Attempting to breed clownfish - log

[subman719]

This must be the "week of doom" for all of us! I just found my one and only baby Nemo dead! I wonder if it's because I still had him in the Rot tank? I should say that it was "his" tank but because the Rots kept multiplying so rapidly, I kept feeding and treating it as a "Rot culture" tank. Now I'm back to square one. I lost last weeks hatch (#4) because after waiting 2 hours, I saw nothing and figured it wasn't the night for a hatch. Woke up and was wrong. 2 days later, they laid batch #5 and I have an expected hatch of this Sunday night, but I may not be home in time to catch them. UUUUGGGGHHHHH!!!

FB- I do have a question though: How come yours would die after having "no flow" for such a short period of time vs. when I have my entire tank shut down for 5 hours or so to catch larvae? Is it because of the high density of fish in a small growout tank?

 

[rkelman]

How are you keeping up with ammonia etc FB? Just water changes?

Bummer subman. I wouldn't think a rot culture would be a good place for a fish to live.. To much ammonia etc.

Your right it is the density of a growout tank. You figure 250 fish in a 10 or 15 gallon tank.. They use up ALOT of oxygen. Why is it taking you 5 hours to collect the larvae? I was doing it in a hour manually..

 

[subman719]

Ok, Honestly, it took me 5 hours just the one time. I was trying to catch every last one but I didn't have a light (or the knowhow) to lure them to one area of the tanks surface. Batch #4 I missed completely and #5 is coming up this Sunday. I've come up with an idea this time that I hope will work. I'm turning off the moon lights on one side of the tank and covering the other side with only a small hole under the farthest light just to give a "glow" at that one end. I really hope I get it right this time since I've killed the last 4 batches!

 

[rkelman]

My method was to have the wife hold the flashlight near the top of the water (on the side of the tank they hatched on of course) while I scooped them up. Simple yet effective. The ones I couldn't get to come to the top I sucked up with a turkey baster. If I was to do it again I would use a piece of airline tubing and start a siphon and siphon them into a bucket (not too far away so the siphon is slow)

 

[FB]

Knock on wood. I have yet to have a problem with ammonia that I know of. I seem to have enough bacteria on heaters and the glass to keep up with the problem.

Yes there were about 250 fish in about 6-7 gallons of water. The water temp was 81.2 and the higher the temp the less oxygen. Even with two bubblers in the tank I could see they were low on oxygen. That is when I put the maxi-jet in the tank. Within 20 minutes all breathing was back to normal. I then took the bubblers out of this tank and moved them to another the needed more.

Anyway I finally have all the plumbing to start the system. This stuff is not cheap!

FB

 

[FB]

Oh another problem.

One of the females I purchased has come down with a nice case of popeye. I did a 80% water change and added a pouch of Furan-2 to the tank. I thought the eyes looked funny yesterday but having never seen this disease before didn't know enough to medicate. Anyway this afternoon she looked terrible and was swimming funny. Tonight she was not swimming much almost on here side. The male kept biting her almost saying stay with us. It is very sad to watch. Hopefully the medication will work, However I would says my chances are slim maybe 20%. Does anybody know the survival rate of this.

Thanks

FB

 

[rkelman]

I think that tank was overstocked FB. I think you needed the entire 10g of water to house that many.

I'm in the process of buying all my plumbing supplies as well. You ain't kidding.

Usually popeye is quite treatable FB. Keep changing the water and adding the Furan that's all you can do.

 

[FB]

I'm positive the tank was overstocked and I was about to fix the problem.

Again lesson learned.

The popeye fish appears to be better this morning. Hopefully she will pull through.

I'm going to do a 50% water change and add another Furan 2 as per instructions.

FB

 

[rkelman]

I find myself wondering when stuff like that happens to me. Why does there need to be so many lessons. Maybe I'm a slow learner. I guess if it was easy everyone would do it.

I'm glad things are looking up with her.

 

[subman719]

I can't even imagine 250 fish in a 10 gal! I'd be afraid to have that many in my 90!

As far as the Popeye goes, I hope you have better luck than I did. I had a Yellow Tang with Popeye. I quarantined him for over a month. He went into remission after about 2 weeks then it came back full force. Several weeks after that, he died and he and his eye parted ways. I guess that's why they call it "pop-eye". It was very sad.

Lastly, I feel like I'm in the race for "slow learners". I figured after all these threads and the book, I would have gotten this right sooner. Maybe this is natures way of telling me that I really don't have the room to raise them to full term. I do have a ton of Rots going if anyone needs them! LOL I've got 3 full cultures going strong.

 

[FB]

Had a little bit of ammonia in my remaining clown tank and added a seasoned sponge filter.

Popeye fish is acting heathier but still is infected.

Later

FB

 

[FB]

I swear you guys jinx the hell out of me.

Ammonia problem did not disappear during my vacation even with the spongs filter. I lost 10 fish during that time.

I added some ammonia binder and did a large water change when I returned and still no change. I lost about 40 more fish and decided just to transfer them all to my upstairs tank. Some did not handle the transfer well and might not make it. I have some much larger fish in the tank and I am hoping I can unload them tomorrow.

I will keep you updated.

Popeye fish eyes have gone down but not completely. I may do an other treatment of Furan-2. Other pairs are all doing well. But they don't seem to care for my homemade food.

Later

FB

 

[FB]

I swear you guys jinx the hell out of me.

Ammonia problem did not disappear during my vacation even with the spongs filter. I lost 10 fish during that time.

I added some ammonia binder and did a large water change when I returned and still no change. I lost about 40 more fish and decided just to transfer them all to my upstairs tank. Some did not handle the transfer well and might not make it. I have some much larger fish in the tank and I am hoping I can unload them tomorrow.

I will keep you updated.

Popeye fish eyes have gone down but not completely. I may do an other treatment of Furan-2. Other pairs are all doing well. But they don't seem to care for my homemade food.

Later

FB

 

[rkelman]

We jinx you? I think its because you vacation waaaay too much

 

[subman719]

FB- Sorry to hear about more losses. It truely is sad! Can I make a small suggestion? Would it be safer for you to get a couple of larger tanks, say 30's or 55's for your growout tanks and maybe put refugiums on them to help handle the load and maintain stability?

Oh, I have to agree with rkelman... you may want to cut back on the vacations! Pull up a lawn chair, crack out a sun lamp and a pina-colada and pretend you're on vacation in front of your fish! Maybe even spread a little beach sand around you and a palm tree for the full effect! LOL :lolspin:

 

[FB]

Visiting the in-laws is not REALLY a vacation.

I do have larger tanks and I am currently in the process of hooking it all up. It's just taken longer than I thought it would.

FB

 

[rkelman]

"Would it be safer for you to get a couple of larger tanks, say 30's or 55's for your growout tanks "

If you have too large of a tank they have too much room and will get territorial and start killing each other...

"Visiting the in-laws is not REALLY a vacation."

Amen brother.

 

[subman719]

Now that you mentioned the "too large of tank and territory" thing, I do remember reading about that. Thanks for the reminder! That would have been yet one more self inflicted disaster should I actually get something to live that long.

Ahhh, I did just think of an idea... what about keeping them in the small tank but using a large tank or container as a sump/refugium to still allow dilution? Something like just using a hang-on overflow and running into a large tote bin or garbage can?

 

[rkelman]

That would work subman. That's pretty much what most breeding "systems" are. Mine is going to be 10 and 15gallon tanks hooked to a sump and possibly a dsb and / or a turf algae filter.

 

[FB]

Thats what I am doing - 8 10 gallons all hooked to a larger 65 gallon sump. Possibly two deep sand beds. Another system with 4 40 gallon tanks that are divided in two again hooked up to the 65 gallon sump with the two deep sand beds.

Anyway the transfer to the upstairs tank went a lot better than expected. I think I only lost three more fish. All fish were swimming normally today actually were eating.

FB