Update on Cujo the A. Nigripes clown

[traveller7]

Edit: Adding a historical Cujo photo from the archive:
Early Cujo in the 300gal:


Mature Cujo in the 300gal:


Original post/thread continues below:

Cujo recently set up a new house and actually accepted a house mate. She seems to appreciate the new companionship:



ALOT!



The above is a newly formed pair of A. nigripes making their first spawning runs in a 300gal community tank. "Bonding" to pairing to breeding time was an incredible 16 days. At this point I am not 100% sure the "new suitor" is even a Male.

Close up photos do seem to indicate the new fish is a male, but we shall see if there are any fertile eggs. Unfortunately, the Tusk has already snacked on a few and it will be tough to keep him away from the breeding location

If you have not met Cujo of RC, she has been in captivity 1.5 years and is quite aggressive. Hands put anywhere in this 300gal are fair game and one needs to prepare for a blood letting upon entering her domain. She has been cleaning substrate for the last 9 months or so while attempting to break up 2 other pairs of clowns within the tank. The other clown pairs were recently removed and 16 days ago another A. nigripes was added.

Other fish in this tank: Pair of Crosshatch Triggers, Tusk Fish, Copperbanded Butterfly, 6-line Wrasse, Magnificent Foxface, Flame Cardinals, and a Dwarf Moray.

Regardless of current outcome, I am happy Cujo did not kill off the new addition and hopeful they will actually form a solid Female-Male breeding pair.

Cheers to luck

[MJI]

Nice one Scott

[dantodd]

Congrats Scott.

[Genin]

congrats and good luck. she sounds like a finacky clown!

[Bryan Thompson]

Wow. 16 days till the first spawn!! That is awesome.

Bryan

[Dan]

Cujo probably went psycho on him. "Spawn or else...."

Dan

[dantodd]

Get movin' my fishological clock is ticking!

[Elmo18]

Nice job Scott!! err..i mean Cujo

Best,
Ilham

[traveller7]

Originally posted by Dan
Cujo probably went psycho on him. "Spawn or else...."

Dan

I am sure it is a combination of that and the fact the source of the clown conditioned it for at least 6 weeks before sending it to me ;>)

[Gary Majchrzak]

spawning 16 days after introduction? Congratulations!
What's your secret... mysis soaked in Viagara?

[traveller7]

The power of a beautiful woman cannot be resisted

I'll need to get some good pictures of them, especially since they are really behaving like a pair now.

fwiw: tusk fish picked the spawning site clean Going to let the pair settle in before moving them to a breeding tank.

fwiw2: Since every pair that has lived in this tank has bred in a quick turn around, next pair up: the A. chrysogasters. May luck continue.

[traveller7]

Update: Although the pair is still in the 300g and had their anemones move all over the place....Cujo and friend have yet to miss a two week cycle.

Still have not put a tile in there

[Ron Popeil]

hey scott, do you think you could give me a run down of your tank?
temperature
photoperiod
salinity
water change schedule
feeding frequency and type

thank you!

[traveller7]

Tank is the beat up 300g bowfront my gallery(holds 288g). Total system size has shrunk considerably from 600g total volume down to 340g.

Temps vary between 75-82F throughout the year and swing 2F per day.
Photo period is 12 hours, from overlapping 400w MH running 8hrs each.

SG 1.025-1.026

Water changes once a yearish whether the tank needs it or not....funny though it always needs it.

Feeding, lots and lots of PE mysis, some lancefish, some brine, and more mysis. Pair of large crosshatch triggers, a tusk, a dwarf moray, and a magnificent foxface can really chow down...pair of nigripes and black ocellaris get saturated at each feeding. (in my humble opinion, it is the feeding )

[dc]

Very cool, now get that tile in! We want to see babies.

[traveller7]

Debi, babies will take more then a tile.....I'll need to reserve room and board for the "rotifer suckers" at Marina's.....Ol'Trav's schedule just does not cooperate

[traveller7]

Originally posted by dc
Very cool, now get that tile in!

Done.

Originally posted by dc
We want to see babies.

You know you are welcome to drop by and check them out ;>)

fwiw: 66% of the batch hatched last night the 7th of Oct. They were eating rots and showing little silver bellies within hours of lights on this morning.

I was not really going to focus on these guys, but I had rots, was home last night and figured what the heck

[Ron Popeil]

fantastic news scott!

good luck!

[elegance coral]

Originally posted by traveller7
I am sure it is a combination of that and the fact the source of the clown conditioned it for at least 6 weeks before sending it to me ;>)

How did they "condition" the little fellow for you?

[traveller7]

Originally posted by elegance coral
How did they "condition" the little fellow for you?

Both of them were from the same source, Bryan Thompson of Extreme Aquarium. For the record, Bryan named her Cujo.

Cujo was essentially a tiny and went into a "coral only" system for a few weeks prior to being shipped to me. She was one of those tiny personalities you come across that commands all your attention, which of course promotes the best of care. I actually picked up the Haddoni she was living in as well, fitting for a princess.

The male was either a solo arrival or a solo survivor, if memory serves, I think he was a solo survivor and held in good care for a few weeks prior to shipment.

Typically when clowns are sold as "conditioned" they are "dewormed" and QT'd for an extended period of feeding, etc.

In this case, I think only the male saw any meds.

Maybe Bryan will drop in a clear up my recollection.

[traveller7]

Larvae update at 36hours:

At least 150 of the little buggers. 50%+ have bright fat silver bellies full of rotifers. Some are showing significant growth, others...none at all. Most are quite active, much more then I have seen in the chrysogaster, maroons, and ocellaris.

Although, I was not really prepared to raise a full batch, I am optimistic a few might actually make it in the make shift environment I put together on hatch night. We'll see what happens over the next few days.

Cheers.

[Bryan Thompson]

I was wondering how they were doing! Cujo came to me as a tiny tiny fish. She was the size of a thumbnail when I got her. I really liked her (it at the time) so I put her in a 40 breeded with a bunch of zoo frags and a small haddoni. I had her for about 4-5 months. Over that time she got pretty mean. You could not put a hand in the tank without being attacked.

Scott called one day and I was telling him the story of a little fish that attacked like cujo and he proceeded to talk me out of her.

I brought in another batch a few months later and lost all but one. The lone survivor went into a 4x8 coral tank for about 4 weeks. After he started to get his attitude I knew he was ready for Scott.

They are really cool fish and I am really happy to see Scott will have tank raised ones since the wild ones are not a good bet.

Bryan

[traveller7]

Thanks for dropping in Bryan

Fwiw: Cujo's personality has not mellowed, just last night she jumped out of the tank and bounced of the 70wt MH fixture while chasing me out of the tank. Fortunately, she has only ricocheted off and out of the tank once to date.

At 60hrs in, looking like most of the fry are eating well, figure it will be fairly static for the next 2-3 days. Some of them are shockingly large at this age. Thought I actually saw more then one bending their tails, but that just should not be happening at this age so I think it was influenced by the observer's hopes

Next Friday will likely be make or break for this batch so I am getting prepared for a dramatic weekend.

Wish the batch and I luck.

[MarinaP]

Best of luck, I wish I could be there with you and the batch in person

[acrodave]

If she is so mean how come she did not run off the tusk? is the tusk huge