alaska clowns
New member
I'll ask my questions first, then I'll give you more info below if you're interested in knowing/reading. Again, thanks so much for any help!
1. My salinity is at 1.024 today (day 2 or 3) and I have no nitrite according to my test kit. Should I lower salinity further to 1.021? If so, when should I raise it?
2. I have some ammonia, should I change some water with parent tank water, or should I keep things the way they are and add a drop of Amquel? Since PH is low, I understand this to mean that the ammonia isn't as toxic.
3. Could a water change be done with water from my tank instead of the parent tank? (the fry are from a friend's tank).
4. Does water change = tank water that has been adjusted to match fry water in salinity, temp and ph? If so, what's the best way to lower the PH of the tank water?
5. When should I decrease the photoperiod (it's been 24/7 up to this point).
THANK YOU!
Here is more info:
The clowns are an ocellaris pair.
12 hatched Saturday night, the rest Sunday night (accidental stray flashlight beam delayed the hatch), so today is day 2 or 3.
By Sunday, only 3 of Saturday's hatch survived.
Sunday night, we probably added around 50 more (estimated).
Parent tank is at a friend's house; we moved the fry to my house Monday night.
Monday night, they looked terrible, I could tell many were perishing - doing the death spiral - Tuesday morning, only 6 were alive. The dying looked like the description I've read about fry that are starving, however, there were plenty of rots in the water beginning at the time from which the fry were added to the tank (also tank water tinted with nanocl. rot. diet).
This morning, Wednesday, I have 4 fry.
TANK: The tank is a small cube that holds around 2 gallons (maybe my first big mistake?). I think I have it filled to 1.5 gallons.
I had the temp. set at 80, but I unplugged it to keep it around 75; I was thinking that delaying metamorphosis to beef them up a little first sounded like a good idea.
Ammonia badge says .05 ppm ammonia; API test kit says 1ppm.
0 nitrite
7.5 PH
I've added 1 drop amquel plus each morning/evening since Monday night.
Salinity started out with parent tank water at 1.027; I gradually decreased over the last 2 days to 1.024
I have two airstones turned VERY low. Started out with one airstone, but added the second Monday night, wondering if maybe there wasn't enough oxygen in the tank due to heavy rotifers.
The small cube acrylic tank I'm using is one of the ones that has an LED lamp on an arm attached to the tank. I've had the tank lit 24/7 to give ample eating opportunity. I have also placed a small PC refugium light up high above the tank, just to ensure there was enough light. All sides of the tank are blacked out with black plastic.
I've siphoned detritus from the bottom of the tank each day.
FOOD: I'm feeding the fry L-strain rotifers, and I'm feeding Rotifers the Rotifer Diet from Reeds (Nanocloropsis). Since yesterday, I've been pulling out a jar of rots from the culture bucket, adding rot. diet, spirulina powder, and selcon - aerating and letting them eat for at least an hour, and sometimes several hours, then feeding the fry. I'm tinting the fry tank water green with rot.diet.
I realized Monday that my rotifer count in the fry tank was 40/mL - YIKES! I'm wondering if this had anything to do with my fry troubles. I have since strained out some rots, but added more nutritious (I think) rotifers.
I've been working for a week to get my own phyto culture going, but it'll probably be another week before I can use it to feed to the rotifers. That's going to be cutting it real close with my bottle of rot. diet!
Did I forget anything? I know the situation for this batch is bleak, but hopefully I can learn a lot this time around and have more success in the future. And I think my husband hopes I can learn to do better with the fry using less time
1. My salinity is at 1.024 today (day 2 or 3) and I have no nitrite according to my test kit. Should I lower salinity further to 1.021? If so, when should I raise it?
2. I have some ammonia, should I change some water with parent tank water, or should I keep things the way they are and add a drop of Amquel? Since PH is low, I understand this to mean that the ammonia isn't as toxic.
3. Could a water change be done with water from my tank instead of the parent tank? (the fry are from a friend's tank).
4. Does water change = tank water that has been adjusted to match fry water in salinity, temp and ph? If so, what's the best way to lower the PH of the tank water?
5. When should I decrease the photoperiod (it's been 24/7 up to this point).
THANK YOU!
Here is more info:
The clowns are an ocellaris pair.
12 hatched Saturday night, the rest Sunday night (accidental stray flashlight beam delayed the hatch), so today is day 2 or 3.
By Sunday, only 3 of Saturday's hatch survived.
Sunday night, we probably added around 50 more (estimated).
Parent tank is at a friend's house; we moved the fry to my house Monday night.
Monday night, they looked terrible, I could tell many were perishing - doing the death spiral - Tuesday morning, only 6 were alive. The dying looked like the description I've read about fry that are starving, however, there were plenty of rots in the water beginning at the time from which the fry were added to the tank (also tank water tinted with nanocl. rot. diet).
This morning, Wednesday, I have 4 fry.
TANK: The tank is a small cube that holds around 2 gallons (maybe my first big mistake?). I think I have it filled to 1.5 gallons.
I had the temp. set at 80, but I unplugged it to keep it around 75; I was thinking that delaying metamorphosis to beef them up a little first sounded like a good idea.
Ammonia badge says .05 ppm ammonia; API test kit says 1ppm.
0 nitrite
7.5 PH
I've added 1 drop amquel plus each morning/evening since Monday night.
Salinity started out with parent tank water at 1.027; I gradually decreased over the last 2 days to 1.024
I have two airstones turned VERY low. Started out with one airstone, but added the second Monday night, wondering if maybe there wasn't enough oxygen in the tank due to heavy rotifers.
The small cube acrylic tank I'm using is one of the ones that has an LED lamp on an arm attached to the tank. I've had the tank lit 24/7 to give ample eating opportunity. I have also placed a small PC refugium light up high above the tank, just to ensure there was enough light. All sides of the tank are blacked out with black plastic.
I've siphoned detritus from the bottom of the tank each day.
FOOD: I'm feeding the fry L-strain rotifers, and I'm feeding Rotifers the Rotifer Diet from Reeds (Nanocloropsis). Since yesterday, I've been pulling out a jar of rots from the culture bucket, adding rot. diet, spirulina powder, and selcon - aerating and letting them eat for at least an hour, and sometimes several hours, then feeding the fry. I'm tinting the fry tank water green with rot.diet.
I realized Monday that my rotifer count in the fry tank was 40/mL - YIKES! I'm wondering if this had anything to do with my fry troubles. I have since strained out some rots, but added more nutritious (I think) rotifers.
I've been working for a week to get my own phyto culture going, but it'll probably be another week before I can use it to feed to the rotifers. That's going to be cutting it real close with my bottle of rot. diet!
Did I forget anything? I know the situation for this batch is bleak, but hopefully I can learn a lot this time around and have more success in the future. And I think my husband hopes I can learn to do better with the fry using less time
