My first attempt raising clownfish

[laughing tang]

Well.. I'll post again ... we are day 15/16 days post hatch, most have metamorphosed except for a few very small ones. All of them save the 3 I lost the first night are still there (unless they decomposed so fast I don't see them in the siphon water during the 2x daily siphon. I do check, very carefully, always. To my eye there are some 30-40 clowns. I don't know if it was my tremendous vigilance, testing, and all the research I did, or that the parents are just good stock. We know the female is since she's WC and 20 years old. Mr. Whitey, the platinum has held his own. Maybe hybrids are stronger, who knows. We are awaiting our second spawn hatch. Time will tell. I don't think any one is is interested, so I'll likely stop posting, but feel free to DM with questions. vid: DPH 14-15

 

[F i s h y]

Well.. I'll post again ... we are day 15/16 days post hatch, most have metamorphosed except for a few very small ones. All of them save the 3 I lost the first night are still there (unless they decomposed to fast I don't see them in the siphon water. I do check, very carefully, always. To my there there are some 30-40 clowns. I don't know if it was my tremendous vigiligence, testing, and all the research I did, or that the parents are just good stock. We know the female is since she's WC and 20 years old. Mr. Whitey, the platinum has held his own. Maybe hybrids are stronger, who knows. We are awaiting our second spawn hatch. Time will tell. I don't think any one is is interested, so I'll likely stop posting, but feel free to DM with questions. vid: DPH 14-15

I have been following along with all of your posts. I just captured my first spawns. I got lucky and caught my orchid Dottybacks spawn, and the next night captured half of my clown spawn. I haven't posted nearly as much as you on my build thread but I have followed along and used many of the things you talked about. I am at 4 days on the dotty back and 3 days on the clowns. I think i have about 40-60 clowns and 90+ of the dotty backs. Due to space i am attempting to raise them together at least until the clowns go through meta.

Thank you for posting your journey.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Well.. I'll post again ... we are day 15/16 days post hatch, most have metamorphosed except for a few very small ones. All of them save the 3 I lost the first night are still there (unless they decomposed to fast I don't see them in the siphon water. I do check, very carefully, always. To my there there are some 30-40 clowns. I don't know if it was my tremendous vigiligence, testing, and all the research I did, or that the parents are just good stock. We know the female is since she's WC and 20 years old. Mr. Whitey, the platinum has held his own. Maybe hybrids are stronger, who knows. We are awaiting our second spawn hatch. Time will tell. I don't think any one is is interested, so I'll likely stop posting, but feel free to DM with questions. vid: DPH 14-15

That's awesome! I'd say you knocked it out of the park for your first attempt. I think the saying you get out what you put into it is a big part. I'm interested to see them as the patterns develop. I feel like there are a few hobbyists that are following along and taking notes for their future attempts even if there aren't as many posting.

There's quite a few ways to success and I really like reading about different approaches that have worked. I'm always looking for ways to improve my process and sometimes little variations can make a HUGE difference. What are your plans for a grow out setup?

 

[F i s h y]

That's awesome! I'd say you knocked it out of the park for your first attempt. I think the saying you get out what you put into it is a big part. I'm interested to see them as the patterns develop. I feel like there are a few hobbyists that are following along and taking notes for their future attempts even if there aren't as many posting.

There's quite a few ways to success and I really like reading about different approaches that have worked. I'm always looking for ways to improve my process and sometimes little variations can make a HUGE difference. What are your plans for a grow out setup?

My setup is currently next to my main reef. The fry are in a small 5.5 gallon tank. I have it at 4 gallons, and took the time to mark off the gallons by .25 gallon marks on the front of the tank so that i can be precise with water changes and monitoring salinity.

Below that I am running 6 gallons of phyto, and below that 3 gallons of rotifers.
I took the time to set up and get my phyto and rotifers established for a few weeks before attempting the fry. I have found that having the grow out station has added a considerable amount of time to my daily and weekly maintenance. My reef is well established and basically on cruise control, so this is much more time consuming.
I also set up the grow out with phyto and rotifers for a few days prior to hatch to ensure I had a good density in it.

I have an RO line ran from my tank into the grow out for water changes. I have found that the best method is def a piece of rigid tubing with flexible to remove water. It is a painstakingly long process though to remove a couple of gallons of water to do a water change from my grow out. And the dottyback fry are super tiny (half the size of the clowns) so removing them from the waste water and getting them back in the grow out takes a lot of time.
The RO line from the tank allows me to fill the tank without risk of damage to the fry.
I'm dripping in fresh RO water to keep salinity stable, and have it dialed in pretty well, but it gets monitored every day.
When the clowns go through meta, I plan to move them to 1 or 2 20L tanks. The dottyback have about a 25 to 35 day cycle before meta, so they can stay in the grow out longer. Once they are through they will also be moved to a 20L. I do not plan on trying to raise any additional clutches until these first are grown out.

 

[laughing tang]

That's awesome! I'd say you knocked it out of the park for your first attempt. I think the saying you get out what you put into it is a big part. I'm interested to see them as the patterns develop. I feel like there are a few hobbyists that are following along and taking notes for their future attempts even if there aren't as many posting.

There's quite a few ways to success and I really like reading about different approaches that have worked. I'm always looking for ways to improve my process and sometimes little variations can make a HUGE difference. What are your plans for a grow out setup?

Thanks!! I have kept copious notes, and found that that especially has helped with dosing for ammonia and alkalinity. Those were the two tests that came back out of bounds, although minorly so. I found staying on top of that with Erase CL and PH buffer really helped, so that it doesn't get that high. I do test 3x a day (ammonia (Hanna), PH (Hanna stick), nitrite (API/Salifert), nitrate (API/Hanna), dKH (Hanna)), sometimes four if I need to retest and make sure numbers have gone down. It helped me tune the amounts I needed to dose. Counting the rotifer density frequently days 1-4 was also invaluable; it would change very rapidly, sometimes in an hour. Adjusting that frequently, as often as 1-2 hours a day sometimes, paid off. I also learned that there was no need trying to go up on water volume after day 3. This only reduced my rotifer density, stressed my rotifer culture, and I ended up sieving the 2 gallons out, going back from 9 to 7. With this the rotifer density was back within compliance, and we stayed at 7 until today. I just siphon out 1/2 twice a day and add that back in. Although we are past meta officially, 5 stragglers are not there yet and are bound to be fragile. Only now am I adding 1.5 gallon instead of 1, at a very slow drip (maybe 2 drop/sec). It really paid, for me, to test so often and monitor the rotifer count vigilant the first 5 days, and tint. The brown acrylic top was a savior, and to this day, it's on half the tank, and the stragglers like to hang there. I found some like quite a bit of flow and are like salmon going upstream. Others like to lull in the low flow areas. I like to present options (I keep reptiles and this is a mandate for them). I see this works for fish too. From my other mentor Andrew Keskes, kindest man, I learned a ton - most notably to add BBS on day 6, which I will be doing this go around (I got decapsulated BBS), and to start TDO-A 24 hrs post hatch. I do think being on top of it has given them the best chance. I was able to correct course early and keep ammonia under 0.5 at all times by addressing it early on. The ammonia Hanna checker, in my book, is a must - filter water through brown coffee filter. The next hatch will show if it was beginner's luck. I think also the fact that it was a small hatch worked massively in my favor. Much less load on the water. But, admittedly, I checked the tank probably every 2-3 hrs night 1, and every 3 hrs until day 5. Still now I wake up at 2 am and 7 am for an evening feed and check ammonia and alkalinity min 3x daily. We have redundancy for pumps and heaters, backup power .. just the light we do not, come to think of it ... to be fixed. I hope yours are doing well .. and I still want pictures!!

The development of color will be interesting. I am told I am bound to get standards, misbars, picassos and platinums. We shall see. So far all but about the tiniest five have headstripes. If you think people are interested I'll post some more as time goes on.

Growout!! As well as I planned for the hatch, I did not envision getting past meta and now have to research that. The beau, with 20 years reefer experience will be on point on that. I'll take any tips that might come my way!!

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Nice setup you have there. I tried culturing phyto early on but never had much success. For me, they always crashed after a short while and it was too unreliable to depend on for feeding the rots. I agree 100% that it adds much more daily work to do. Have you had any issues with contamination of the phyto with the rot cultures being so close? I was also wondering the same thing about the RO line, is there a chance you could transfer something from the main tank to the fry tank that could compete with them eating the rots or even the fry early on like pods or shrimp?

 

[laughing tang]

My setup is currently next to my main reef. The fry are in a small 5.5 gallon tank. I have it at 4 gallons, and took the time to mark off the gallons by .25 gallon marks on the front of the tank so that i can be precise with water changes and monitoring salinity.

Below that I am running 6 gallons of phyto, and below that 3 gallons of rotifers.
I took the time to set up and get my phyto and rotifers established for a few weeks before attempting the fry. I have found that having the grow out station has added a considerable amount of time to my daily and weekly maintenance. My reef is well established and basically on cruise control, so this is much more time consuming.
I also set up the grow out with phyto and rotifers for a few days prior to hatch to ensure I had a good density in it.

I have an RO line ran from my tank into the grow out for water changes. I have found that the best method is def a piece of rigid tubing with flexible to remove water. It is a painstakingly long process though to remove a couple of gallons of water to do a water change from my grow out. And the dottyback fry are super tiny (half the size of the clowns) so removing them from the waste water and getting them back in the grow out takes a lot of time.
The RO line from the tank allows me to fill the tank without risk of damage to the fry.
I'm dripping in fresh RO water to keep salinity stable, and have it dialed in pretty well, but it gets monitored every day.
When the clowns go through meta, I plan to move them to 1 or 2 20L tanks. The dottyback have about a 25 to 35 day cycle before meta, so they can stay in the grow out longer. Once they are through they will also be moved to a 20L. I do not plan on trying to raise any additional clutches until these first are grown out.

Love the setup! We opted for RG complete so as to not to have to deal with phyto. I follow Wilkerson very closely in that we will not add water to the fry tank from the DT until the day of hatch (but our eggs are in the DT). We've got a lovely living room full of brutes with water ha. Also as Wilkerson advises I keep the larvae at 1.018-1.021 salinity (dropping it the first or second day slowy) - at which point DT water need RODI dilution. At day 7 we switched to Instant Ocean, also per Wilkerson. It's really interesting to learn how everyone has differences that work for them. I hear you on not growing out more hatches. We are doing 1 more from this pair. There maybe more high dollar pairs in the future, as I do find it very interesting.

 

[laughing tang]

Nice setup you have there. I tried culturing phyto early on but never had much success. For me, they always crashed after a short while and it was too unreliable to depend on for feeding the rots. I agree 100% that it adds much more daily work to do. Have you had any issues with contamination of the phyto with the rot cultures being so close? I was also wondering the same thing about the RO line, is there a chance you could transfer something from the main tank to the fry tank that could compete with them eating the rots or even the fry early on like pods or shrimp?

Chiming in on that I"ll say Yes. Andrew Keskes from Seapuppies FL, very reputable breeder, told me to not even seed my sponges in the DT for contamination risk. Then again, we had a massive amount of peppermint shrimp babies comes into the vossen with they fry ... and we do use DT water for water changes until day 8.

 

[F i s h y]

Nice setup you have there. I tried culturing phyto early on but never had much success. For me, they always crashed after a short while and it was too unreliable to depend on for feeding the rots. I agree 100% that it adds much more daily work to do. Have you had any issues with contamination of the phyto with the rot cultures being so close? I was also wondering the same thing about the RO line, is there a chance you could transfer something from the main tank to the fry tank that could compete with them eating the rots or even the fry early on like pods or shrimp?

I am very diligent when working with the phyto and rotifers that the lids are never off of the phyto when working with rotifers and vice versa. I also have separate buckets and equipment for handling each. So while i agree the possibility exists for cross contamination, i think through process i have made it much less likely. Washing hands, using different towels even, are steps i have taken as well.

As for the tank transferring pods or shrimp, i have a few thoughts on this. Yes, i think it is very likely that other things could be transferred, and i honestly welcome it. In all of the research studies i read online about aqua culturing fish for commercial viability, many of them used a mix feed of copepod and rotifers for first feeds. as i am pulling from the water column, and with lights on, i think that there is less of a chance of pulling anything over, but at lights out we know that's a different story, especially if a flashlight was used. The amount of things seen swimming in our tanks after lights out is amazing to me. For me i think i would welcome the larval stages of copepods as a different diverse food source for my fry. For the record, water changes only occur with lights on. Don't want to press my luck.

With that being said, i did actually siphon out any pod that was larger than a rotifer that i could see during my water change.

One question i have for you guys involving frozen foods. We talk about live foods, rotifers specifically then BBS. While also feeding the TDO.
What are your thoughts on frozen foods? Frozen cyclopeze, baby brine, and rotifers? I have these on hand as i feed them to my tank for my gonipora and other polyps, so i am thinking about adding them to the feeding regiment.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

I am very diligent when working with the phyto and rotifers that the lids are never off of the phyto when working with rotifers and vice versa. I also have separate buckets and equipment for handling each. So while i agree the possibility exists for cross contamination, i think through process i have made it much less likely. Washing hands, using different towels even, are steps i have taken as well.

As for the tank transferring pods or shrimp, i have a few thoughts on this. Yes, i think it is very likely that other things could be transferred, and i honestly welcome it. In all of the research studies i read online about aqua culturing fish for commercial viability, many of them used a mix feed of copepod and rotifers for first feeds. as i am pulling from the water column, and with lights on, i think that there is less of a chance of pulling anything over, but at lights out we know that's a different story, especially if a flashlight was used. The amount of things seen swimming in our tanks after lights out is amazing to me. For me i think i would welcome the larval stages of copepods as a different diverse food source for my fry. For the record, water changes only occur with lights on. Don't want to press my luck.

With that being said, i did actually siphon out any pod that was larger than a rotifer that i could see during my water change.

One question i have for you guys involving frozen foods. We talk about live foods, rotifers specifically then BBS. While also feeding the TDO.
What are your thoughts on frozen foods? Frozen cyclopeze, baby brine, and rotifers? I have these on hand as i feed them to my tank for my gonipora and other polyps, so i am thinking about adding them to the feeding regiment.

So as far as frozen, I've never tried to feed it to fry. I know somewhere I read about a person using egg yolk or something for fry in the absence of phyto in a pinch and it might have worked to some extent. Also, getting the right size I feel would be critical to make it work like tdo. On the whole, it looks like people stick to live foods. It might be the movement that triggers a better feeding response initially and keeps them going while they figure out what to do with the tdo. I've had clutches for whatever reason that have been very slow on figuring out they can eat tdo. One thing I would be concerned with is the additional impact on the water quality. Sorry I can't offer more personal experience on it.

 

[F i s h y]

So as far as frozen, I've never tried to feed it to fry. I know somewhere I read about a person using egg yolk or something for fry in the absence of phyto in a pinch and it might have worked to some extent. Also, getting the right size I feel would be critical to make it work like tdo. On the whole, it looks like people stick to live foods. It might be the movement that triggers a better feeding response initially and keeps them going while they figure out what to do with the tdo. I've had clutches for whatever reason that have been very slow on figuring out they can eat tdo. One thing I would be concerned with is the additional impact on the water quality. Sorry I can't offer more personal experience on it.

great point about water quality. I wonder how it compares to TDO. I know that pelleted and frozen foods both seem to contain pretty high levels of PO4.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Thanks!! I have kept copious notes, and found that that especially has helped with dosing for ammonia and alkalinity. Those were the two tests that came back out of bounds, although minorly so. I found staying on top of that with Erase CL and PH buffer really helped, so that it doesn't get that high. I do test 3x a day (ammonia (Hanna), PH (Hanna stick), nitrite (API/Salifert), nitrate (API/Hanna), dKH (Hanna)), sometimes four if I need to retest and make sure numbers have gone down. It helped me tune the amounts I needed to dose. Counting the rotifer density frequently days 1-4 was also invaluable; it would change very rapidly, sometimes in an hour. Adjusting that frequently, as often as 1-2 hours a day sometimes, paid off. I also learned that there was no need trying to go up on water volume after day 3. This only reduced my rotifer density, stressed my rotifer culture, and I ended up sieving the 2 gallons out, going back from 9 to 7. With this the rotifer density was back within compliance, and we stayed at 7 until today. I just siphon out 1/2 twice a day and add that back in. Although we are past meta officially, 5 stragglers are not there yet and are bound to be fragile. Only now am I adding 1.5 gallon instead of 1, at a very slow drip (maybe 2 drop/sec). It really paid, for me, to test so often and monitor the rotifer count vigilant the first 5 days, and tint. The brown acrylic top was a savior, and to this day, it's on half the tank, and the stragglers like to hang there. I found some like quite a bit of flow and are like salmon going upstream. Others like to lull in the low flow areas. I like to present options (I keep reptiles and this is a mandate for them). I see this works for fish too. From my other mentor Andrew Keskes, kindest man, I learned a ton - most notably to add BBS on day 6, which I will be doing this go around (I got decapsulated BBS), and to start TDO-A 24 hrs post hatch. I do think being on top of it has given them the best chance. I was able to correct course early and keep ammonia under 0.5 at all times by addressing it early on. The ammonia Hanna checker, in my book, is a must - filter water through brown coffee filter. The next hatch will show if it was beginner's luck. I think also the fact that it was a small hatch worked massively in my favor. Much less load on the water. But, admittedly, I checked the tank probably every 2-3 hrs night 1, and every 3 hrs until day 5. Still now I wake up at 2 am and 7 am for an evening feed and check ammonia and alkalinity min 3x daily. We have redundancy for pumps and heaters, backup power .. just the light we do not, come to think of it ... to be fixed. I hope yours are doing well .. and I still want pictures!!

The development of color will be interesting. I am told I am bound to get standards, misbars, picassos and platinums. We shall see. So far all but about the tiniest five have headstripes. If you think people are interested I'll post some more as time goes on.

Growout!! As well as I planned for the hatch, I did not envision getting past meta and now have to research that. The beau, with 20 years reefer experience will be on point on that. I'll take any tips that might come my way!!

Here are some current pictures of the few Bali fry that have survived which is about 10 or so. It wasn't worth running an entire separate tank and all the maintenance for so few so I added them to a tank with a handful of Wyoming white clownfish I had going that are a few weeks older. Right now it's just head stripes for them.

 

[laughing tang]

Here are some current pictures of the few Bali fry that have survived which is about 10 or so. It wasn't worth running an entire separate tank and all the maintenance for so few so I added them to a tank with a handful of Wyoming white clownfish I had going that are a few weeks older. Right now it's just head stripes for them.

Look at those cuties!! And the wyomings! I can't wait to see how they grow out!! We are on spawn hatch watch ... day 9 ...

 

[laughing tang]

With the thought that experiences matter, and others can learn from them, last night's hatch was a bust - and as it turned out, even it we had caught the fry, our brand new Hygger heater would have electrocuted them with its stray 45V. Tip: do put a ground probe in your fry tanks.

It turns out our display tank where the breeding clowns are, has the lights set to sundown. So this appears to not be a good idea on hatch night. Our lights are older, and the 3 sets turn off at different points, with about 6 minutes in between. We cut the tank flow the minute the last light turned off. All that time, ALL the house lights were on in the living room including a very bright ceiling light. Apparently our spawn did not give a hoot and by the time we cut the flow, they were, unbeknownst to us, already hatched and gone. (Tip: do check the eggs before the lights turn off and you black out the tank). After we cut the flow, we checked the tank after 15 min, nothing. At 30 min, we checked the tank again; nothing. We set the Vossen regardless. Nothing. The prior hatch we got 15-20 after a 1 hr 15 min wait and a 1 hr 30 min wait. It was a large spawn. It was odd we got so little, and we thought maybe the parents had eaten them because we waited so long, and that's why now we set the Vossen earlier. Now I'm thinking the ones we caught were the lucky ones that didn't get sucked in the overflow. So tonight we won't be sundowning and hopefully we can still get some of the ones left over. Apparently this spawn does not at all care about the lights in the house.

Worse was we had fashioned a cardboard box hood (large) for over the fry tank and its light (since it is within sight of the display tank). I did dim the fry tank light from 75% to 35%. When we removed the hood and turned the light back up to 75% (this was likely dumb), one of the fry spazzed out on the tank bottom. The rest were hugging the wall. We immediately turned the brightness back down to 35%. Half an hour later though, still no change, all hugging the wall at the top of the water column. My husband put his hand in the tank to adjust the flow and then noticed a current because he had a cut on his finger. He ran to get a ground probe and multimeter. The heater put out 6V. The light, a clipon desk lamp, 12V. With the cardboard box it had gotten pretty humid, but it was on from about 8:50 to 10. We don't know if the voltage was higher, that the light got conductivity because of the humidity, or if the brightness scared the fry. The ground probe is in so there is no more current.

I just checked on them now 5 hours later, and they are still hugging the walls with the light on 35%. They are alive. Are they sleeping? I don't quite know what to do - I don't want to turn up the light, and I'm not sure if I can feed in this dim light. I normally feed at 9 pm, 2 am and 7 am - now their last feed was 7:30 pm. They are today 17-18 DPH.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Clown eggs finally hatched last night/ early this morning. It happened on the 8th day. It was a pain collecting the fry from the display with bowl. I collected as many as i could but ended up leaving some in the display. I'm currently working on another system for future easier collection.

This is a picture i snapped of some of the fry collected. I tried to count in the beginning but you can see thats kinda insane.

Awww, awesome, good luck!

 

[F i s h y]

5 days post hatch


Most of the dottybacks fry are gone. Maybe a dozen left. Based on their small size I am guessing they require the "S" size rotifers and im not culturing 2 types. Or the clowns being so much larger (nearly double the size) are consuming them. Lots of clowns left though.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

With the thought that experiences matter, and others can learn from them, last night's hatch was a bust - and as it turned out, even it we had caught the fry, our brand new Hygger heater would have electrocuted them with its stray 45V. Tip: do put a ground probe in your fry tanks.

It turns out our display tank where the breeding clowns are, has the lights set to sundown. So this appears to not be a good idea on hatch night. Our lights are older, and the 3 sets turn off at different points, with about 6 minutes in between. We cut the tank flow the minute the last light turned off. All that time, ALL the house lights were on in the living room including a very bright ceiling light. Apparently our spawn did not give a hoot and by the time we cut the flow, they were, unbeknownst to us, already hatched and gone. (Tip: do check the eggs before the lights turn off and you black out the tank). After we cut the flow, we checked the tank after 15 min, nothing. At 30 min, we checked the tank again; nothing. We set the Vossen regardless. Nothing. The prior hatch we got 15-20 after a 1 hr 15 min wait and a 1 hr 30 min wait. It was a large spawn. It was odd we got so little, and we thought maybe the parents had eaten them because we waited so long, and that's why now we set the Vossen earlier. Now I'm thinking the ones we caught were the lucky ones that didn't get sucked in the overflow. So tonight we won't be sundowning and hopefully we can still get some of the ones left over. Apparently this spawn does not at all care about the lights in the house.

Worse was we had fashioned a cardboard box hood (large) for over the fry tank and its light (since it is within sight of the display tank). I did dim the fry tank light from 75% to 35%. When we removed the hood and turned the light back up to 75% (this was likely dumb), one of the fry spazzed out on the tank bottom. The rest were hugging the wall. We immediately turned the brightness back down to 35%. Half an hour later though, still no change, all hugging the wall at the top of the water column. My husband put his hand in the tank to adjust the flow and then noticed a current because he had a cut on his finger. He ran to get a ground probe and multimeter. The heater put out 6V. The light, a clipon desk lamp, 12V. With the cardboard box it had gotten pretty humid, but it was on from about 8:50 to 10. We don't know if the voltage was higher, that the light got conductivity because of the humidity, or if the brightness scared the fry. The ground probe is in so there is no more current.

I just checked on them now 5 hours later, and they are still hugging the walls with the light on 35%. They are alive. Are they sleeping? I don't quite know what to do - I don't want to turn up the light, and I'm not sure if I can feed in this dim light. I normally feed at 9 pm, 2 am and 7 am - now their last feed was 7:30 pm. They are today 17-18 DPH.

How are the fry doing?

 

[ReeferMadness09]

5 days post hatch


Most of the dottybacks fry are gone. Maybe a dozen left. Based on their small size I am guessing they require the "S" size rotifers and im not culturing 2 types. Or the clowns being so much larger (nearly double the size) are consuming them. Lots of clowns left though.

Sorry to hear about the dottybacks. It would be cool to see their progression but the clownfish fry are looking good!

 

[laughing tang]

How are the fry doing?

They are doing fantastic. We did lose 1. I was told by breeders that the fry do not like sudden dimming or light level changes. I slowly raised the brightness a few % every half hour the next day until we got back to the previous level. Most maintained schooling behavior at the front glass and on the bottom that day. Some play dead. Having watched them for a few days it appears the schooling is night time/early morning behavior. I find them like this at 2 am and 7 am feedings. By 9-10 am they are swimming in the water column. The fry are developing some very cool colors. I wish I knew what picasso/platinum color development looks like on fry. Do you have any pictures by any chance? I can't find much online.
The last hatch was a bit of a bust. Nothing day 1 (turn off flow too late we think), day 2 got 1 fry (checked after 15 min, nothing, 30 min, vossen on, 1 fry, nothing after that, and the eggs were still there) - yesterday we got flow on time, waited an hour and got a few larvae (3 in vossen and 4 hand caught which was fun), nothing after that. We are still perfecting our catching process and techniques. All eggs gone today. So we have 8 larvae in a luxurious 5 gallon stocked with rots . How are you going?

 

[ReeferMadness09]

I'm glad to hear things turned out ok. You should be able to notice platinums pretty early on. The white color comes in quick and after meta they kinda look like a faded translucent white. Sort of like how the white on the fry look when that first strip is just showing up, only it's the entire body. The picture posted looks like the start of a Picasso type pattern. I'll check if I have any pictures. That first strip is always the quickest to develop and the additional markings take a bit more time as you're seeing, with the exception of a platinum or white which develop early too.