feeding baby clowns day 1-3?

[wala90]

Hey everyone,
I was just wondering, do new hatched clowns have to be feed rotifers? and if so, do they have to be live. Has anyone tried http://www.reefnutrition.com/rotifeast.html ? Only reason why I ask is I have a next that is 3 days away from hatching, and no rotis! Can they survive on just phytoplankton!? Thanks for your help.
-Wala

 

[JHemdal]

Wala,

The first clowns I ever raised back in 1985 were fed "algae squeezings" - basically sponge filter squeezings and tiny organisms that I separated from algae growing on the sides of other tanks. I managed to raise FIVE after months of trying. They won't survive on phytoplankton. I've never tried rotifeast, but it looks interesting.

I'm now a firm believer in just letting go of any batch of eggs until you are good and ready with a good population of rotifers, or better yet, copepods nauplii.

If you want to get some benefit from these early batches, you could use them to test your larval transport methods, holding tank, etc.


Jay

 

[FB]

It is possible with rotifeat but maybe .5-1% success rates. You can get 60-100% success rates with live rotifers. If you are going to do it, do it right!

FB

 

[FMarini]

wala-
if you use a nonliving food your success rate will be quite low- a few fish out of the 100's of eggs. Just scrap this batch and start your rotifer culture- once its up & running- you'll be getting very high outcomes

 

[reefstew]

Couldn't say it any better, if you don't have live rotifers your waisting your time.

 

[NANOYED]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15725011#post15725011 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reefstew
Couldn't say it any better, if you don't have live rotifers your waisting your time.

+1