The Lightning Project

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

Browsing Posts in Lightning Maroon Updates

Did a big 50% water change, Rotifer cultures failing due to too much harvest, lots of losses due to settlement issues presumably due to insufficient rotifers.  Nevertheless, a sizeable group of Lightning Maroon offspring is undergoing settelement starting tonight; first headstripes seen.  They’ve been getting TDO A1 for the last couple days…I hope they’re all […]

Just went downstairs…all but one offspring in Spawn #20 is dead on the bottom.  !#%!#!!@!! Water test shows completely off the wall parameters…eg. Nitrite at 5 PPM, Ammonia at 0.5 ppm, Nitrate at 40 ppm?!.  Now, whether that’s all the dead fish in the tank, or if that’s the cause, I’m not sure, but I’m […]

Just a quick note that Lightning Maroon pair put down their 23rd nest yesterday afternoon.  Spawn #23 was laid 1/31/2014.

It’s been a busy January here, with my trip to Cleveland to give some well-received talks at C-SEA followed by a grueling week of fishroom preparation in advance of Reef Builder’s world-reknowned Jake Adams dropping by for a surprise visit and a bit of Q&A at the Lake Superior Marine Aquarium Club’s winter / holiday […]

I did the day count, and by my estimate the night of the 15th, going into the 16th, was 6+ full days post spawn on Spawn #21. Looking at the nest, it seemed they were ready, and it also seemed that at least some were missing already (perhaps they hatched and were consumed?) I pulled […]

It’s the morning of January 13th, 2014; time to play a little catch-up. Back on January 9th, I split the larvae from Spawn #20 from one 10 gallon tank into the 10, plus a 15 gallon BRT on my larviculture racks. When I did the split, I took the opportunity to take a photograph of […]

Tonight, after several nights of battling my larval rack, I finally pulled of the split of Spawn #20 into two separate groups. Long story short, I had taken off two BRTs off a shelf that had somehow “Dropped” on the one side. Both BRTs got a full scrubbing followed by a wipedown with hydrogen peroxide. […]

I have photos of this spawn stashed away in the camera, but I figured I better get this on the books before I completely forget. Spawn #19 was put down on 12-14.  With tons of stuff going on with the holidays, I did a boneheaded thing and pulled the nest on the night of the […]

Lots of updates with no photos, so why not take a moment and remember what we all really enjoy – seeing these fish grow up. First up, my one-ventral-finned holdback so I can keep tracking developing photos of the pattern on this fish. Before I left on my fishing trip last week, I took the […]

I cannot catch a break. Seriously 2013, for all its hard work, has yielded only FOUR (4!!!!) offspring from the Lightning Maroon pair that will grow to be marketable size in 2014! Spawn #18 was put down on November 28th. This put hatch night as early as Wed, December 4rd, but more likely the 5th, […]