classroom captive breeding program

[hobogato]

ok, so after some long thoughts about how to make my classroom setup and practices more environmentally friendly, i have decided to make it a captive breeding setup.

in case you have not seen it, here (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1179568&perpage=25&pagenumber=1) is a link to the setup. in years past, student groups would be responsible for populating (using their own money for livestock) a tank, maintaining the tank and its livestock all year, and selling that livestock at the end of the year. this process proved environmentally (and economically) unfriendly. therefore, we will be shifting gears and trying something new.

we (the students and i) will be incorporating live food cultures like pyto, artemia, rotifers, and possibly mysis as well as a grass shrimp colony in the large sump/fuge.

all of the large predator fish remaining in the large display tank will likely be donated to the SA zoo so we can establish a reef and start propagating corals as well.

so far on the list of propagation and breeding are the following

various soft corals and possibly stonies eventually
cuttlefish (S. bandensis)
seahorses (not sure, lots of research to do here)
clownfish
bangai cardinals

we have space for several more species, but have not researched what else we attempt.

[kerusso316]

There are more mouth brooders that you can try.Pearl Head Jawfish for example. Also Bergiah Nudie's are easy & fun.

[hobogato]

thanks for the ideas! any others are welcome....

[Beaun]

Dottybacks and Gobies have been breed in captivity (ORA), not sure how easy they are though.
-Orchid Dottyback
-Striped Dottyback
-Sunrise Dottyback
-Neon Dottyback
-Springer's Dottyback

-Neon Goby
-Yellow-line Goby
-Canary Blenny
-Red Head Goby
-Greenbanded Goby
-Citron Goby
-Yellow Clown Goby

Longspine and Pajama cardinals as well, but you already have bangai, not sure if you want different cardinals.

[hobogato]

ok, after some cleaning by myself and some of the students, we are getting close to having the tanks in shape to add livestock.

this is the coral prop tank, once i get the lights working again, i can move the corals in that have been donated already.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05314.jpg

some of the corals that have been donated - includes several frags of zoanthids, palys, shrooms and leathers
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05316.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05317.jpg

as you can see, we still have some algae to clean up after going all summer with little maintenance.

here are some pics of the system - notice we have cleaned the sand and rock out of the bottom tanks as they will function as nurseries for the fish/critters we hope to raise.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05315.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05318.jpg

here is where we will be establishing a grass shrimp colony
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05319.jpg

some of these tanks will likely be used to establish a mysis colony and pod growing area

here is the first pair of fish coming in today with their anemone. hopefully we can get the clowns to start spawning and the anemone to start splitting so we can propagate them also

acclimating
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05320.jpg

in the tank
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05321.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05322.jpg

THANKS AGAIN BILL(mangroves, clowns, and anemone), JACK(corals), RYAN(corals), RICHARD(sand) AND VIET-TIN(sand) FOR YOUR DONATIONS!!!

[CoralKingdom]

Very cool colors in the anemone. I can't wait to see more!

[reefstew]

It's not to hard to get fish to spawn but the fry can be more difficult from one kind to another. Skip the dottybacks & try clown fish or bangaii cardnals.

[NANOYED]

I wanna go back to Highschool for another reason now!! Where was this class at? I had to cut open a damn frog and your starring at corals and watching fish do it! ***!!

[hobogato]

lol nanoyed

today, we got the coral prop tank rockwork done, the students finished cleaning and arranging the small tanks, and they attached all of the frags from pete onto small pieces of liverock.

coral prop tank - once i get the lights running, we can move the frags in
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05348.jpg

dry rock that the student will break up to grow the frags on

gluing the frags
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05340.jpg

all the frags in the container (this took three class periods to complete, i just took pics each time they filled the transfer container. each rock has anywhere from 1 to 10 polyps or a single shroom or other coral.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05342.jpghttp://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05343.jpghttp://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05344.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05345.jpghttp://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05346.jpghttp://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05347.jpg

here are all of the corals and frags we have so far
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05349.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05350.jpg

[rkelman]

I would have skipped the sand in all those tanks. Especially the frag tank. It just makes it hard to keep them clean. None of them look deep enough to be a DSB. Maybe do a RDSB instead. The less time you spend cleaning the more time is spent learning.

[hobogato]

thanks, but the sand in the small tanks is just about 1" deep and there are many snails in them to maintain the sand. the sand in the coral prop tank is almost 6" deep - plenty to function as a dsb.

the reason they look so dirty in the pics up top is because they had not been touched all summer. they are nice and clean now and require minimal maintenance. hopefully when i get the macroalgae and mangroves to take off in the fuge, there will be even less cleaning mainenance.

[D3monic_Urges]

I would be nervous about that many kids handling coral. I see pics of one without gloves. I strongly advise making latex or neoprine gloves mandatory whenever a student handles anything within the aquariums. Theres just too much liabilty and things that can go wrong. All it takes is a kid to wipe his nose with some palytoxin on his hand and next thing you know its a field trip to the ER.

[hobogato]

that is a good point, and i agree that would be a good policy with the handling of corals. i did talk to the students about the dangers before hand and watch them while they were working, but gloves would have been a better idea. thanks!

[hobogato]

just received a donation of three captive bred maroon clowns.

here they are in a 5 gallon bucket until i can get them up to the school tomorrow morning.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05354.jpg

more pics tomorrow when i get them acclimated and in the tank at the school.

[espocrespo]

looks a very cool project :fish2:

[hobogato]

ok, here are a few pics of the tanks now that the students and i got them all cleaned up. also, got the lights working on the coral prop tank and moved the frags in.

we are going to keep the new gsm clowns in one of the rearing tanks until they get a little bigger

here they are acclimating
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05358.jpg

i had to rig a cover on the drain to make sure they dont get washed away - still working on a more permanent fix
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05359.jpg

here they are in the tank (all three are visible in that pic )
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05364.jpg

here is each one
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05373.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05374.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05375.jpg

here is an update pic of the oscillaris pair and the rbta
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05371.jpg

the coral prop tank - the lights are 400w SE, 20K on the left and 10K on the right
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05360.jpg

the rest of the tanks all clean and shiny
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05361.jpg

[hobogato]

ok, most of our critters came in today, so here is what we have in the program now:

here they are drip acclimating
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05531.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05532.jpg

one potter's angel (the 2nd one didnt make it :( )
a pair of tessellated blennies

a pair of flame angels
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05538.jpg

a pair of royal gramma
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05540.jpg

a pair of fire shrimp
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05541.jpg

a pair of skunk cleaner shrimp
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05544.jpg

a pair of rainbow pseudochromis
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05539.jpg

a pair of bangai cardinals
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05534.jpg

a pair of green mandarins (i counted over 50 pods on the front glass of the tank they went into)
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05537.jpg

[hobogato]

cant forget about the oscillaris pair and their rbta
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05415.jpg

the gsm clowns and their gbta
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05413.jpg

and the 10 cuttle eggs
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05546.jpg

still to be added are jawfish(6 in the coral prop tank) dwarf seahorses and pipefish

[rkelman]

Wow everything is looking great. I wish I had this when I was in high school.

[olin]

Looks fantastic! I ran a classroom marine aquaculture project for a couple of years when I taught high school. If I may be so bold, I'd like to offer a couple of things I learned that worked for me - take em or leave em as you like.

The second year, for classroom management, I organized the students into teams, we had a fish health and water quality team, a plankton production team, larviculture team etc. Taught them about teamwork and coordination, and it helped keep everyone on track. Each team was also responsible for designing and implementing at least one experiment in their area of "expertise". So for instance we had a study that looked at bacterial growth and water quality comparing live algae feeding to algae pastes, one that did growth rates of larvae with different feeding regimens etc. We won a lot of science fairs that year!

Also, might want to add a couple of "sure-thing" species to your group. We started with gobies (Gobiosoma chiquita) because they will start spawning within days of addition rather than months like the clowns. Also peppermint shrimp are great - they are much easier than the ones you have in there, albeit much lower on the cool scale. Good choice on the dwarf seahorses - easy and everyone loves em. Those were the favorites for my class.

If there's any way I can help you all out, please feel free to drop me a line - I'm a big proponent of aquaculture education.

[Phoenix19]

Very cool! I too would have loved to have anything like this as I was in school. All the pairs look pretty good. Will you be trying to replace the Potters that didn't make it? Where did you order all these from?

[hobogato]

thanks for all the comments

olin, thanks for the input - was planning on having the students divide into workgroups like you suggested, but hadnt thought about the experiment part. i will try to pick up some of those gobies as well, since i dont expect any reproduction for quite a while with all of these species.

pheonix, when i have the funds i will try another potters. i also want to make sure the survivor is going to make it - not the best eater yet. some of the fish were donated by some local reefers and the rest were ordered thru an lfs

[hobogato]

two bits to report today....



1. everyone made it thru the first night in the system without any problems



2. with exception of the mandarins, everyone ate frozen food this morning!! started them off with brine and mysis and will add more variety next week.



also, the tesselated blennies have destroyed the nice even sand bed in their tank to make all kinds of burrows and hiding places - i wonder if this means they are trying to set up a happy home...

[EileenLH]

Hi Hobogato and Olin,

I am very interested in this thread and your comments. I teach Marine Science & Environmental Science to 11th & 12th graders, and am trying to start a similar project, but on a smaller scale, with just clownfish for now. I have a pair of Ocellaris that lay eggs every two weeks, so we are going to try to raise the fry in the classroom. I've written a grant to obtain 6 small tanks and the related equipment, but I'm not sure how I'm going to divide the work and projects among my 5 Marine classes. They ALL want to partcipate, but I'm only going to be able to run six 10 gallon tanks, at least for now. Money is a major concern, and our economy here in Florida is horrible right now. I asked for tank/equipment donations in our school newsletter, but didn't get any.

My classes average 24-26, so approx. 6 groups of 4 students per class. I figured I'd divide fry up amongst them. Or maybe one class would take the first hatch, another class the second, and so on. But I doubt that would go over well for the classes that would have to wait. We have a 55 gallon for grow out later. We also have an up and running 75 gallon with a bonded pair of maroons, a royal gramma, dart fish, and a pair of pajama cardinals and xenia (LOTS!), mushrooms, and anthelia. Any suggestions on the logistics for all the classes? Hobogato, how big is your classroom? Can you post a photo of the setup of the entire room?

[hobogato]

eileen, you do have a bit of a scheduling issue there. i have three classes with a total of 80 students (i also teach 70 physics students). with my program students will pick which part of the program they want to help with and they will do all mainenance and feeding, etc. the rest of my room is just a big rectangle with lab tables in the middle and computers around two walls. it can seat 28 comfortably, but more if needed.

[olin]

Hi Eileen, sounds like your setup is off to a great start. There are a LOT of ways to do aquaculture using "found" items. I started my first aquaculture business as a starving undergrad with one tank, and a lot of dumpster diving for discarded plastic containers. Here are a few things that work great and are (nearly) free. 1 or 2 liter soda bottles. Culture plankton in the clear ones, and larvae in the green ones (or wrap black construction paper around the clear ones). This way you can have maybe 4/class with 5-10 larvae/bottle/hatch, so each group will have a batch. For the larvae, cut off the narrow tops so you can access the larvae. Keeping everything at an appropriate temp is a problem, but if you have the 55 set up with a heater, you can make a shelf inside out of eggcrate and zip ties and use the growout tank to temper the larval tubes. Just use a rigid airline with no airstone in the bottles - at 1 bubble/second, you can run a ton of these bottles off a single air pump.

Don't forget the rest of the community for donations - as part of our class, since there were science students who didn't like science, they were on a marketing committee. They went into the community or called around to fish stores and did a market survey. Best of all they got sponsors for both equipment and $, and they even negotiated a few pricier pieces of used equipment from stores (lights, skimmer etc), with the agreement that if our fish spawned, we would pay them for the items in fish, or if not, we would bring the gear back at the end of the year. Since the gear was already used, the fish stores agreed (and at the end of the year, they were all paid in fish)!

[hobogato]

we have 6 baby cuttles!!!!! pics coming soon :D

[hobogato]

here are the pics - i snapped them as we moved the babies to their new net breeder

in a glass holding bowl
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05569.jpg
closer
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05571.jpg

plastic transfer dish - relatively easy to use and little stress on the babies, although one did ink a bit because i moved a little too fast.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05575.jpg
closer
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05576.jpg

couple of buddies in the new net breeder - notice the net is inside out to keep them from getting tangled in the seam
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05577.jpg
thru the glass pic
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05580.jpg

all six after they settled in under the chaeto (i carefully moved it to take the pic from above)
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05584.jpg

[rkelman]

very cool congrats! I look forward to seeing their progress. I'd love to keep some one day.

[clowns101]

Where did you get the eggs?If you dont mind me asking!

[hobogato]

one of my lfs owners ordered them from a supplier.

[clowns101]

Were can I get them online?

[hobogato]

not sure where to find them online, sorry.

you may check in at tonmo.com, captive raised ones are available there periodically.



well, mixed news this morning. last week, the two smallest hatchling cuttles died and this morning only the largest two of the initial 6 were still alive. at least one of them is eating tho, since i put in several live mysis on friday and none are left now.



also, three of the remaining four eggs hatched this weekend, so hopefully they will all make it.

[buttons buster]

glad to see that the tanks are doing well :)

[Marchingbandjs]

Sweet, lucky kids, keep us updated

[IFbettas]

any updates?

[hobogato]

ust got back from feeding the school critters and cleaning the lone cuttle's net breeder (yes, only one of the nine that hatched made it to easy feeding size). it was really mad at me and inked quite a bit. :)

also dropped off the salt water acclimated black mollies, they will be food makers for this cuttle and the other three i have coming in this week.

the tesselated blennies have rearranged their tank changed into their dimorphic colors again and the dark blue one is really fat - probably gravid.

also, the female skunk cleaner is very gravid.

didnt have the camera with me today - will try to get some pics tomorrow.....

[hobogato]

ok, got some pics of the blennies and their eggs, as well as the gravid cleaner shrimp

not so good pic of both blennies
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05913.jpg

just the female - she only turns this color when nesting, gravid, and just after laying eggs
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05914.jpg

the eggs (layer of gray specs on the inside wall of the lower right barnacle) - dont have cultures of rotifers yet, so we will not be collecting this batch of larvae
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05916.jpg

gravid cleaner shrimp - there are two

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05918.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05919.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05922.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05920.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05923.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05924.jpg

[hobogato]

here are some cruddy pics of the three yellow headed jawfish in the coral prop tank

these two share a home under a large rock at one end of the tank
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05901.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05902.jpg

this one has his own cave under another rock half way down the tank
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05903.jpg

[ThunderTang]

Man I wish i was at this school, your students are so Lucky:thumbsup:

[Boundless]

I wish I was in that class! btw what is the name of the class?

[timb0x]

What school is this? I wish I had gone there. I went to HCHS.

[hobogato]

thanks for the comments, this is Environmental Systems class at James Madison HS

[Shootcat]

thats really cool, good luck with all your pairs. thats a cool set up!

[hobogato]

thanks shootcat

well, thought i would post pics of the phyto setup as we finally split out into the last of the seven cultures we want to keep.

here are the four we had running before the split, the one second from the right has been a little slow starting, so we did not mess with it today
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05961.jpg

we took half of each of the other three cultures and started three new cultures.
here it is without the light across the front
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05963.jpg

here it is as it normally sits
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05964.jpg

also got some baby cuttles in today. they are tiiny but look healthy.
here they are drip aclimating
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/DSC05960.jpg

[hobogato]

sad morning. two of the three new baby cuttles that came in last week died between Sunday and this morning. also, the hatchling that was doing great and was about the size of a dime died over the same time period. everything else in the entire system looks good.

[hobogato]

it has been quite a while since i have updated this. we have given up on raising cuttlefish, but are slowly moving forward with other things

we just getting things going again for this school year. we have already established our nano phyto cultures and rotifers. we have iso phyto cultures that arent starting up as easily as we hoped. also we now have about 20 one day old clowns that donated by a local reefkeeper.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/2011-10-10_07-31-46_323.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/2011-10-10_07-26-46_638.jpg

they are already zooming around eating up rotifers

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zjqHzTyt5Jo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[hobogato]

day 5, so i gave the baby clowns their first meal of newly hatched baby brine - they seemed very interested and seemed to eat some. there are about 10 that made it.

[Clownfishfan]

Be careful I have read that a baby clown will eat to much or swallow a shell and die. Anything with the cardinals ? Awesome setup!

[billsreef]

Thanks for the update, and congrats on the progress :thumbsup:

Clownfishfan,

I've heard that bit about larval clownfish overeating repeated often, however, I've yet to actually witness it happen with clownfish or any other species that I've reared.

BTW the shell problem is something that is best avoided by using decapsulated cysts.

[Clownfishfan]

I know that doni marie on onother forum had this problem and switched to otohime.de-capped brine also eliminates the chances of hydroids. I use those for my dwarf seahorses

[hobogato]

thanks for pointing that out guys.

yes, i should have mentioned that i have entire batch of 6 month old clowns from the same parents at home that i raised, and we have several locals raising them. some are using the decap brine, but i am using cone hatcheries that allow me to separate the capsules from the brine very easily.

[hobogato]

it has been a while since the last update, so here is what is going on now

nano, roti, and iso cultures are trucking along well. two of the last batch of clowns made it through morphing, not sure why the survival rate was so low. they are both platinums and look healthy and normal.

also started a new adventure this Sunday - H. reidi babies :)

they are now four days old, here is a cruddy pic with my phone. i also took a video, but have to wait until this evening to upload it. thanks again Karin!

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/photobucket-5859-1328708120901.jpg

[billsreef]

Very nice :thumbsup:

[hobogato]

thanks bill

here is the video i shot yesterday with my phone

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JPdI41l_iuA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[hobogato]

baby ponies are a week old - still have about 100 that are doing well

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/photobucket-6938-1329163057169.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/environmental%20systems/photobucket-3524-1329163126408.jpg

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/a-Fria_eWys" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>