Tim gixxerman
New member
Do baby clowns need live rotifers or can they be frozen?
Do baby clowns need live rotifers?
- Thread starter Tim gixxerman
- Start date
BonsaiNut
Premium Member
I have not had any success getting larval clowns to take frozen foods. Part of the challenge would be to keep frozen foods in suspension, in heavy concentrations, for long periods of time, without completely destroying your water quality. Additionally, I think the motion of the live food triggers feeding behavior in the larvae; I would be concerned they might not recognize frozen food as something they should eat(?)
Tim gixxerman
New member
Were do I get them from?
BonsaiNut
Premium Member
In general, this is what I recommend beginning breeders:
(1) You need to feed live zooplankton (rotifers) - which you will need to grow and maintain cultures of.
(2) In order to grow live zooplankton, you will need to grow and maintain cultures of phytoplankton (plant plankton). You can also buy a phytoplankton based food, but it is better (and MUCH cheaper to just grow your own).
(3) It is CRITICALLY important that your rotifers are gut-loaded with supplemental nutritional food because otherwise you will have low quality babies.
(4) You will likely need one more live food before you start feeding prepared foods. Many breeders use baby brine shrimp, so you will need a brine shrimp hatchery (and possibly two).
It sounds like a lot, but it isn't really hard. You can set up phyto & zooplankton grow racks using two liter clear soda bottles, airline tubing, and fluorescent lighting. Brine hatchery is not much more complex.
(1) You need to feed live zooplankton (rotifers) - which you will need to grow and maintain cultures of.
(2) In order to grow live zooplankton, you will need to grow and maintain cultures of phytoplankton (plant plankton). You can also buy a phytoplankton based food, but it is better (and MUCH cheaper to just grow your own).
(3) It is CRITICALLY important that your rotifers are gut-loaded with supplemental nutritional food because otherwise you will have low quality babies.
(4) You will likely need one more live food before you start feeding prepared foods. Many breeders use baby brine shrimp, so you will need a brine shrimp hatchery (and possibly two).
It sounds like a lot, but it isn't really hard. You can set up phyto & zooplankton grow racks using two liter clear soda bottles, airline tubing, and fluorescent lighting. Brine hatchery is not much more complex.
Tim gixxerman
New member
Sounds fun! my maroon clowns just started laying regularly now, so im still thinking about doing this. Thanks for the input!
Rare Angels
New member
Listen to MarinaP and BonsaiNut and you will go far. Can't get much better advice then the advice you get from people like them.
phender
Active member
I learned how to raise clownfish by reading Martin Moe's book "Marine Aquarium Handbook - Beginner to Breeder". http://www.amazon.com/The-Marine-Aquarium-Handbook-Beginner/dp/0939960079
You can use algae pastes instead of live phytoplankton now days, but I still like live better.
Joyce Wilkerson's book "Clownfish" also has a section on raising babies.
I have heard the Frank Hoff book on raising clownfish is also very good. http://florida-aqua-farms.com/secure/agora.cgi?cart_id=1768121.7839*yl8nr0&product=BOOKS_MANUALS
You can use algae pastes instead of live phytoplankton now days, but I still like live better.
Joyce Wilkerson's book "Clownfish" also has a section on raising babies.
I have heard the Frank Hoff book on raising clownfish is also very good. http://florida-aqua-farms.com/secure/agora.cgi?cart_id=1768121.7839*yl8nr0&product=BOOKS_MANUALS
BonsaiNut
Premium Member
Don't get me wrong, I'm not disagreeing with anything you say. You CAN raise rotifers with Nanno 3600 - it is basically nannochloropsis cultures that have been centrifuged to get super high density. It would be more than adequate for a few cultures of rotifers for a few spawns. But if you are thinking of doing this longer term, you will want to grow your own. Nanno 3600 costs $70 per quart. Grow-your-own is almost free (assuming free labor). You can't compare the two because Nanno 3600 is super concentrated and is a great product for lots of uses. It just gets costly... and I'm a cheap bastard
Don't get me wrong, I'm not disagreeing with anything you say. You CAN raise rotifers with Nanno 3600 - it is basically nannochloropsis cultures that have been centrifuged to get super high density. It would be more than adequate for a few cultures of rotifers for a few spawns. But if you are thinking of doing this longer term, you will want to grow your own. Nanno 3600 costs $70 per quart. Grow-your-own is almost free (assuming free labor). You can't compare the two because Nanno 3600 is super concentrated and is a great product for lots of uses. It just gets costly... and I'm a cheap bastard
i hear ya. but when you got buckets growing stuff everywhere it gets tedious very quickly. 2 buckets of rots is enough for me to keep me busy. my pairs keep me busy enough and one less thing i can grow i am all for it.. i feed them the nanno cause its easier with a few drops then growing nanno in a bottle. plua if you get one rotifer in the greenwater, it will wipe your culture out. i would lazy than cheap. hehe
shred5
Premium Member
Yea same here... I just did not have the time and also the space.
Cross contamination was an issue too.... I could never figure it out but somehow I always got some brine shrimp in my rots.....
Tim gixxerman
New member
How many times should i let them spawn before i try and hatch a fry?
i would let them go for about 6 to 10 nests before tring to raise them. this will aloow the male anf female get on the same page and allow the female to produce more eggs and better at laying. and the male to get better at fertilizing them.
i have a BW occy pair and the female wouldnt put her ovipositor close enough to the pot and eggs would fly all over the place. now she is laying like a champ.
i have a BW occy pair and the female wouldnt put her ovipositor close enough to the pot and eggs would fly all over the place. now she is laying like a champ.
Tim gixxerman
New member
The last batch had very little color. This time they are red were they just not fertilized last time? And what about inbreeding cause i do not know if these two are brother and sister or not! or does that not matter in the fish world?
