Clownfish Larva dying

[gpsmart]

Hi,

I am new to this forum so hopefully I am in the right place for some help.

We have a pair of either Ocellaris or Percula clowns (I am not really sure how to tell thse apart) which have now spawned for the fourth time. All three previous spawnings have resulted in the tank full of larva swimming around seemingly happily.

The first time I left all the larva in the community tank and they were all gone in the morning. I assumed food for the other fish or casualties of the filter or protein skimmer.

The second time I was more prepared and moved some of them (about 40) to a separate tank using water from the original tank with the temperature set the same. I was a bit unsure of the lighting requirements so i left the light on and all except one of the larva were dead the folowing morning. The odd one died that day.

The last time I got five to survive until the first morning and one lasted a couple of days.

The end result has been the same each time. We now have a couple of hundred more eggs which despite my best efforts were attached to the side of the tank so are not removable prior to hatching. Can anyone help with this very frustrating problem???

 

[dragon_slayer]

are you feeding them?

kc

 

[billsreef]

You need to feed them, preferably live rotifers. Check out the thread on culturing microfoods that is stuck to the top of this forum. Another alternative, is going down to the ocean with a plankton net every day and collecting wild plankton to feed the larvae. Wild plankton can be very effictive, but does have the drawback of a higher percentage of introducing problem organisms.

 

[HappyHammer]

Hey Bill I live near the ocean on the East Coast of Australia, there is plenty of plankton cause the humpback whales are passing by at the moment and eating it all up. I didn't realise you could simply go down with a net and scoop it up. How much can you expect to collect in each scoop? How long would that last in a tank with 40 young clownies in it?

HH.

 

[billsreef]

How much and how fast you can collect is a matter of abundance at the time. That sort of thing changes by the day, the tide, and the season At it's simplest, get a fine mesh brine shrimp net and keep scooping water and pouring it through, swish the net in your collecting bucket and repeat till you have a decent density. The best would be get some fine mesh micron filter cloth around 40 microns and make a plankton collector.