Spawn #52, but they were absolutely fertile.
The 10th spawn of the F1 Lightning Pair took 3 nights to hatch out last week.  As of 4-22-2015, the pair put down their #11th spawn.

I’ve not been worrying about spawns lately, partially because things don’t seem to be going just right, partially because a rotifer reboot failed to take, and partially because misc commitments away from the fishroom will preclude any intensive rearing efforts either way, but also because other projects are getting in the way too. That, and frankly, my overall concerns over what is being done with the wanton, willful hybridization of Gold Stripe Maroons into the PNG Lightning line is actually far more disturbing to me, and therefore far more deserving of my time, than worrying about rearing a batch of clownfishes that I don’t even have the time to sell! Ah, but an update on the corruption of the PNG White Stripe Maroon Clownfish line, as well as genetic sanctity of Gold Stripe Maroons in the aquarium trade, is deserving of a much larger, more prominent discussion.
And to that end, I neglected to even note the latest spawn of the F1 Lightning X Lightning pair.  They are clearly going to hatch tonight, the night of 4/13/2015, meaning that LxL Spawn #10 was put down last Tuesday, the 7th.  A  Nebula Perc spawn was noticed on Friday, the 10th. I was so busy writing a last minute article for the impressive forthcoming CORAL Magazine on Sunday night this week, and throw on our daughter being sick, and I failed to even make it into the fishroom.  So now, in the wee morning hours of what is now technically Tuesday, the 14th, I discovered that the wild Lightning pair has put down Spawn #52. Based on the color of the eggs, they were spawned on Sunday, April 12th, 2015.  The eggs that remain appear to be fertile, so if this pair actually lets the eggs sit, maybe the wild pair is slowly getting back on track?

Just recording another Lightning Maroon spawn; on Monday, March 30th, the pair put down Spawn #51.  The nest didn’t look that great..the eggs were a lighter shade of orange, and the nest did not appear “tight”.  I’m going to guess that this nest, like recent priors, is going to be a dud.