Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Onyx Clownfish

4/7/2010

I got lucky enough to get involved in the opportunity to raise some onyx percula this week. The clownfish are kept at the Augsburg college, which is over an hours drive from where I live. After work today, I grabbed a cooler, bags, bucket with cover, and 5 gallons of new saltwater. I siphoned out 5 gallons of water into the bucket, and bagged up the tile, which the eggs were on. The bucket of water (with cover) went into the trunk, while the cooler (cover off) with the tile of eggs in a bag sat in the passenger seat next to me on the way home. It was late and dark out so I turned on all the lights in the car to ensure the eggs didn’t hatch on the way home.

After getting home, I added the 5 gallons of water to a 10 gallon tank that I use for rearing clownfish. The bag with the clownfish eggs was then floated for 15 minutes. After removing the tile from the bag, I put it in a shallow dish of tank water and took some photos under the microscope. A few eggs detached from the tile, and I was able to get a good photo of the egg from the side. .

UPDATE April 8th. Eggs did not hatch, and were taken over by fungus during the night.