Four Year old Clowns Mating

N

nanoposeiden

New member
So I originally had an anemone (BTA) long ago in hopes that they would host and eventually be happy enough to mate, but it never happened. Sadly, the anemone has long since past away (victim of the dreaded powerhead).

Anyway, I have this horrible hair algae problem for more than two years now. I can spend an hour pulling out hair once a week and it's always back in full force shortly afterwards. Well, for about 6 months now the small male clownfish has been guarding near this section of rock that is covered with hair algae. Actually hosting the rock and snuggling into the hair algae and guarding it. Finally today it seems that the larger fish was comfortable enough with the "host" that they decided to lay eggs right across from it.

I shot this video with my iPad, sorry for the poor quality. They are still busy laying these eggs. (6 hours straight now)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzKrQxdVNZo

So I have a few smaller tanks that I use for quarantine. Is it worth trying to siphon out these eggs and place them in quarantine and buy some clown food? What about getting one of those hang on the side of the tank breeder nets and putting the eggs in there? Should I turn off the mechanical filter and skimmer and just run the powerheads? Won't they eat the fry if I don't remove them now? Sorry for such basic questions, I will be doing my research, but I wanted to share the news.

Thanks Reefers!

nanoposeiden
 
Very cool video. I'm by no means knowledgeable at all to clown breeding but like to read and from what I understand, it can be very trying to say the least to raise the babies. Good luck though if you decide to try. =)
 
you need to read up on how to raise the clown fry. its alot more involved. you'll have to catch the babies as they hatch and syphon them out. the parents and other tank mates will eat the babies as they hatch. you'll need to use rotifers to feed the babies for a week or less and then greenwater or algae paste to feed the rotifers.
best place to send you to read up on this if you decide to try is http://www.marinebreeder.org/forums/index.php
 
Here's the video from day two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hbCp2e-XjQ

I can't promise daily updates but I'll do what I can. I'm looking to source some rotifiers and to set up one of my quarantine tanks for the fry. Does anyone know a good inexpensive source? All I've seen is $30 for a big bag of them plus food.

Thanks for reading.

Nanoposeiden
 
Video from Day three.. the eggs have changed color and you can just make out some little black dots...

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Day 4 & 5

Day 4 & 5

Update: I found a local source for rotifers and phyto! I'll be getting the quarantine tank set up this weekend and I guess I'll be camping out Sunday and Monday night to see when they hatch. This particular rock they picked is a bit too hard to move so I'm going to try and siphon them out.

Day 4:

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Day 5:

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So I got my rotifers going in a 5 gallon bucket tonight. It was a small bag, probably 1 liter of water in the rotifer bucket. Should I add more saltwater to give them room to grow and add some more phyto? Or should I just wait since I'm expecting the fry to hatch so soon.

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Today you can see some eyes in those eggs so I'm going to be checking tonight for hatched eggs.

So my tank has three Koralia pumps (k4,k2, and a k1). I also have a HOB protein skimmer and a canister filter. Which pumps should I turn off tonight? All but the k1 for minimal water movement? I dont want to turn everything off as then I would suffocate the fish. I was also advised not to shine a flashlight at the eggs as it will keep them from hatching that night.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Nanoposeiden
 
Last edited:
Well, two hours with the lights off and no sign of fry yet. I turned back on the protein skimmer to keep the water aerated. (the k4 and canister filter are still off) I guess it's gonna be tomorrow night!
 
Here's the video from day 8. It's been 90 minutes so far since lights out and no sign of the fry. I was only able to spot those silvery eyes on about 25% of the eggs, so we may have a bad first batch. Oh well, at least I'll have more time for my rotifers to multiply since I only got them this weekend.

I'll check the tank one more time tonight and let you guys know if I spot any. Otherwise I'll post again tomorrow.

Thanks for following along.

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So it's day 9 and we've got spawnage! :dance:

The first video is from a few hours before lights out, and the second is a few videos put together of the spawn in the main tank and after the move to the fry tank.

Eggs:
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Spawn:
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About half of the larva are on the tank bottom swimming around, and the other half are up near the light and appear to be eating up the rotifers. The bulb in this 10g tank is pretty dim, so I don't think it's too bright. But I didn't put anything under the tank to keep the light from reflecting off the bottom. Any ideas? Would a white or dark towel work?

I poured some of the phyto that I have for the rotifers in the tank so that the water is green tinted. As for the amount of rotifers.. I used two small (lunch meat size) containers of rotifers. Unfortunately, I don't have any rotifer seive or way to filter out the dirty rotifer water. Hopefully this won't be too much of an issue.

Thanks for watching...

Nanoposeiden
 
Thanks Angel! I'll do my best!

Here is the second video of the fry, they are still less than 24 hours old and I am losing a fair number. I counted at least 50 larvae on the bottom of the tank. The larvae that are left are mostly hanging out at the top of the tank, as they seem to be attracted by the light. The bulbs are not very bright, only about 10w each. (two incandescent bulbs) Should I try and find something to dim the light even more, or is this normal for them to stick to the water surface? Only about 10-20 of the larvae seem to be actively swimming and darting around. The majority are just swimming around the surface with at least 10-20 more who are dive bombing and then swimming back up. (starving?)

I have started covering up the tank during the day with towels to block the sun. I originally placed the tank behind my sink in the corner of the kitchen between two windows so the sun is shining on the tank all day. This was causing the fish to stick to the glass on the side of the tank where the sun was shining in, rather than hunting for food.

I am feeling that they are not getting enough food in the tank, even though I am feeding about a liter of rotifer a day. I bought some coffee filters today so that I am not just pouring the dirty rotifer water into the tank. My rotifer culture was not well established for this amount of feeding and I think I am thinning them out faster than they can reproduce. Check the beginning of the video, is there enough food in the water?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Nanoposeiden

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you need alot more rots in the tank. and the tank should be tinted a light green color. do y
great first try. keep it up.

what size tank you have them in? you could start with a 5.5g. this way you need lets rots so the fry dont have to move far. ut you will need to more water changes. i would start on day 3 with water changes and since there is alot on the top, it wouldnt hurt starting otohime.
 
Whip316 said:
you need alot more rots in the tank. and the tank should be tinted a light green color. do y
great first try. keep it up.

what size tank you have them in? you could start with a 5.5g. this way you need lets rots so the fry dont have to move far. ut you will need to more water changes. i would start on day 3 with water changes and since there is alot on the top, it wouldnt hurt starting otohime.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the quick response. I have them in a 10g tank that I normally use for quarantine. I do have a smaller 5.5 gallon tank that I will use for the next batch if there is one.

I have added the last of my phyto (about 10ml) to the tank and it does have a green tint now. I also added more rotifers.

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there is a fine line of the ratio of rotifers to fry. you will find it. if you put to many the will cause the ammonia and wipe everything out. i would get a few ammonia badges and place them in the tank and do a wc when they start creeping up. you wont get rid of all the ammonia, but keeping it in check is key.
 
Morning update - great news

Morning update - great news

Looks like our numbers are back up. I didn't think this was possible, but apparently a good number of those fish on the bottom of the tank were not dead but were just too tired and hungry to swim? Anyway, the numbers of fish swimming around and actively hunting at this morning's feeding was much higher than last night.

I'll go out to Petco/Petsmart today to pick up some of those ammonia badges to keep an eye on things. Do you know if either of these stores carry Selcon? I read somewhere that is a good addition to the rotifers to increase their nutritional value.

Thanks again!

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What a difference 8 hours makes. I'm saddened to report that between 6-10pm, most of the surviving spawn have stopped swimming and are on the bottom. There are only about 5-10 larvae swimming around and they are not very active. I believe the problem was that they were not fed enough yesterday and they were weakened then.

I heard that the first spawn can be hard as me and the fish get used to the whole process. I plan on maintaining my rotifer culture and larvae tank setup for the next spawn.

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