clownfish fry

[gr8birds]

I have raised 3 seperate small batches of clownfish eggs, and when I say small, I mean out of all the fry hatched, after the initial die off, I have 7 very healthy babies. 2 from first batch, 4 from 2nd and 1 from the last. All eating bbs, formula 2 crushed flake and now mysis. They are piggies. My question is, if I decide to keep 2 of the babies, (I like their misbar patterns) will they eventually pair up. I know it takes a few years for the female to be ready, but I wasn't sure if there would be a genetic problem aka inbred issues. One baby, about an inch and a half has a perfect white heart on it's back where the middle stripe should be and the other has just a white spot where it's middle stripe should be. They both have a half headband and full tail band. They would make some great looking babies if they can breed without issues. Thanks!

 

[farfromsea]

I would not mate sibling pairs since to my knowledge inbreeding clownfish like many organisms can result in genetic defects.

 

[pfan151]

If you know that your current pair are not related I wouldn't worry about it too much. One generation of inbreeding isn't terrible. You could just not raise their future fry if it really concerns you.

 

[gr8birds]

Mom and dad of these fry are not related, but 2 of the fry are from the same clutch.

 

[tyleratl]

All eating bbs, formula 2 crushed flake and now mysis.

What did you feed your clownfish larvae as soon as they hatched? My clownfish have just spawned and I would like to try to see if I could raise a few of the babies. I know that rotifers are the preferred food, but I am in Mexico and I don't think I will be able to get them in time.

In addition to the original poster, if anyone has any advice, feel free to chime in . For the record, I have a container of Benepets Reef Food on hand. This product is a powder with particle sizes from 3-3000 Microns. Ingredients include: Salmon Fish Meal, Freeze Dried Planktons, Brine Shrimp, Rotifers, Copepods, Brewers Yeast, Corn Starch, Calcium Powder, Astaxanthin, Spirulina, Garlic Powder, Marine Fish Oil, Soy Flour, Special blends of Natural Super Foods, Benepets Proprietary Probiotic blend such as but not limited to Lactobacillus, Saccharomyces and Bacillus species.

I have this product for filter feeding inverts, but perhaps some of the larvae might eat it and survive in a special fry tank that I am going to set up.

 

[phender]

If you know that your current pair are not related I wouldn't worry about it too much. One generation of inbreeding isn't terrible. You could just not raise their future fry if it really concerns you.

Studies have shown that you don't get much inbreeding depression until about the 4th or 5th generation, so I wouldn't worry about that. The mis-bars in your babies are not genetic, they are environmental. It comes from either poor water quality or poor nutrition in your baby's tank. If you get that ironed out, your mis-bar babies should produce normally barred offspring (and a lot more of them) If you keep with your present system you will still get mis-bars, but they will be random and not have the patterns that you wish to have.

What did you feed your clownfish larvae as soon as they hatched? My clownfish have just spawned and I would like to try to see if I could raise a few of the babies. I know that rotifers are the preferred food, but I am in Mexico and I don't think I will be able to get them in time.

In addition to the original poster, if anyone has any advice, feel free to chime in . For the record, I have a container of Benepets Reef Food on hand. This product is a powder with particle sizes from 3-3000 Microns. Ingredients include: Salmon Fish Meal, Freeze Dried Planktons, Brine Shrimp, Rotifers, Copepods, Brewers Yeast, Corn Starch, Calcium Powder, Astaxanthin, Spirulina, Garlic Powder, Marine Fish Oil, Soy Flour, Special blends of Natural Super Foods, Benepets Proprietary Probiotic blend such as but not limited to Lactobacillus, Saccharomyces and Bacillus species.

I have this product for filter feeding inverts, but perhaps some of the larvae might eat it and survive in a special fry tank that I am going to set up.

The babies won't normally strike at food that is not alive. I used newly hatched brine shrimp as a starter food once when my rotifers crashed and was able to get a few to adulthood. I used San Francisco strain BS rather than Great Salt lake strain, (the SF strain is smaller) and I used the BS within an hour of hatching, before they molted the first time. It means I had a lot of hatching containers going at the same time and a lot of shrimp were wasted. I also had to change water a lot to remove the un-eaten shrimp that had grown too big. I'm not sure it was worth it, but once I started I didn't want to stop.

 

[tyleratl]

Thanks, Phil. I will see if I can find some SF strain brine shrimp eggs. I have been unable to locate rotifers here in Mexico.