attracting larval fish-LED moonlight ok?

[Electrokate]

Hi,
I am working on a continuous larval fish/shrimp collector as an experiment on my dottyback and peppermint breeding tanks... I am pretty sure they spawn but never see eggs/fry so want to try leaving a trap every night.

To attract the larval fish propose using a couple LED's to lead them to the trap and keep them away from the trap's outlet. Anyone know if LED's will attract them and if so if color of the bulbs matters? If LED's don't work is there another easily wired small light you would recommend ie large christmas light bulb wired to battery or something else easy?

Am hoping to keep whatever I use battery operated-got some rechargeables. Too many cords already on my tanks, don't think I need one to run a 1 watt light
Thanks,
Kate B
Oly WA

 

[Elmo18]

Hi Kate. Interesting experiment

In my opinion, LED's will work, but as to which spectrum, i'd stick to the 'white'. There are the whites and blues out there. Assuming all those fry are phototrophic, any point source of light will attract them.

Goodluck Any luck with raising the Dottybacks yet?

- Elmo

 

[Electrokate]

Hi
Thanks Elmo, I will get a white LED setup going. I haven't been able to see if they have spawned but it seems like by now they would if they could. They have been together a year and a half... hence my idea to do the continuous fry collector and see if I am missing the main event.
Maybe I have 2 males. Neither is as large as they get but one is definitely bigger than the other.
Moe's domestic bred orchids spawned a few months after he got them and he got them very small, so I am assuming that 1.5 years is more than enough time to mature. Lately have increased photoperiod and feeding frequency to synch them up, might try faking the moon cycle next as the whole fishroom could use some inspiration-some of the killies are not breeding either. Maybe they need a new food so have ordered large quantities of frozen to try mixing it up. Seems like if they were not a compatible pair they would have slaughtered eachother by now, they don't do any harm at all and have always been together in a 20 long.
Still can't decide whether or not to get the tomato clown pair but am getting "their" tank ready anyways. If they are still at the LFS when it's ready then maybe it's meant to be, if not I will have to search for black and white percs. Anyone raising those around here? Would want domestic bred of course...
Kate

 

[Oscapus]

I have always wanted to find a way to collect the pods out of the cheato and other macroalgae I pull out of my refugium and throw away. If I ever take the time to pick through it, there are plenty of pods hiding in there. I would love to devise a trap or attractor of some kind. I even tried hooking up my battery charger to shock them out. I don't think even wet algae carries a current very well, maybe I'll try immersing it a bucket of salt water. I can set it for only 6 or 12 volts, but watch for my hairstyle to change if I ever make a mistake!

 

[Electrokate]

Hi,
I have gotten them out by shaking them in and over a bowl of seawater/repeated dunkings and hazings gets them off... also by letting the algae cool a bit which makes them drop away looking for a better spot, or by dipping the algae in freshwater then dumping the water through a net real quick to rescue the pods and dumping them back into saltwater-probably affects their long term survival.
I take the prefilter from the sump out sometimes to get amphipods off, they lift off under a fingernail. Kind of anal but it feeds the QT fish enough to keep them alive. If you dump pods and frozen food in at the same time, chances are fish will accidentally eat some frozen and maybe like it. I also stock my QT tanks with live mysid-size shrimp (don't know what species, they live in canister filters) and pods between fish as well so they are ready and waiting for any impulse buys.
Wish I knew what the little shrimp were and how to massively culture them. I collected them when I worked at the LFS, volunteered to clean out the stinky fluvals and there they were. They also all packed into an unplugged powerhead when a tank was being torn down. I think harvest is easy with them. Remove decor, place a bottle packed with chaeto in the tank, crank up the lights and they will crawl in for shelter. Max size is 1 cm and they reproduce like crazy if you overfeed the tank. Probably great to co culture with juvenile clownfish as they will eat leftovers. I have also seen them in very high flow sumps in other peoples' tanks, they swim very quickly and probably like heavy water movement. The more movement the more shrimp...
Kate