My advice: get the book "Clownfishes" by Joyce Wilkerson
My Ocellaris pair laid their 4th clutch of eggs last Friday. They're laying eggs every 10 days now! So far, mine hatch exactly 7 days after they are laid. Here's my experiences with mine so far.
The first and second clutch were laid in my reef tank on the glass. With the first, I found that they hatched during the night after 7 days but I wasn't ready for them. With the second, I thought I was ready. On the 7th night after the lights went out in the tank, I turned off all the lights in the house that had any effect on the tank. After about an hour, they started hatching. I turned off all the flow in the tank and started to try and catch the fry. Not easy! With a small flashlight, you could see them darting around the tank. But, these little guys were so fast that I couldn't catch them in a turkey baster and even with my smallest net, most of the fry would pass through the netting. After a few hours of patience, I only had 4 fry captured. It was late and I was tired, so this was all I was able to capture.
I placed them in a small glass jar with an air stone running gently and started feeding them frozen rotifers. I covered the jar so they would be in dark (they don't like light the first few days). They lasted 4 days.
With the 3rd clutch, I was able to place a small tile in the corner where they had been laying eggs. Success! They laid them on the tile. So, on the 7th night, I was able to remove the tile with eggs and place them in the nursery tank. I wasn't able to get live rotifers and again, after hatching, they only lasted 4 days.
Now, with the 4th clutch, again the eggs were laid on the tile. But, this time, I'm ready to feed the fry with live rotifers. So, we'll see what happens!
In the past I have raised freshwater Angels. It was all trial and error but I finally was able to get the method down. With the help of the book "Clownfishes" I'm hoping to get a clutch to survive. My female is orange and white and my male is black and white and I'm really curious as to what color the fry will be. And my motherly instinct has kicked in and I'll try my best to get them to survive.
Here's a picture of my mated pair:
Here is a picture of the first clutch on the tank glass where you can see their little eyes clearly:
With this try, my plan is to feed them the live rotifers and hopefully they will live longer than their little yolk sacks will sustain them.
With my experience, it's going to be very difficult to catch them once they hatch. And it doesn't look like you can remove the eggs and rock to another tank. Next time, see if you can substitute something else in the same area where the eggs were laid so that you can remove it to another tank.
Good luck!
