Clowns hatch during the day

[Trek Rider]

I transferred my Clarkii eggs on a tile yesterday. This morning there were no fry. I checked again at 2PM and there are about 6 fry. The lights were on. I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced daytime hatching. Thanks.

 

[BBOSS]

First couple batches of my Onyx were hatched under daylight. All after batches were hatched 45 minutes after light out like clock works.

 

[Trek Rider]

I am getting consistent night hatches now on nights 9 and 10...about 50% each night. The problem now is high (100%) mortality. Very few make it past the first day. The last 2 batches, all are dead by day 3. The eggs are placed in a 5 gal tank with about 3 gal of water from the brood stock tank on day 8. I use 3 gal to keep the rotifer density high. I have tried numerous remedies (altered temp, salinity, feeding, lighting) but nothing seems to work. My final ideas will be implemented tonight/tomorrow (day 10 hatch is tonight)...increase water volume (decrease pollution), reduce temp (one early batch had 3 fry make it to day 12 with a lower temp), and feed fewer rotifers (maybe they are overeating). When I was raising cinnamon clowns I didn't have this much trouble. Any advice is welcomed...

 

[ClownfishSushi]

I am getting consistent night hatches now on nights 9 and 10...about 50% each night. The problem now is high (100%) mortality. Very few make it past the first day. The last 2 batches, all are dead by day 3. The eggs are placed in a 5 gal tank with about 3 gal of water from the brood stock tank on day 8. I use 3 gal to keep the rotifer density high. I have tried numerous remedies (altered temp, salinity, feeding, lighting) but nothing seems to work. My final ideas will be implemented tonight/tomorrow (day 10 hatch is tonight)...increase water volume (decrease pollution), reduce temp (one early batch had 3 fry make it to day 12 with a lower temp), and feed fewer rotifers (maybe they are overeating). When I was raising cinnamon clowns I didn't have this much trouble. Any advice is welcomed...

I attribute my split hatches to temperature variations and a lower tank broodstock tank temperature. Try maintaining a broodstock tank temperature of 80-82 for the entire incubation period. I can tell just by the fact that it's taking 10 days that your temperature is too low.

When fry die immediately it is usually due to a water parameter difference. When fry die around the second day I blame transfer damage and internal bleeding. When fry die on the 3-4th day I blame starvation. Starvation can come from a combination of poor lighting/side lighting (causing blindness), poor rotifer density or rotifers that are just empty bags. I mean, this is just scratching the surface of any number of things that could be the problem.

You're going through a lot of things I went through when I first started. I overanalyzed everything and tried to tweek every single parameter.

Someone once advised me to just stick with the basics. Some of your ideas are going to end up working against you. Lowering the temperature is a very, very bad idea. We want those fry through meta as quickly as possible.

Try this. Don't transfer the eggs. Manually collect the fry on hatch night. The broodstock do a better job of incubating than you do. Raise the broodstock tank temperature to 80-82. Feed the broodstock more often, but smaller portions. Include New Life Spectrum Thera +A pellets in their diet. Try my slow-drip fry tank method. Basically, just drip broodstock water into the fry tank all day long. Siphon out excess water before rotifer feedings. Make sure you are enriching your rotifers about an hour before feedings. Let the fry have 24 hour lighting the first day. Get them hunting immediately, don't let them sleep after hatching. Make sure you are scraping and siphoning the fry tank.

If you've done clowns before, some of this should be familiar advise. Sorry if I threw a lot out there but I'm not sure which one of the million things is going wrong for you! Good luck

 

[Trek Rider]

Good points. Thanks. I increased the volume (all water is from the brook stock tank), left the temp at the brood stock temp (79F), and fed the tank. While making green water with the overhead lights on, the day 10 half hatched. I have left the overhead lights on...no direct light...tonight. The last couple of hatches I have had 100% hatch over the two days so I am fine with transferring the eggs instead of catching fry. My cinnamons were much easier but I'm not giving up on this beautiful pair.