Clown Fry

[skewch]

Hi all,

Last night while the wife was doing a late night look at the tank with a flashlight, she discovered what appears to be (90% certain) clownfish fry swimming about.

We've got 2 false percs who host a large sebae anenome in this tank (230G reef), and 2 skunk clowns who live in a prop tank which is connected to the same sump. There's also a single clarkii in the reef tank, but unless it's figured out how to spawn on it's own, I doubt it's responsible My money's on the false percs.

They're all hanging out in nooks and crannies in the live rock, some under a large finger leather, etc. We're far from clownfish breeding experts, and to our knowledge, the false percs appear to be mated but we've never seen eggs yet.

The interesting thing about these fry is, they already have a vertical stripe, which I didn't think they got until they were a certain age.

Our questions are:

1. Any idea on how old they are? They've got one clearly defined vertical stripe, and appear to be in the neighborhood of 4-6mm in length.

2. Are there any suggestions on an easy way to collect them and get them to a fry tank? Are they attracted to light?

We're presently working on raising H. reidi fry, so we're no strangers to the world of rotifers and phytoplankton.

Help!

 

[Luis A M]

Could you catch and picture one?.If they were clown larvae,you would be 100% sure they are fish,but you say 90% and that they are hanging out in nooks and crannies.This sounds like mysids.
But you see the vertical bar,like in juveniles?.And you are 90% sure?.The question is,are they perfect tiny clowns,or you´re not sure?.

 

[LotR Clown]

I would say too that if you can see a vertical stripe you should be able to tell if they are clowns. This would be a first if you have fish past meta without trying it. You must have a lot of plankton in your water if so. Interesting if it were really clownfish.

Kevin

 

[skewch]

They have to be clownfish, as they are definitely not pods of any kind. We caught some last night out of the overflow. We have a 230g, so catching the little guys isn't easy. They sure do swim fast! Each time we look with the flashlight and magnifying glass, you can see what looks like a stripe on SOME. I am unsure though if what we're seeing is just their eyes. I have the little ones in with our baby seahorses, so they have rotifers to eat at least in a concentrated manner. The tank is separated in half, although I'm sure the fish are small enough to make it through the holes to the other side where the seahorses are.

I am going to try to see if I can't get one out of the nursery tank to take and put under a microscope and see what it looks like. I don't have a camera attachment yet for the scope so that isn't going to help much for showing.

Do baby clowns swim right after hatching? They swim so fast and bob up and down just like the adults and its funny to watch. I'd like to know how old they could be, but without a pic nobody is going to be able to tell us.

I'll try to get a pic later Thanks for the comments