BY CHAZ STEVENS AND JENNY BRADLEY
Page 2 of 2
Day 5
As day 4
Day 6
As day 5, but rotifer concentration may be allowed to start to drop as hopefully most of the larvae should now be taking the freshly hatched brine shrimp and powdered food. the water level should also now be back up to the 5� or 6� deep level as the larvae are now far more active. The live phyto level can also be reduced as the rotifers are no longer in such large numbers. The egg crate and paper light defuser must still be in place.
Day 7
By this time the black and white clowns may be showing their first stripe, the head stripe. For some reason the black and whites stripe up earlier and grow faster than the common clowns.
The larvae will now be taking 24 hour old brineshrimp as well as freshly hatched brineshrimp. You always overlap different food items and sizes to allow for the slower developers.
We use brineshrimp of different ages for two reasons:
1, Its physically bigger, a more substantial food item.
2, Because the 24 hour and 36 hour brineshrimp are now actually feeding themselves on algaes, they become a more complete food item, meat and veg. this is the time when we also start to get the larvae used to feeding on Koi sticks, these are allowed to float in the water until soft and then crushed up into a fine particle cloud, the larvae swim into the food cloud and feed, over the next few days the larvae will learn where the food cloud comes from and start feeding on the floating Koi sticks!
Day 8
As day 7
Day 9
By today the black and whites will have the second, mid body stripe.
The larvae or more correctly the juvenile fish will now be taking 36 hour old brine shrimp along with 24 hour and freshly hatched brineshrimp.
Day 10
The mini system.
The larvae tanks that we use all have a hole in the one end which allows us to fit a �� outlet pipe to the tanks. on the inside of the tank a sponge strainer is fitted and on the outside of the tank pipework is fitted that feeds a sump. The sump contains a skimmer, internal power filter and air diffuser. A small pump in the sump feeds a small U.V. and then pipework and taps control the flow back into the larvae tanks.
On day 10 we usually go onto the mini system, no more water changes.
By day 10 we are also feeding crushed flake food, as well as powdered food and Cyclop-eeze.
Day 18
By day 18 we have normally got the juvenile fish totally off any form of brineshrimp.
You cannot move fish that are still being fed on brineshrimp; they go into shock and die!
The tank is now taken off the mini system and joined onto the grow out system. The tank is fed by an air line syphon tube from a tank above it and it overflows into a tank below it. this allows the juvenile fish to get use to the water quality in the grow out system prior to being moved into it.
Day 20
This is the time we usually move the fish into the grow out system, just net them up and place them in their new home, no need to acclimatise, they have been swimming in the water for the last two days!
Clean the tank using cold fresh water, no sterilising, and start again. that�s all there is to it if it all goes right!!!