Breeding Ocellaris Clowns - My unexpected attempt!

Quick question to everyone -

My first batch of clowns just hatched last night. I'm feeding them rotifers, which I have been culturing for the past week and feeding Rotifer Diet from Reed Mariculture. But, I accidentally left the bottle of Rotifer Diet out overnight. Has anyone worked with this before? Should I be worried and try to have another bottle shipped to me overnight? Is there any emergency backup food I could use in case I can't get their food in ASAP?

I'm hate to lose a whole batch of new baby clowns to my blonde moment...:/
 
Umluis- I'm sorry I can't help you with your question, but I do have a question for you? Were your clown eggs on a "tile" or on a rock and you just happenend to catch them with a net? So far it seems you're having better luck than me! My eggs just hatched last night but my "larvae vac" turned out to be a COMPLETE failure and I had NO survivors. :( Not only did I lose my clown eggs again, I lost my Rot's the other day as well as a record loss for my gobie's that hatched earlier in the week. They only made it just over a day! :( For the icing on the cake, my 52 inch TV and my paper shreader died, both only a few years old! I'm JINXED!!! I'll be posting full details of my "mistakes" so hopefully no one else makes them, including myself! :(
 
Subman - I'm sorry to hear that! Well, I decided to take a totally risky approach to getting my larvae safely into my hatch tank:

Since they were pretty much stuck on THE BIGGEST (and might I add, most expensive) rock in my tank, I WAS going to just take a flashlight and bucket to hunt for larvae the "old fashioned" way. But, since there were only about 10-15 eggs left (possible from rotting/mom or dad eating them), I decided to just chip off a chunk of the main rock and place it in my hatch tank.

I've ready a lot of postings where people have experienced a high mortality rate using "lavae vacs"...so I'm trying to avoid that route as much as possible.

Right now, I'm waiting for the second batch of eggs to be laid and have added a piece of tile where they had their last batch and moved a ceramic pot closer to the base of the anemone (which was in the tank to begin with...in anticipation of this). Besides this, I'm "over-feeding" them and making sure my lights stay on a strict cycle!

I don't have a macrolense, but will try to have pix to share later - maybe by next week or so.

Anyone have other pointers?
 
I would use it today umluis but not after.. I would get some phyto or instant algae overnighted. I've done the same thing with Phyto. I used it the next day without an issue... A 2L bottle of Phyto wouldn't warm up as fast as a small bottle of Roti Diet though. I don't beleive Roti Diet is a good food for rotifers destined for clown larvae anyways. Too expensive. Get Instant Algae. It goes farther and has only nano which is what our clowns need.

Subman I'd get them laying on a tile.. Its soooo much easier to deal with. I have no stress on hatch night now. I'm sorry for all the problems but you'll get it..
 
Umluis- there's a guy on ebay located in Gainsville that sells the main 3 phyto for a very good price. It's a very solid dark green when I get it and it lasts for a couple weeks at least. Lmk know if you want his name and I'll get it for you. Subman719- with my clowns sometimes laying eggs under their nem and sometimes over (where the tiles not located) I've been thinking of rigging something up to place in the awkward areas that they're laying their eggs so I have all bases covered. If or when I come up with something that works I'll let you know because I spent about 40 minutes the other night (gently) sucking up clownfish larvae and it wasn't fun.:D
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13335117#post13335117 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rkelman
I would use it today umluis but not after.. I would get some phyto or instant algae overnighted. I've done the same thing with Phyto. I used it the next day without an issue... A 2L bottle of Phyto wouldn't warm up as fast as a small bottle of Roti Diet though. I don't beleive Roti Diet is a good food for rotifers destined for clown larvae anyways. Too expensive. Get Instant Algae. It goes farther and has only nano which is what our clowns need.

Subman I'd get them laying on a tile.. Its soooo much easier to deal with. I have no stress on hatch night now. I'm sorry for all the problems but you'll get it..
Click to expand...

? Roti diet is what i use to feed my rot's it is Nannochlopsis?
http://www.reed-store.com/?category=58&subcategory=30&productid=RD-SM:1

If it did not get real warm i think i would still use it, but that's only me.
 
I have an idea for my "tile trick" but I need to run it past you guys because so far, we know how my "big ideas" have been working out... Can I use those small tiles that are linked together by the mesh so they would be flexible enough to cover my area or will the clowns detect the "mesh backing" and not lay eggs on them?
 
AH, I see where your going with this, but my only concern would be eggs that are kind of laid between the tiles where they could be damaged as your moving that section.
 
I'll have to go to lowes to see the spacing on those, but I like your idea. That would be able to semi wrap around any awkward place you had to lay it on.:rollface:
 
Hey All!!

New question -- do you think it's a bad idea to do a water change while I have a batch of new eggs in the tank? I haven't done one in almost 4 weeks, which is usually the longest I go between changes, and my eggs aren't scheduled to hatch for another week.

Hmm...
 
I do my water changes the weekend after a hatch. You don't want to spook the fish into eating the eggs...
 
umluis- Though I'm not an expert by any means with this "breeding thing", I'm pretty sure the method for doing water changes remains the same as if you have sensitive inverts: As long as you match temp and salinity with your new batch of water and do several small water changes and don't dump the water directly on anything, you should be perfectly fine!
 
Ok, I FINALLY got tiles in the tank! I used epoxy putty to attach them to the rock. I put these in two days ago. Now that I'm all ready to hopefully get it right this time, the damn goofball Clown laid it's eggs on the rock opposite of the tiles! :hmm4: :crazy1: :mad: I just can't catch a break! Since they already laid the eggs on the rock, I took the tiles out for now. Maybe they don't like the tiles because I got them from Lowe's. After all, the clowns are sporting Home Depot colors! LOL

Anyone know of a way to "train" them to use the tiles? Kind of like "potty training"? LOL You can see them looking at the tiles in the bottom picture like, "what the heck is that?"


Tiles-1.jpg
[/IMG]
Tiles-2.jpg
[/IMG]
 
If you can't get the fish to lay eggs where you want, you can easily catch the larva when you have learned when they hatch.

The night you expect them to hatch you turn of the circulation pumps (I keep the return running) when lights go out. Shortly after darkness (20-40min) the larva hatch and you setup a flashlight in a corner. The larva will swim towards the light and you can easily collect them with a net ;)

/Magnus
 
Thanks mastou! I wish I had just did that the last time. I probably wouldn't have lost my last batch. I knew about the 20-40 minute thing but I never saw them hatch! I think it's because I have "moonlights" on my tank and they shine down directly over the cluster of eggs. I guess I should turn those off???
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13355604#post13355604 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by subman719
Thanks mastou! I wish I had just did that the last time. I probably wouldn't have lost my last batch. I knew about the 20-40 minute thing but I never saw them hatch! I think it's because I have "moonlights" on my tank and they shine down directly over the cluster of eggs. I guess I should turn those off???
Click to expand...

I would probably also turn moonlight off, I'm not sure if it is necessary but I turn all light off and put a blanket or similar around the aquarium so the light from TV and lamps i the living room has minimum effect.

I my experience the darker the better ;)

/Magnus
 
Leave the tiles in there, they'll get more comfortable with them being there after a while. Mine don't lay their eggs on the tile all the time but they do lay them on it sometimes. I'ts worth leaving them in there for when they do lay them on it. JMO:)
 
I would have left the tiles in the tank. Once they get used to the tiles they may choose too use them.
 
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