clown spawn

[Kmiec123]

just be carefull with SG, do not change more than 1.07 points-like 1.017 to 1.024 mo more or they will die. Hope this helps..Carl

 

[Fizhstiks]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8654710#post8654710 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kmiec123
just be carefull with SG, do not change more than 1.07 points-like 1.017 to 1.024 mo more or they will die. Hope this helps..Carl

thanks, they're going from 1.014 to 1.019. But how do i acclimatize them?? I dont want to pH shock them...

 

[crpeck]

If you don't have any pH adjusting chemical to make the pH the same, then a slow drip is your best bet.

The concentrated formula that the rotifers ship in will keep them for a while so you can do a variety of things ...... just do it slowly.

 

[Fizhstiks]

Well my rotifers seem to be alive, i took a small amount of water out and shined a flashlight on it and i could see lots of little dots moving around. I am feeding them about 5-6 drops of the phytoplankton once a day. Is this enough food for them?

and my clowns seem to be getting aggressive again and the females getting fatter so i hope they will spawn soon.

 

[Fizhstiks]

what does it mean when the rotifer colony "crashes"?

I havent been doing anything to my rotifer colony except feeding them. Is there anything else i should be doing???

 

[crpeck]

Yes .... you need to use a sieve (a coffee filter will work in a pinch) and cull or thin the colony when it gets too dense or it will crash.

In Wilkerson's Clownfish book, there is a description for a trick to measure your rotifer density and guidance of when to cull.

Put in however many drops you need to keep the water tinged green and that is how you know if you have enough.

Good Luck!
Cathy

 

[Fizhstiks]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8738776#post8738776 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by crpeck
Yes .... you need to use a sieve (a coffee filter will work in a pinch) and cull or thin the colony when it gets too dense or it will crash.

In Wilkerson's Clownfish book, there is a description for a trick to measure your rotifer density and guidance of when to cull.

Put in however many drops you need to keep the water tinged green and that is how you know if you have enough.

Good Luck!
Cathy

so should i cull like once a week to keep the population down? About how much water should i use to thin the population? And do i just run the water through a coffee filter and dump the filtered water back into the colony or should i replace it with new water?

thanks

 

[crpeck]

How often depends on how fast your population grows and how far you thin it down when you do cull. If you dip a hydrometer in and look at it with a magnifying glass, you can see how thick the culture is getting with rotifers. There were times when I needed to cull every couple of days and times when I could go a week or so. It's kind of an exponential thing ... the more that are in there, the faster it gets out of hand as they reproduce.

If you're due for a water change in the culture, replace it with new. If you're just culling, then pour the water through the sieve and let it run back into the culture. Either way works.

 

[Kmiec123]

I do the "Stink test". If the water stinks change with new. I useually sevie out about 50% Hope this helps Carl

 

[Fizhstiks]

Update: I've been waiting and waiting for them to spawn, and it seems they moved their nesting site a few inches lower than last time so i didn't notice the eggs until today. They moved the nest into a spot that i cant see without getting on the floor but it looks like most of them hatched last night cause theres only like about 10-20 eggs left. Im going to make an attempt to save these and see how it goes, by now ive got plenty of rotifers and everything good to go. Now how sensitive are clown larvae to water changes? I would like to bring the salinity down to about 1.019 because thats the sg of the water i get at the LFS. I am going to fill the 10 gallon with 5 gallons of the tank water, which is about 1.027, and then in a day or 2 im going to get some water from the lfs and start doing water changes. hows 1/2 or 1 gallon water changes every day or two?

 

[crpeck]

They are very, very sensitive. IMO taking them from 1.027 to 1.019 is too much until after metamorphosis. But bringing them down a little would be good because a lower sg would be easier on them.

Be sure not to be doing water changes as they approach metamorphosis and during. They are particularly fragile then.

 

[Fizhstiks]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8959543#post8959543 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by crpeck
They are very, very sensitive. IMO taking them from 1.027 to 1.019 is too much until after metamorphosis. But bringing them down a little would be good because a lower sg would be easier on them.

Be sure not to be doing water changes as they approach metamorphosis and during. They are particularly fragile then.

How far should i bring the salinity down? And should i add a small amount of rotifer food to the clown tank to keep the rotifers alive and nutritious?

 

[crpeck]

I don't have personal experience with the salinity issue, so it would be better for you to do a search through the fish breeding forum and see if it is addressed in Wilkerson's book.

I definitely recommend putting a little rotifer food in the rearing tank. When I was going through my trial and error to raise some babies, I'm convinced that culturing rotifers in the larvae tank was a great improvement over what I had done before.

The rotifers that don't get eaten can stay alive and even reproduce in the larvae tank. This helps keep the rotifer density stable and helps reduce the ammonia from dead uneaten food in the tank. It is okay for those larvae to keep the water a pale green to sustain your rotifers.

Good luck
Cathy

 

[Fizhstiks]

Well, i stayed up all night and i only caught one. I carefully put him in the 10 gallon, added some rotifers and watched him for about 15 mins. He was swimming and appeared to be fine so i went to bed. i got up in the morning and he was dead

I took him out and looked at him, it looks like he was eating cause he had a full stomach... what happened?

 

[crpeck]

Sorry it didn't work out. It took me several tries, too, to be successful with it.

The saddest one for me was when I accidentally had too much flow and found them all blown into a corner by the current dead.

Could have been a number of things or just not a strong larvae.

We'll hope for better luck next time.

 

[Fizhstiks]

They spawned last night after a water change, theres probably 50-75 eggs . Hopefully they all hatch this time...

 

[crpeck]

Good luck!

50 - 75 eggs is still a thin clutch. But it will be a good sized batch to grow out if you can retrieve them when they hatch.

Good luck!

p.s. Another idea to keep in mind. If you can get them to lay their eggs on a tile, you can collect the tile around hatch time and put it in the rearing tank with an airstone to mimic the fanning that the male does. Then the babies all hatch in the rearing tank.

My female alwasy just tail whipped anything I put over her nest off the ledge to get rid of it. But some Mamas will accept a tile placed over their favorite spot and lay there anyway.

 

[Fizhstiks]

The eggs should be hatching sometime today or tommorow. Are there any signs that eggs are going to hatch?

 

[crpeck]

The day of hatch they tend to turn from all silver to having kind of an almost copper look. The eyes become a lot more defined. The parents will often get a lot more frenzied about fanning the eggs on hatch day.

Clownfish are very consistent in their timing. Once you watch a few spawns and pay attention to how many days between spawn and hatch, it will be the same every time if your temperature and tank conditions stay the same.

They will typically hatch shortly after the lights go out. If you've watched your timing and are sure you've got the right hatch day, the best way to get the most larvae is to cut the pumps when lights go off, make sure there's no ambient light in the room, wait about 30 minutes to check with a flashlight to see if there are swimming larvae. If not, check back in 15 - 20 minutes.

Did you ever get and read Joyce Wilkerson's book, "Clownfish"? It tells you everything you need to do.

 

[Fizhstiks]

i think they may hatch today, the males been fanning the eggs all night long. How much of a temp difference can the larvae take? The larvae tank is about a degree below the temp of the main tank...