Vashjir
New Member
( I originally posted this to my local reef forum, but haven't gotten much help there, so here goes)
It appears my caribbean rose corals have spawned twice in the last few days, early morning on the 11th and again tonight/this morning. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on getting their larvae to settle and potentially grow. The larvae are highly motile and attracted to light. They look more like tiny shrimp than what I'd imagine hydroid larvae should, but they definitely came from the corals.
When the spawned 2 days ago I siphoned out a few hundred larvae and put some into a tiny betta tank with some rubble and and airstone. I also put a floating breeder basket with some rubble into the spawning tank in hopes that some might settle there. Tonight I added another breeder net with the shells you'll see below. I figure redundancy is a good thing.
So should I feed these guys? I have live phytofeast and several types of powdered fry foods available. Any advice, experiences or words of caution are welcome.
Photos:
Full tank
Closer
Green guy in the daytime
And the rose colored specimen
The green one during/right after spawning, the body is contracted and the mouths look like little balloons.
Free swimming larvae (they move fast and are about 1-2mm long)
...in an acrylic breeder box
... and here the larvae are the black specs against the white shells. This is in another in tank breeder net.
...and from above, lots of them visible here, but only as specks
The betta settling tank mentioned earlier, its on top of the freshwater tank for temperature consistency. I just figure the more possibilities/redundancy, the better my chances of getting viable young.
They spawned again (or at least released more larvae) tonight. Oddly it was just a few minutes after checking on the corals with a uv flashlight. Not saying there is a correlation, but the same was true 2 days ago, so maybe that's acting as a trigger?
It appears my caribbean rose corals have spawned twice in the last few days, early morning on the 11th and again tonight/this morning. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on getting their larvae to settle and potentially grow. The larvae are highly motile and attracted to light. They look more like tiny shrimp than what I'd imagine hydroid larvae should, but they definitely came from the corals.
When the spawned 2 days ago I siphoned out a few hundred larvae and put some into a tiny betta tank with some rubble and and airstone. I also put a floating breeder basket with some rubble into the spawning tank in hopes that some might settle there. Tonight I added another breeder net with the shells you'll see below. I figure redundancy is a good thing.
So should I feed these guys? I have live phytofeast and several types of powdered fry foods available. Any advice, experiences or words of caution are welcome.
Photos:
Full tank
Closer
Green guy in the daytime
And the rose colored specimen
The green one during/right after spawning, the body is contracted and the mouths look like little balloons.
Free swimming larvae (they move fast and are about 1-2mm long)
...in an acrylic breeder box
... and here the larvae are the black specs against the white shells. This is in another in tank breeder net.
...and from above, lots of them visible here, but only as specks
The betta settling tank mentioned earlier, its on top of the freshwater tank for temperature consistency. I just figure the more possibilities/redundancy, the better my chances of getting viable young.
They spawned again (or at least released more larvae) tonight. Oddly it was just a few minutes after checking on the corals with a uv flashlight. Not saying there is a correlation, but the same was true 2 days ago, so maybe that's acting as a trigger?
