Breeding Pair of Onyx Clownfish
- Thread starter jonnybravo22
- Start date
jonnybravo22
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So when do you start oto- day 4? Day 3? Day 1?
therealshark
New member
nice parents, good luck with the babies.
jonnybravo22
New member
started feeding Otohime A and B1 today. seems like they ate a bit of it.
pics just have rotifers though.
pics just have rotifers though.
You will know when they start eating it for sure they will come to the top for it. They look like healthy fry you wanna keep there stomachs bulged out like that. I still feed rots sometimes through day 5 or 6. Make sure there ALL eating the otohime. Go to the larger size also as soon as you can. it floats better in the water (imo). Looking at the pics the water looks pretty clear are u tinting the larval tank with any kind of algae? You need to keep the rots healthy in order for the fry to be healthy. An empty rotifer has no nutritional value to the fry. Im sure you probably said it all ready but whats your temp and salinity at?
jonnybravo22
New member
well - it's been 18 days. 10 of the little guys are still swimming around and seem to be doing well. for about 6 days i've been feeding otohime almost exclusively. in fact my rotifer "culture" has all but expired and there isnt much left there to harvest as i dont feed it anymore. hoping the otohime does it's thing.
i've been feeding size A, B1, and ocassionally testing some B2. Does anyone have experience they could share about what sizes they feed when to be most efficient and pollute water the least.
on that subject i did a mass water change this weekend where i replaced about 90% of the water with new water (day old) and siphoned out all the gunk that had accumulated from otohime and rotifer feedings and waste.
so now the water is like crystal clear it's a huge difference and sort of shocking how mucky it was by contrast. i hope the clean water is a good thing for them.
another change is that i finally took the newspaper covering off of the sides of the tank. i had left the tank sides completely covered for about 10-12 days. I think most people remove the cover after 2 or 3 days (not sure)? i wasnt sure and honestly didnt think about it until one day i realized they probably have more developed eyes by now and can tolerate light coming in sideways. their behavior hasnt changed much since removing covering so i take it they are fine.
so that's where i am. any thoughts on otohime / water change / covering larval tank?
i've been feeding size A, B1, and ocassionally testing some B2. Does anyone have experience they could share about what sizes they feed when to be most efficient and pollute water the least.
on that subject i did a mass water change this weekend where i replaced about 90% of the water with new water (day old) and siphoned out all the gunk that had accumulated from otohime and rotifer feedings and waste.
so now the water is like crystal clear it's a huge difference and sort of shocking how mucky it was by contrast. i hope the clean water is a good thing for them.
another change is that i finally took the newspaper covering off of the sides of the tank. i had left the tank sides completely covered for about 10-12 days. I think most people remove the cover after 2 or 3 days (not sure)? i wasnt sure and honestly didnt think about it until one day i realized they probably have more developed eyes by now and can tolerate light coming in sideways. their behavior hasnt changed much since removing covering so i take it they are fine.
so that's where i am. any thoughts on otohime / water change / covering larval tank?
jonnybravo22
New member
dont know how common. i learned it in this forum and tried it because it also sounded a lot easier to me.
any help on questions in my last post?
any help on questions in my last post?
duncaholic
New member
IME starting my larvae on oto is usually around day 4-5 and this seems to work well. Although I still keep a small rot population through day 8-9. By then they have usually made the switch.
IDK if you should remove the blacking on the sides earlier than meta, although most of the breeders on this site seem to have very good succes doing so. My last hatch has been in a black tub, and has done very well. Compared with the 5-6 before that that experienced 100% mortality, I think eliminating side lighting has worked well for me. There have been studies that strongly suggest clown larvae remain highly sensitive to light until they are past meta. But at 18 dyas, they should be there.
Water changes in larval systems can be tricky to say the least. Even if you match the salinity/yemperature parms well, newly mixed synthetic salt water IME can be an absolute killer. IDK why, but everytime I used to use new water in ant tank, it would stress it heavily. Now I pre-mix water at least 24 hours in advance and keep a strong current moving in it the entire time, but still it can be dangerous. Especially if the PH is much different. PH seems to me to affect the impact of other chemistry issues.
Even if you are using parent tank water, a 90% change is quite drastic. I hope that you added the new water very slowly. Most people say no more than one drop per second, and I think that's a good rule of thumb.
Hope that your babies are doing well. post some pics if you can!!!
IDK if you should remove the blacking on the sides earlier than meta, although most of the breeders on this site seem to have very good succes doing so. My last hatch has been in a black tub, and has done very well. Compared with the 5-6 before that that experienced 100% mortality, I think eliminating side lighting has worked well for me. There have been studies that strongly suggest clown larvae remain highly sensitive to light until they are past meta. But at 18 dyas, they should be there.
Water changes in larval systems can be tricky to say the least. Even if you match the salinity/yemperature parms well, newly mixed synthetic salt water IME can be an absolute killer. IDK why, but everytime I used to use new water in ant tank, it would stress it heavily. Now I pre-mix water at least 24 hours in advance and keep a strong current moving in it the entire time, but still it can be dangerous. Especially if the PH is much different. PH seems to me to affect the impact of other chemistry issues.
Even if you are using parent tank water, a 90% change is quite drastic. I hope that you added the new water very slowly. Most people say no more than one drop per second, and I think that's a good rule of thumb.
Hope that your babies are doing well. post some pics if you can!!!
daddys12562078
New member
they are beautiful i dont want a breeding pair i just want one of those just like yours they are the prettiest i have seen
I think a 90% water change is really drastic. Maybe a gallon or two max every few days would be better, syphoning all the excess food and waiste during the smaller water change. And then slow dripping broodstock tank water into the larval tank to replace your water. I dont have any experience doing this but this has what my research suggests.
Seems like after 30 days the fry are pretty well off and can handle nsw changes, again this is research from others experiences. But for you it might be easier to use broodstock tank water for water changes because a) your larval tank water volume is very small and b) you are only trying to raise a few fry and not multiple tanks full of hundreds of fry. So for simplicity, as long as your broodstock water is of good quality, just use that water to change the larval tank water. For example change a gallon of water on the larval tank on wed. The broodstock tank should be able to handle the loss of a gallon with out any problems. Than do the same on the weekend when you do a small water change on your broofstock tank. Making sure to replace the water lost due to evap and the water used on wed. Either way it seems that consistent care and good husbandry is the key here. Again this is just what I am gathering from others experiences. Every situation is diferent for people.
jonnybravo22
New member
thanks all.
i have lost a couple in the last week that have shown similar pattern. they are not colorful, in fact very translucent almost clear (while their brothers are dark / brown at the moment), and the next day or two they die.
what could be causing 1 or 2 at a time to be clear instead of colorful? are they not getting the same food others are wor is this more likely water quality? i have been doing small water changes daily for the last couple of days to combat issue.
others that arent showing this pattern seem to be doing well and have their headstripes.
i have lost a couple in the last week that have shown similar pattern. they are not colorful, in fact very translucent almost clear (while their brothers are dark / brown at the moment), and the next day or two they die.
what could be causing 1 or 2 at a time to be clear instead of colorful? are they not getting the same food others are wor is this more likely water quality? i have been doing small water changes daily for the last couple of days to combat issue.
others that arent showing this pattern seem to be doing well and have their headstripes.
jonnybravo22
New member
ever experienced a clown that survived but doesnt go through meta? i have one that just doesnt look the same as his brothers all of whom have clearly gone through meta. he's smaller and still sort of half-meta. ever seen that? thoughts? thanks.
duncaholic
New member
Probably a runt with a poorly develop digestive track. I've got one in a batch with some +/- 80 day old fish, and he's majorly messed up. Huge underbite, weird body shape and very little white. If yours has developed the orange color, but not the white stripes, he's probably got genetic issues. Hate to say it, but you'll probably want to cull him eventually. I would say just do it now and save yourself the trouble, but I know from experience that can be difficult ... emotionally.
-m
jonnybravo22
New member
thanks for chiming in duncaholic.
i was thinking it might come to that and have been trying to figure out what method i would use. i've heard of a few / read Joyce's book.
i was thinking it might come to that and have been trying to figure out what method i would use. i've heard of a few / read Joyce's book.
jonnybravo22
New member
these baby clowns are growing up!
