Clown fish breeding log ( I hope )
- Thread starter Pugidogs
- Start date
Have you tried this site from the Houston club? It's what I've been using as a guide, and I think I'm finally getting the knack of this. www.marshreef.com/files/raisingclownfish.doc Currently have 8 survivors from my first attempt that are 64 days old, and approximately 40 from the last hatch that are 22 days old. Instead of using a tile, you might want to try a small clay flower pot. My pair seem to like it because they can better guard the eggs. Once you know what night your eggs hatch, you can be fairly sure all others will hatch after the same number of nights. With my pair, it's the 6th night. If you have any questions, let me know. I'm no expert, but I think it's starting to fall in place for me.
Good luck !!!!!!!
Good luck !!!!!!!
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tedr, thanx for the help. Quick update, last night only about 15 hatched, I scooped them up and put in larvae tank. Took a quick look at rotifers and they crashed again!!! I would say 90 to 95% floating on top. Did a 50% water change on the rotifers in hoping I will have some for in the morning, I am sure the rest of the clutch will hatch tonight. The 15 I got last night were dead this morning, I dont know why. Frusteration is starting to set in!!! Pugi
The 8 64 day old survivors I have were from scooping larvae in the parent tank. I know I scooped up about 40 that night. I really believe that scooping them causes extreme stress and therefore high mortality. The approximately 40 that are 3 weeks old that I have are a result of using a clay flower pot and moving the pot into a larval 5g tank on the night of hatching. Less stress and better survival. Once you can get the larvae past metamorphasis ( approx 7 - 10 days), your mortality should be zero or very close to it. Good luck tonight !!!!! I'll try to pass on some ideas regarding rotifer cultures that seem to be working for me a little later. Have a LFS sale on used equipment, and I need a small skimmer for the 10g I use for final grow out.
Don't know why the article won't come up. I'll try contacting the Houston club and have the article sent to me. I tried answering you, but somehow my post ended up on another post in this forum, that being "I'm a Dad...." Could not delete it, so you might check what I posted there.
Hi Pugi - nice log! With regards to the rotifers being stuck at the top, are you using an airstone? Often the fine bubbles can lodge on the rotifers corona or in the pharynx, sticking them to the water surface. Using very gentle aeration using only rigid airline tubing can help if this is the cause.
With the rotifers, you might want to try culturing some phytoplankton. I find my rotifer cultures are less prone to crashing when using live phyto such nanochloropsis or isochrysus. Using dead feeds such as concentrated phyto pastes does work, but it is fine line between feeding enough and fouling the culture. With live, even if you add more than needed, it's alive and not fouling the culture 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10636179#post10636179 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by billsreef
With the rotifers, you might want to try culturing some phytoplankton. I find my rotifer cultures are less prone to crashing when using live phyto such nanochloropsis or isochrysus. Using dead feeds such as concentrated phyto pastes does work, but it is fine line between feeding enough and fouling the culture. With live, even if you add more than needed, it's alive and not fouling the culture
Bill, I have heard this from others as well, I was just trying to keep things as simple as posible to get started. Pugi
A suggestion with regard to the rotifers, try to spread out your cultures. I use four 1g containers that contained bottled water that I found at Dollar General. I've since found them at Big Lots. They work perfectly for me. Just get a 4 gang valve, and I would recommend metal. The plastic gang valve just cannot be fine tuned. Drill a small hiole in cap for the rigid air line, and you're ready to go. I do alternate feedings between DT, PhytoMax by Kent Marine (dead phyto), and a mixture of flour, yeast, some pellet fish food that I powdered. I then mix this with a hand held blender. I do use saltwater to dilute. With the cost of DT, this has been working fine for me. What you have to do, is change out containers every 1 to 2 weeks, especially using the dry blend of food. You'll get scum collecting on the bottom. Just take a clean container and slowly pour the contents into the clean container. I slowly pour out about 75% leaving behind all the scum. Then add new salt water, so in reality, you are doing a water change. Rinse out used container and let them soak in a water and a little bleach mixture. Thoroughly rinse them out after a few hours, and they're ready to be used in a couple of weeks. I've done this for 6 months with no losses whatsoever. I only feed the rotifers when the water becomes clear. I think most crashes may be the result of over feeding. Also, I have lights on a timer set for an 8 hour period. I have been able to maintain heavy populations in each container doing this. If I don't have any fry to feed, I'll just thin down the population by feeding my main tank. The corals seem to enjoy the feeding. Spreading out the cultures between 4 containers or more just lessens the possibility of a total loss when you culture in just one tank.
Good luck.
Good luck.
