Clownfish eggs

[mtiknoles]

Hello Everyone,
I found eggs in my Picasso tank. I'm not sure how long they have been there, but the eggs already have eyes and a silver tinge to them but they still have orange yolk sacks. The water temp is 80 degrees. How long do you think I have before they hatch?
I spoke with someone from reed-mariculture and was told there was no need to order S type rotifers because clown fry can eat their L type rotifers because they are smaller than normal L type.
This will be my first attempt at raising baby clowns. Any advice you can give me is greatly appreciated.

Respectfully,

 

[worm5406]

Is there anything else in this tank?

There are a few threads about what people have done trying to raise clowns... A good one sticky at the top.

 

[ernieq]

L-Type works fine. If you can see silver and a distinct eye in the eggs, they are most likely within 2 days of hatching. You need a larval tank to put the babies. I use a 10G tank with black plastic bags all around it to provide better contrast so the babies can find their food easier. I put in about 2 gallons of water from the broodstock tank and a heater and a bubble wall under it to keep the fish from getting cooked. Also cover the heater's pilot light, fry are attracted to light. Once you have that done then...


They hatch about 1 hour after lights out, then you can scoop them up and transfer them to a larval tank that has water from the main tank with the same temperature. Since you don't know their exact spawn date, I would turn off all pumps before lights out. Wait a couple of hours and look for baby fry swimming, if you don't see any, turn the pumps back on and wait for the next day, and repeat until you see the fry. Then you:



1. Tint water green in larval tank using phyto, if you get your culture from reed, you can use RGComplete, just don't go overboard, about 7 drops per gallon should do.

2. Put in enough rotifers so that if you shine a flashlight through the glass, you should be able to see a good density (around 10 to 15 per ml). For the first 3 or 4 days, you are going to feed the tank with phyto, so the rotifers reproduce and the baby fish have an ample supply of food. Always check your density and add as needed. If your batch is under 75 fry or so, an initial density of 10 to 15 per ml on about 2 Gallons of water will probably suffice for the first 3 or 4 days. Make sure the salinity of your rotifer culture is within .07 of the larval tank otherwise you will kill your rots. After 5 DPH you can start feeding BBS or try and wean them into OTO A while still making sure your rot count is within 10 ml. After you see them eat OTO A, you no longer need to feed the tank with phyto. Some people keep rots going for another 4 or 5 days to make sure all fry have adapated to the new food.

3. Provide light for the first 24 hours to give them time to learn to hunt while still be able to rely on their yolk sac. This is crucial, if they don't learn to hunt soon, they will starve. Some people have had luck with a normal night cycle since day 1, but I find that giving them 24 hours straight after hatch will give me less mortalities on the first few days. I use an old 18" 15 watt bulb that I diffuse by putting 3 sheets of white paper in front. Then I remove 1 sheet at about 5 DPH and a second sheet at about 8 DPH. I don't remove the last one until they are past Meta.

4. Since filters are not an option, I highly recommend you get an ammonia alert badge (I use the seachem one) to keep tabs on your ammonia level, if it spikes up, dose with ChloramX or an equivalent.

5. Water changes are necessary, remove dead fry and detrious from the tank daily, and replace the water by dripping it in at about 1 drop per second. I usually remove about 1/3 of a gallon on a 2 gallon volume daily. Remember to also replace evaporated water daily by driping RO water 1 drop every two seconds. After 5 DPH (Days Post Hatch) you can increase your water volume. I usually double it to 4 gallons by dripping it in.

Keep the maintenance until they reach meta. Then you should disturb the tank the least during this time. I try to not do water changes unless the gunk in the bottom is severe, otherwise I just dose Amquel (or Chloramx) to maintain ammonia levels down.

After they pass meta, you can increase the water volume and to about 6 gallons by dripping it in and put a sponge filter which you should have seeded in the parent tank.

Once you get to like 14 DPH a lot of people would transfer them to a grow out tank if they are so equipped, otherwise you can just increase volume to about 8 gallons and just do general husbandry on your larval tank to keep good water and feed them small batches every couple of hours to get them growing, they will grow fast.

I have kept a diary of my current two batches in this thread. You might find it helpful.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2209136

 

[mtiknoles]

Thank you both for your reply. Ernieq I'll be reading your thread. I have read Joyce Wilkerson's book several times, but as a novice I still have questions. The clowns are in their own tank with LR only. I ordered the rotifers they should be here tomorrow. There are probably 300 eggs, they didn't hatch last night so I am keeping my fingers crossed that I have a couple days before they do. I setup a 10g tank last night with water from the parents tank. Instead of scooping the fry out when they hatch why can't I take the pot and put it in the 10g tank today and give the clowns another pot?

Respectfully,

 

[ernieq]

You can definitely do that, I didn't know they were on a pot. Just put some sort of water current over the eggs to keep them clean. The male usually does this meticulously during nest tending, so you have to replace that. Most people like to use an airstone so the bubbles rise over the eggs moving water over them. Keep an eye on the eggs, and if you see a patch that turns milky white, remove the entire patch to keep the other eggs from getting the fungus. After they hatch, you need to lower the intensity of the air so as not to "tumble" your fry around. Also if you don't get your rotifers in time, you could completely darken the fry tank so that it is "nighttime" The fry will go into a resting phase and will use up llittle energy thus making their yolk sack last longer. Most people report good success with mortality rates in the absence of food using this method for 24 to 48 hours, but not more than that. When you put the rotifers, you need to feed the tank with phyto, so the rotifers are well fed and gutloaded when the fry eat them, it also improves contrast so the fry can see them better. You need a good density of around 10 to 15 rots/ml, so try to keep your water volume low so you don't have to put in as many rots. Also make sure your salinity is within .07 from the water used in your rotifer culture, if it is higher, lower salinity on fry tank by dripping fresh RO water at a rate of about 1 drop every 2 seconds.

 

[mtiknoles]

Ernieq thank you again for responding. I have a wooden airstone in the 10g tank and may just take the pot out tonight. The salinity is 1.021. I ordered the rotifers basic kit which included rgcomplete and filter floss from RM. The person I spoke with said to culture the rotifers at 1.017 for better success with growth. Is this true? I've partially read your thread. How will I know if I have a rotifer crash?

 

[ernieq]

Don't forget to keep your larval tank water at around 80 F for good growth rate and development.

I grow my culture at 1.018, the lower the salinity the better they reproduce. The issue is if you go too low for productivity and you are more than .07 away from your larval tank, the rots will die of osmotic shock when introduced to the larval tank. So 1.018 is a happy medium as it gives me up to 1.025 as a top figure without having any issues. You can raise or lower your rot's culture salinity .01 per day to desired level.

You will know your rotifer culture crashes, when they start thinning out and not recuperate. Usually as a result of some sort of contamination with other organisms, or bad water quality.

Basically what you are doing with your larval tank is culturing your rots, that is one of the reasons you feed the larval tank with RGComplete. I do it once in morning and once before lights out (about 7 drops per gallon). This gives the rotifers time to reproduce in the evening when they are not being preyed by the clowns. Just keep an eye on the culture in the larval tank and keep the right density. If it is too low before lights out, put some more then turn off the lights. The rots will reproduce during the night cycle and you will reduce the harvesting needs from your main culture. I highly recommend you run two cultures at the same time, so in case one crashes, you don't run out of food. Take about 25% of the stuff you get from Reed and put it in a bucket with 1 gallon of water, then add about 1/2 gallon daily until you have about 4 gallons, this will let you start your second culture while you use the rest on the first bucket. Then alternate harvesting between cultures. I also like to put like 1 liter of dense culture in the fridge with a good amount of RGComplete. Then I replace it once a week to keep it fresh. This way I can restart a culture if some REALLY goes wrong.