Jay_blu's first try at baby clownfish

J

jay_blu

New member
I figured I would start a post to keep track of this batch of baby ocalarus clowns. This is the second clutch that they have laid the first batch only lasted 3 days, I didn't have rotifers going then. Now I have rotifers and phytoplankton going. This is all very new to me and exciting, the wife and daughter are really excited about the babies too. Here is what I have done so far.

This is the first batch
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I took this rock out and put it in a blacked out 20gal to hatch them. This tank is filed with water from the display tank. I was planning on doing 2 or 3 gallon water changes every day and replace it with water from the display tank, what do you think?
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Some of the babies from the first batch
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I started some phytoplankton and rotifers so those will be ready for the larvae. I have 7 one litter bottles going of phyto, I take one off every day and use 1/3 to start a new one. I also change 1/3 of the rotifers water every day. Some times I run them through a 53 micron sieve but it plugs up pretty easy, should I use a bigger one?

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Unfortunately they didn't make it so I added a flower pot where the clowns live. After about 4 weeks they have laid again!
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They were laid on 4/26 so tomorrow I'm going to take the pot out and put then in the 20gal to hatch.
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Any input would be appreciated I'm new and could use some pointers, thanks.
 
Good luck

Good luck

The 20 gallon tank might be a little big to start with. The reason I say this is that you want the fry to find the rotifers easily, so its easier to get higher rotifers per ml in less water. You could compensate by just putting in less water to start. Could start with 5 gallons, and then add a little water every day. Another nice side benefit of this technique is that you are adding some fresh water (could be from display tank) every day, but not having to siphon. When you're siphoning out water its easy to suck up fry. Then you have to catch them and get them back in the tank. I start with a 10 gallon tank with 4 gallons of water. then slowly increase the water volume over a week.

I didn't figure this out, I basically copied the technique from Pickle's Clownfish Breeding thread. Best read out there for this.

The 53 micron sieve is the right size, you have to rinse it out really well after each use so it doesn't get clogged up.

My daughter, and family love this project too!

Howard
 
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Here is how I put the pot for hatching.
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I tried to get a shot of the babbies but my camera just focus on the horde of rotifers
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I think it's too late for keeping them in the smaller tank/ less water

So some have hatched probably about 20, but it don't look like it has put a dent in the amount of eggs that were laid. It's it normal to have them hatch in batches?? I was under the impression they did it all at once.

Last question for now what should their light cycle be right now? Since the majority hasn't hatched but the ones that did need to see to eat?

Edit: pic mixup
 
I moved the pot to a blacked out 10gal half full of new salt water, at the same temp, salinity and ph. But only 2 more hatched. It would seem that I'm only getting about half of the eggs that are laid to hatch and they are not all on the same night so I think I may need to make changes on how it's setup so more hatch.

On a good note its day 3 and I think their numbers are pushing 100. My ammonia badge started to turn a bit green so I did a 5 gal water change, slowly dripping the 5 gallons NSW in over a few hours and the badge went back to yellow. I'm only feeding rotifers once a day but after 24hrs there seams to still be a bunch in there. They do seam really happy after the water change and a fresh bunch of rotifers. I think one thing that is good about using a 20gal is you have room to run an air stone strong away from the light and it don't seam to mess with the fry.

38lMb_RNWzU

https://youtu.be/38lMb_RNWzU

Edit:not sure how to embed youtube...
 
I don't know if I have everything down with the rotifers, it seams my culture slowly dwindles down to when I'm not getting very many on the harvests. I harvest 1/3rd daily, feed rg complete 2 times a day (its a light green tint after 12hrs), temp is about 70. I usually have enough to feed through the first week or so. .. but I usually end up ordering another starter, 3 so far. They never got foul or seamed that they were bad, just almost like they are not reproducing like they should.

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Second batch should be hatching today. I think my problem with my rotifers was strictly ammonia from over feeding. I'm using amquel and measuring out the RG complete now so I hope this batch of rotifers goes better.

As kinda an experiment in trying to see if I can bring the old cultures back. They have been at 2 ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite and nitrate, for probaly a week. So I did like I would do for a normal harvest but put in 3ml amquel and I will let it go from there.

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So only like 15 or so hatched from this 3rd clutch. I don't know if I have the right amount or position of air on the eggs. So the next night after they were supposed to hatch I tried shutting off the air completely on the eggs to see if they wanted it calm to hatch. Nope...

My temp is 80.5 so on this next one I'm going to try to bump it up a bit to see if that helps get more to hatch. Also I'm going to use brand new salt water instead of display tank water. My display tank is at 120 ppm nitrates... (I'm working on that)

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Hey Jay,

My clowns have laid eggs for the first time this month as well. The first batch was last week and I did not have rotifers. I checked them day seven after lights out and about 20 hatched and the next day the rest hatched, around 100. I thought maybe you might want to try keeping them in your display tank with the parents and then siphoning them out. My rotifers have been reproducing very well and I have been storing some in the fridge just in case of any emergency. For your rotifers do you clean out the container that you are culturing them in? At the bottom of my culture debris build up so I went to the pet store and bought a sponge that would catch the debris but not the rotifers. My second batch hatches hopefully tomorrow. Hope it goes as well as yours did. Your fry look very happy.
 
I may just try this next batch in the display tank. .. they are due to hatch tonight or tomorrow night. I will be working night shifts so I'm not sure what the wife will do. Try to update you whether we cross that bridge. Need to get a new video, the second batch is at 24 days old, the other ones are like 9 days old I think.

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