A couple questions

[gopens]

first question has to do with the fry tank. Last night I only collected about 25 babyh maroon s from the main tank. This morning i woke up to all of them dead. The fry tank is 10 gallons but I onlu put about 4 gallons of display tank water. My question is do i use 100% display tank water or should I use 50% display water and 50% freshly made salt water. i have read conflicting articles on this.

Also I am feeding my rotifers Roti-Rich from Florida Aqua Farmers. An emplyee at FAF's told me that is all I need to use when feeding my rotifers. She said that I DO NOT need to grow live phyto. I have heard the term "PHYTO PASTE". Would Roti-Rich be considered "Paste". I am getting frustrated. thanks for any help.

 

[tedr]

I would suggest a 5g with maybe 3 inches of only parent tank water. Continue using parent tank water for water changes until the fry go through metamorphasis. Don't know if maroons are different from percs, but with percs it should be about 7 - 10 days. Use a smaller larval tank and overload it with rotifers for the first few days. I would use live phyto, possibly DT, and put some in the fry tank to feed the rotifers you put in. By using less water in the 5g, you're giving the larvae a better chance of feeding. Perc fry can only see to about 1 1/2 of their body length for the first few days, so they'll actually be running into the rotifers while feeding.
If you've established the number of nights between laying and hatching, you should be seeing this same number with future spawning events. I believe collecting from the parent tank can be too stressful on the fry. Try a small clay flower pot near the site the parents are using, and hope they switch to the pot. It is much easier, I feel, to put the pot in a larval tank on the established night of hatching, and less stressful. That having been said, I suggested a water depth of 3 inches for the first few days. In order to completely submerge the pot, you'll need more. I would just lower the water after the hatch in the larval tank. You should have a dim light over the opposite end of the tank from where you place the pot, so the fry should all congregate at that end, so you can siphon some water with a turkey baster.
Regarding feeding the rotifers, I would use live phyto a few hours before you collect rotifers for the larval tank in order to load them up. I supplement between harvesting with PhytoMax (dead phyto) and a mixture of flour and baking yeast thoroughly mixed with a hand blender.
If you haven't done so, check the other posts in this forum. There's a link to a url that is a pretty good and concise handbook for raising clownfish fry. It was put together by Karen Bradley in the Houston club.
Get ready for some trial and error. It may take a few spawning events before you get it right. It did for me.
GOOD LUCK!!!!!

 

[gopens]

thanks for the post. this is actually there fifth clutch. i have tried to raise them all with no luck. after there first spawing, i put a clay pot were there forst spawn was. i was luck enough that there next spawn was on the clay pot. but when i moved the clay pot to the fry tank the night of the hatch, they have not spawned on it again.

i am looking to avoind live phyto all together. thats why i did the roti-rich. but if i can't just use roti rich, i will stop useing it and start up some live phyto. hopefully some one can chime in and tell me that roti-rich is the best stuff to use.