Fry gathering

[landlord]

Looking for a little bit of confirmation and perhaps techniques here.

I have a pair of Tomato Clowns (A. Frenatus) who have laid eggs for the first time last Tuesday March 10th at 6:00 PM EST. When should I be expecting a hatch at 8, 9, 10, n days? Can the hatch vary?

I am currently not prepared to actually begin rearing these fish but would like to slowly get to that point. With that in mind I want to attempt to capture the fry as they hatch. I have read in several of the threads here that it is possible gather the hatchlings from the display tank. Eventually I will introduce a tile for egg laying but until then how should I go about catching these things?

Many of you have reported that hatching happens about 30-60 minutes after the lights go out. Is this pretty much the norm? and if so, can I simply wait around with a flashlight and a jar to lure them to the top and scoop them out, say into a 5 gallon tank?

If I can do this I will be more inclined to spend some money on rotifers, rot food, etc... The spot they laid in is hard to put a tile near, (tank was definitly not aquascaped with the idea that the clowns would be laying eggs) it is in a cave. With some creative bending I can probably get my arm into the cave with a tile but like I said I'm not there yet.

Thanks for reading this and to those who have posted their own breeding threads. Many thanks to you for your insights and patience, you have inspired me to give this a shot.

Kurt

 

[billsreef]

Re: Fry gathering

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14621688#post14621688 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by landlord
Many of you have reported that hatching happens about 30-60 minutes after the lights go out. Is this pretty much the norm? and if so, can I simply wait around with a flashlight and a jar to lure them to the top and scoop them out, say into a 5 gallon tank?

That's pretty typical. On the day of the expected hatch, you can even turn the lights out a couple of hours early to trigger the hatch if you don't want to stay up late. With all the lights in the room and tank out, the flashlight trick works very well to concentrate the larvae in one spot. At this point they can be scooped out with jar or bowel. I like a shallow bowl, due to less water turbulence when scooping.

 

[Centropyge]

I collect the larva when my Ocellaris Clownfish hatch using a larva trap, basically an airline creates a siphon in to a chamber or collection vessel. A light is shown on the intake side and the larva are gently deposited in to the collection chamber for later removal. There are a number of designs available on the web. Fairly easy to make and use, and I have good results with mine in my display tanks. I've collected larva from clownfish, Pajama and Threadfin (or Bluestreak) Cardinals, Tail Spot Blennies, Cleaner Shrimp, etc, Good luck!

 

[landlord]

Many Thanks

 

[landlord]

Nothing to report on the 7 day (well night). I killed the lights at 9:00 PM and turned off pretty much everything that moved water in the tank. Not sure if I was doing it right or wrong but I covered the front pane of glass with a thick towel to prevent light exposure from the TV from bleeding into the tank. This process just seemed odd to me. I would peek into the tank about every ten minutes to see, I guess, if they were hatching. I waited an hour and then gave up and turned everything back on. Apparently it wasn't their time since the eggs are still there this morning. Perhaps tonight???

When the eggs hatch out will the fry just start swimming into crevices in the liverock? or do they go for the surface? the sides? I cannot fathom how I will be able to lure these guys to the surface with a flashlight if they are all hunkered down in liverock.

For those who have witnessed the hatching is it difficult to see the free swimming fry, I guess what I am asking is how do you realize when it has begun?

Thanks

landlord

 

[rkelman]

Its not hard to see the fry or catch them. I just waited a half hour after lights out and checked on them. Mine always hatched between 30 and 60 minutes. I used a plastic container to catch them. Just shine a flashlight at the top and they should come up for you.

 

[Elan L.]

I have been reading alot on the subject and i beleive it is not good to catch the fry after hatching in tank or broodstock. They are very delicate and can be hurt/weakened easily. From what i have read you will have a much better chance of more survivors if you transfer the eggs the night of hatching to what ever tank you will be raising them in and let them hatch there. Just seems easier to me. (to reduce stress on the eggs do a water change on the original aquarium/broodstock into the rearing tank.)
HTH, i am a beginner to this too so i might be wrong, this is just from what i have read not personal experience.

 

[rkelman]

You are correct. Its absolutely better to get them laying on a tile. Its not always possible though. Sometimes the fish don't co operate.

 

[landlord]

Nothing to report for night #8 other than the eyes making the eggs look metallic silver. The orange yolks have almost completely disappeared from the eggs. I would bet that this has to happen pretty soon, like tonight

Elan L. - You are absolutely correct. This is however the first spawn of these 4 year old clowns and they did so on the roof of a cave in a 50 lbs piece of liverock :lol: I'll try the tile eventually but I'm taking baby steps now.

In my case I am not going "whole hog" until the following:

1. I can actually catch the fry from the DT.

2. The clown pair lays another eggs mass. Want to determine if this wasn't a freak laying.

Once those conditions are met, I'm gonna go ahead and order some rotifers / rot food / otohime and give it a go. Should be fun, and a refreshing sidebar in the hobby.

BTW - Thanks rkelman! You pictures have convinced my wife that another tank in the living room with baby clowns would be acceptable! She thinks yours are sooooo cute (Insert mushy voice).

Thanks

-- Kurt

 

[NirvanaFan]

hatch day will vary depending on the temperature of the tank. What is the temperature of the parents tank? My tank generally runs about 81 or so, and they hatch in 8 days.

My eggs tend to hatch about 90 minutes after lights out. I do the same thing you do and cover the tank with towels. You'll definitely want to shut off the tanks pumps.

 

[landlord]

NirvanaFan -

Tank runs between 79 and 80 via chiller so it swing up and down between them.

-- Kurt

 

[Elan L.]

they will hatch today or tomorrow from what i read about tomato clowns. A couple hours after dark. good luck!

rkelman: can you send me some pictures too so i can convince my family aswell?

 

[rkelman]

Thats cool Landlord. I had a 25g tank in my living room for a while with babys in it. The kids my wife babysits loved it. It was pretty cool.
My wife is now very involved in the maintenance and care of the fish. (Including our reef tank) We have about 2000 babies on the go at least right now so its really a big help. Its alot of work. Good luck!

 

[Centropyge]

I've not had any problems collecting larva and transferring them to the grow out tank. Of course, I am only trying to raise 20-30 at a time. If I were to try and raise a couple of hundred, I am sure that I would do it differently. I totally agree the best method is a tile or other material that can be removed. Of course, then you need to make sure that there is water flow across the eggs, etc...

 

[landlord]

Well it happened last night

Oh Yeah.... Gathering fry is a PITA :lol:

I turned out the lights at 8:30 and by 9:15 there were many fry swimming busily around the tank. Did the flashlight trick (with the help of my wife) to gather them. Not so fun, if I might add. I tried billsreef's suggestion of using a shallow bowl. That worked great for the initial cluster of fry. After that I was simply removing too much tank water. So I switched over to a 1/4 siphon. This worked OK, it was still difficult to catch them. The little buggers were very fast and depth perception kind of stinks through the glass. I felt like I was stabbing around aimlessly trying to gather them. In any case I reset the Standby period on my ReefKeeperII to 90 minuntes, thinking it would be enough time to complete the hatch and gather as many fry as possible.

WRONG........

I probably only got half of them in 45 minutes, and that number is probably low. It is really difficult to judge the number of eggs (I never counted them). I figured I had like 50 eggs! - More like 150 :lol: Well by the time my wife got sick of holding the flashlight the 90 minute standby was up and I had already siphoned out 5 gallons of tank water trying to get these guys. I'm sure I could have got more but it was very draining (personally) after awhile.

I completed one of the goals I set out to do, prior to diving into this even more, and that was to be able to gather the fry successfully.

Question - I have read the some hatches strectch over two days but with that aside, how long from start to finish does a "normal" hatch take. I use the term normal very lightly becuase I am sure all time periods vary. I'm just looking for an average.

In any case I tried to capture some shots with the old Point and Click.

Looking down into a 2 gallon bucket

Macro'ed version

Here is an egg shot from 03-10-2009

Thanks Again for all the suggestions and support. Now if I get another laying I will go ahead and start rounding up the equipment to take this to the next level.

Thanks Again

--Kurt

 

[rkelman]

That's a pretty good job for a 1st time I think. Are you going to raise this batch or did you dump them back in? My hatch time seems to be about 30 minutes. Although lately its been over 2 nights. I think its because the temperature is lower this time of year in my larvae / hatch tank.

 

[billsreef]

Congrats :beer:

With clowns I find that any hatching usually occurs within an hour. Generally anything that hasn't hatched within that hour doesn't hatch till the second night. With the trying to get larvae out of a display tank routine, I don't try to get them all, just as much as I can without driving myself nuts.

 

[landlord]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

rkelman - I dumped this batch back into the tank. I simply wanted to gauge the effort involved in capturing the fry.

On a side note I just got done watching the clowns lays another clutch. This one looks to be in the 500 - 750 count range. I was absoltuely shocked. It is enormous!

I think I am going to open up a new thread to track this journey.

Looking for some advice here. I was going to place an order for a rotifer starter kit and the otohime starter kit from reed mariculture. Is this a good way to get my feet wet? Also these sponge filters that I have read about. Is this a useful item to get ahead of time? It seems that they come in varius sizes, which one is recommended or at least used by others?

Thanks again - I'll have a new thread up on Monday to try and keep this together.

Kurt

 

[rkelman]

I assume you get some phyto with the Rotifer starter kit? If not you need some. I really recommend the Otohime starter kit. It gives you a chance to see the sizes and decide what's best for you. I would get the Hydro Sponge 3. That's what I'm using and they are a good size.

I look forward to your thread. Lets see some pictures.

 

[Zooid]

An item that you should think about buying is a product called NatuRose. You add it to your Otohime in order to color up your clowns after they go through metamorphosis.
Here's my anecdotal thoughts on Otohime. I think that sizes A, B1, and C1 would be sufficient to raise clowns. Sizes A and B1 will last for a long time. You will go through much more C1 than the other smaller sizes.
Good luck, it's a great feeling when you start seeing stripes on the little guys.