Baby Maroon clownfish: 1-day, 8-day, & 15-day old *PICS*

[flamehawkfish]

hi Everyone

For the past three months, I've been totally humbled by the task of raising maroon clownfish frye. If anyone has raised maroon clownfish, please share with me your advice!!! I had a particularly rough and prolonged metamorphisis. I'd like to get better.

After 3 failed attempts, I succeeded in raising 8 baby maroon clownfish. Yup- only 8. To most, this seems like more of a failure than success, but for me, it was a major milestone. Just getting a few fish past metamorphisis was a big deal to me.

Although Joyce Wilkerson's group serves as an excellent roadmap, experience drives success. My experience is still limited but expanding. I'm waiting for the parents to lay eggs again, so I can apply the lessons learned.

Anyway, here are some pics so you can better understand the progression of baby Gold-rimmed Maroon clownfish as they endure their delicate larval stage...

This pic shows all the larvae 1 day after they hatch. At this stage, they're tiny and number 400-500:

This pic show an up-close magnified view of a 1-day old larvae. I really wanted to take better photos, but these speedy guys in low light present a particularly challenging task to any camera.

Here's another shot of the entire 10g tank with all larvae after 1 day. It's quite a sight! Sadly, most of mine don't make it past the 9th or 10th day:

Here's a top-view of 8-9 day-old larvae. At this stage, they're feeding intensely on rotifers, and are gaining bulk. They're almost ready for baby brine shrimp:

Finally, after a brutal metamorphisis, a few baby maroon clownfish survive!

Here's a pic of the parents (I wish they'd lay eggs again! Of course, they're stalling. Murphy's Law- as soon as I have all the gear, greenwater, and rotifers, they stop spawning!!)

Lastly, here's the garage set-up (greenwater, rotifers, baby brine, and larval tank):

To everyone- if you give this a try, expect major stumbling blocks. While the price is high (in terms of time & resources), the emotional pay-out of creating marine fish is enormous. Even though I'm struggling, I won't give up. If the next clutch of eggs prove stronger and more larvae grow out, I'll surely have excess juvies to sell or trade. Stay tuned!

Sincerely,

Flamehawkfish

 

[MarinaP]

IME maroon fry has higher mortality rate than ocellaris, melanopus, perculas and other common clowns. I raised them all (as well as chrysopterus - but that's another story), and maroon babies were tough to get through meta. They did better when started on S-strain, but still mortality was high.

Try to get them to lay on the tile. If necessary, place multiple tiles/flower pots. Eventually they will get the idea.

Eight is good. A friend of mine was happy with one and named him "Lucky".

Good luck.

One of my juvs

Two more

 

[flamehawkfish]

hi MarinaP

What is 'S-Strain'? Is it like Selcon? I haven't tried it yet.
My baby maroons are still only 18 days old. I'm not celebrating my 8 survivors yet! Still a long way to go. I've heard that Maroons are tough to raise, but that wasn't really conveyed in Wilkerson's book? I wonder how she became so successful. What's the highest success rate you've had with a clutch of Maroons? Just curious...

So, can you give any advice for those metamorphisis days? I expected all clownfish to be metamorphosed in 14 days. Instead, that marked the beginning of metamorphisis when I went from 150-200 frye down to 10. Painful!

Please let me know.

Sincerely,

Flamehawkfish

 

[mcola78]

pretty sweet regardless. The pictures are neat!

 

[xxpipedreamxx]

S strain rotifers...

 

[flamehawkfish]

So... no sooner do I complain about the parents...
and they JUST laid more eggs!

Nice! It's on a removable piece of rock, too. Lots & lots of eggs- probably 700-800.

For the past month, I've been feeding my clownfish better than I feed my wife, kids, and family! Squid, lingcod, and shrimp- blended together w' Formula 1 and Selcon. I hope it pays off with healthy frye.

MarinaP, Phender, or anyone else with clownfish reering experience- any morsels of wisdom? Metamorphisis was brutal last time.

Thanks in advance.

Wish me luck!

 

[dzeadow]

Wow, that's awesome. I think 8 on the first try is a great success! Just think of how many you'll have next time. I think this is great that people do this.. even if you get a few to survive and sell to a LFS, that's just a few more that don't have to be taken out of the ocean.

 

[phender]

Just a couple thoughts. It may help, it may not.

Get the live rock out of the fry tank. Live rock could contain possible pathogens that you don't need in the tank.

Start weaning the babies off of rotifer and onto crushed flake food at about day 5 or 7. Use BBS as a suppliment rather than a staple food. Some reports I have read link exclusive use of BBS to death of fry during times of stress like transfer or metamorphosis.

There are several hobby/commercial breeders who have done away with using BBS all together. They go right from rotifers to crushed flake.

Send Morgman a pm. I don't know if he has any experience with Maroons, but he raises some of the highest quality clowns I have ever seen.

 

[dzeadow]

In Joyce Wilkerson's book, she says that you have to watch the amount of BBS fed to the fry since they don't know when to stop eating and they'll basically make their stomach explode... I didn't realize they'd do that!

 

[flamehawkfish]

hi Phender and All

Very good advice. I was reluctant to start with flakes early, fearing that they'd pollute the tank. I'll give it a shot. Can you recommend any type of flake in particular? Beyond rotifers, BBS, and flakes, any other starter food? Somebody mentioned Cyclo-freeze (or something like that)...

The baby brine shrimp (BBS) are, indeed, quite damaging to my frye populations. As DZeadow pointed out, it's painfully easy to overfeed the frye at this age. Also, the nutritional value of BBS is questionable. I alway felt like there might be another way.

Lastly, thanks for the tip on the live rock. I figured that it would bring more good than harm, providing beneficial bacteria & some good algae. Next time, I'll try without it.

Thank you and take care,

Flamehawkfish

 

[MarinaP]

I do not use BBS. OSI Spirulina flakes are good, just grind them to dust. Cyclopeeze comes in flake form and frozen. I could never grind those flakes to the right size, but babies start taking frozen early. Some people swear by Otohime by Reed Mariculture. There was a long thread about this product in the Breeders' Forum about 6 or 8 months ago. Check Reed's website for product description. I can send you a sample of A and B1, I have some leftovers.

And I agree with Phil, take that rock out. Besides, it has so much hair algae that even your survivors might get trapped in it.

 

[flamehawkfish]

hi Marina

Thanks for the info. So, you NEVER used BBS when raising maroon clownfish frye? That's very interesting. So, is it safe to say that Wilkerson's prescription of BBS from days 7-21 is now dated and somewhat ill-advised?

You noted that 'some people' favor Otohime from Reed Mariculture (I got my rotifers from them). Well, what was YOUR experience? Naturally, I value your opinion most- especially given your success!

On that note, what's the highest survival rate you've had for maroon clowns, and for that matter, any hatch of clownfish (it sounds like you've bred several varieties)?

Thanks for your advise... and the live rock is now gone! : )

Take care,

Flamehawk

 

[MarinaP]

The highest survival rate was with perculas - 100 out of about 250 fry (first nest). The parents were sold to me as onyx. The female stayed that way, the male lost a lot of black, he looks like reg perc with some black now. I suspect they were hosting in zoos before entering my breeding system.

With maroons... That was about 4 years ago, I believe I got maybe 50 out of 400 or so. But I culled a lot of them early. I did not raise many batches, there is very limited demand for maroons.

I only supplemented with otohime starting at about 1 months. I still prefer to switch them to OSI first.

Never used BBS or home-cultured green water. Instant algae is what I use.

 

[dzeadow]

I got this Cyclop-eez that is already in powder form.. its actually in clumps in the container and then if I take and roll my fingers over it, it turns to dust.. I think it's the whole freeze dried stuff. But they also have a frozen version.

 

[MFULKERSIN]

OMG THAT IS AMAZING!!!! HAVE ANY UPDATES ON THE 700-800 BROOD??