DanDashO
New member
I've raised ocellaris clowns a couple of times; nothing spectacular, I only managed to get a dozen or so through meta. that was a couple of years ago though, and i seem to have forgotten everything i learned during those attempts... 
My biggest obstacle with clowns (and now Chrysiptera damsels) seems to be keeping the larvae suspended in the water column. Most of the time, they just lie on the bottom of the tank (regardless of lighting brightness). because they're clearly not eating while laying on their sides, they stay there until either their yolk is exhausted, or bacteria gets ahold of them, sometimes several days. the fry that do start swimming in the water do well, I typically can get a ~75% survival rate after this point. (75% is pretty poor when only a handful of larvae make off of the tank floor though)
I tried to make a Kriesel out of a 5 gallon tank and a five gallon bucket, but i wasn't ever able to get the water flow low enough to be a gentle drift. (evidently, larvae bodies can be ripped apart very easily :facepalm: )
So here are my questions:
I know that many breeders use a BRT through meta, but how do these help with suspension?
Also, are these just set up like any other larva tank, just a tub with an airstone and a heater?
To anyone who uses BRTs, what is visibility like? it seems to me that it would be really hard the see development, siphon the bottom, etc with these types of setups.
Thanks in advance for all of your help!
My biggest obstacle with clowns (and now Chrysiptera damsels) seems to be keeping the larvae suspended in the water column. Most of the time, they just lie on the bottom of the tank (regardless of lighting brightness). because they're clearly not eating while laying on their sides, they stay there until either their yolk is exhausted, or bacteria gets ahold of them, sometimes several days. the fry that do start swimming in the water do well, I typically can get a ~75% survival rate after this point. (75% is pretty poor when only a handful of larvae make off of the tank floor though)
I tried to make a Kriesel out of a 5 gallon tank and a five gallon bucket, but i wasn't ever able to get the water flow low enough to be a gentle drift. (evidently, larvae bodies can be ripped apart very easily :facepalm: )
So here are my questions:
I know that many breeders use a BRT through meta, but how do these help with suspension?
Also, are these just set up like any other larva tank, just a tub with an airstone and a heater?
To anyone who uses BRTs, what is visibility like? it seems to me that it would be really hard the see development, siphon the bottom, etc with these types of setups.
Thanks in advance for all of your help!
