lost almost all my fry on the 6 DPH

[BBOSS]

I lost about 45 fry this morning, 6 days after hatch. All fry was feeding well and looked well the night before, so it was such a shock for this to happen on the 6th day. I have no clue on why or what had happened.

I have collected ~ 75 fry on the hatching night, ~ 25 fry died during the first two days and I have not lost any more since, until last night. This morning I found only 6 fry are still alive.

This is my 15th batch from a healthy pair of True Percula. I have tried to raise fry 5 times previously with mixed success. The first try was lost due to inexperience, second and third tries had produced 6 and 2 survivors, and last two tries were lost due to rotifer crash and my own carelessness.

This time I thought I have done everything right. The water was from the parent tank. The salinity and temperature were always matched. Water change were using the dripped method and rotifer density looked good at ~15/ml. Rotifer were well fed with Rotifer Diet for a half hour prior to feed the fry.

Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate were checked last night, all were 0 ppm. light cycle was 24/7 for the first 4 days, and 16 hours on, 8 hours off for the last two nights. The fry tank is 5 Gal and still covered with a black plastic garbage bag on all four sides. The Salinity is 1.024 and temperature 80F.

I did 30% water change, removed all dead fry before I went to work this morning. I had lost another one when I came back from work this evening. rotifer density is still good, and all remaining 5 fry seems to well fed with round silvery stomachs.

I fed a small pinch of grinded Otoheim for the first time last night, but cannot think of any other things I did that was out of the ordinary. I was able to find explanations for most of my previous losses, but I am completely baffled by this unfortunate event. Can anyone suggest what may have gone wrong?

 

[Lou Young]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I was using Rotifer Diet too and I contacted the manufacturer and they provided some very helpful information. They told me that Rotifer Diet was formulated to be used by commercial hatcheries as a "growout" feed to produce a maximum number of rotifers, but you would need to also enrich the rotifers before feeding them to the larvae. Are you enriching them with anything else? If not, then that may explain why they died at 6 DPH. Since you already have the Rotifer Diet maybe they can suggest a good enrichment formula for you.
If you don't want to do an additional step, then they suggested that hobbyist should use their RGComplete formula. RGComplete provides a continuous moderate enrichment so the rotifers provide better nutrition to your clownfish and can be fed directly to the larval tank.

Are you using green water? If so, what? If not, then you should. All of the Reed green water products work well. Check out their website for the difference. I was told to use the Omega formula. So far, so good.

Also, I was told to start introducing the larvae to TDOA or OTOA in small amounts on day 3.

Another thing you should do is to use 10g tanks instead of the 5g. Much much more gas exchange with the additional water surface area and more water by volume helps maintains a more stable environment.

I hope this information helps you with your next batch. Good Luck!

 

[ernieq]

I lost about 45 fry this morning, 6 days after hatch. All fry was feeding well and looked well the night before, so it was such a shock for this to happen on the 6th day. I have no clue on why or what had happened.

I have collected ~ 75 fry on the hatching night, ~ 25 fry died during the first two days and I have not lost any more since, until last night. This morning I found only 6 fry are still alive.

This is my 15th batch from a healthy pair of True Percula. I have tried to raise fry 5 times previously with mixed success. The first try was lost due to inexperience, second and third tries had produced 6 and 2 survivors, and last two tries were lost due to rotifer crash and my own carelessness.

This time I thought I have done everything right. The water was from the parent tank. The salinity and temperature were always matched. Water change were using the dripped method and rotifer density looked good at ~15/ml. Rotifer were well fed with Rotifer Diet for a half hour prior to feed the fry.

Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate were checked last night, all were 0 ppm. light cycle was 24/7 for the first 4 days, and 16 hours on, 8 hours off for the last two nights. The fry tank is 5 Gal and still covered with a black plastic garbage bag on all four sides. The Salinity is 1.024 and temperature 80F.

I did 30% water change, removed all dead fry before I went to work this morning. I had lost another one when I came back from work this evening. rotifer density is still good, and all remaining 5 fry seems to well fed with round silvery stomachs.

I fed a small pinch of grinded Otoheim for the first time last night, but cannot think of any other things I did that was out of the ordinary. I was able to find explanations for most of my previous losses, but I am completely baffled by this unfortunate event. Can anyone suggest what may have gone wrong?

Massive die offs like that are usually a water issue. Do you have ammonia badges in your nursery? How often do you do water changes? Usually in the first few days, I only do RO/DI water top offs to maintain salinity, with the first 20% water change coming after day 3, and every 3 days thereafter and dripped in until I get some sort of bio filtration after meta. I use chloram-x or amquel plus to control ammonia.

 

[BBOSS]

Thank you so much for all these great suggestions, I really appreciate.:thumbsup:

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I was using Rotifer Diet too and I contacted the manufacturer and they provided some very helpful information. They told me that Rotifer Diet was formulated to be used by commercial hatcheries as a "growout" feed to produce a maximum number of rotifers, but you would need to also enrich the rotifers before feeding them to the larvae. Are you enriching them with anything else? If not, then that may explain why they died at 6 DPH. Since you already have the Rotifer Diet maybe they can suggest a good enrichment formula for you.
If you don't want to do an additional step, then they suggested that hobbyist should use their RGComplete formula. RGComplete provides a continuous moderate enrichment so the rotifers provide better nutrition to your clownfish and can be fed directly to the larval tank.

Are you using green water? If so, what? If not, then you should. All of the Reed green water products work well. Check out their website for the difference. I was told to use the Omega formula. So far, so good.

Also, I was told to start introducing the larvae to TDOA or OTOA in small amounts on day 3.

Another thing you should do is to use 10g tanks instead of the 5g. Much much more gas exchange with the additional water surface area and more water by volume helps maintains a more stable environment.

I hope this information helps you with your next batch. Good Luck!

I did not enrich the rotifer, just feed additional Rotifer Diet a half hour before I feed them to the larvae. My Rotifer Diet is almost running out, so I think I may as well purchase some RGComplete for the remaining fry and for the future batches.

I have not even thought about buying the green water....I thought the green water was the result of adding Rotifer Diet to the tank....

Small amount of ground OTOB was first introduced to the larvae on the 5th day, but not sure if the larvae are consuming them thru.

I used 5 gallon tank because I had problems keeping the rotifer density high previously. I will try the 10 Gallen for my next batch if RGcomplete can help the rotifer cultures.

Massive die offs like that are usually a water issue. Do you have ammonia badges in your nursery? How often do you do water changes? Usually in the first few days, I only do RO/DI water top offs to maintain salinity, with the first 20% water change coming after day 3, and every 3 days thereafter and dripped in until I get some sort of bio filtration after meta. I use chloram-x or amquel plus to control ammonia.

Yes, I thought it must be water issue(s), but all the water tests I've done had indicated no water problem. Both API Ammonia test and Seachem Ammonia Badge showed no Ammonia present. API tests also showed no Nitrite nor Nitrate in the water. I have only used the water from the parent tank, mixed in with some topoff RO/DI water and Amqual Plus. I started water change on the third day, ~ 15% each day, dripped the water in always.


All 5 remaining fry are doing well this morning, free swimming and feeding on rotifer. I will continue to monitor the water quality and continue water changes to minimize the possible water issues. I am going to order RGcomplete and RotiGreen Omega tonight, for the remaining fry and future batches.

 

[reefstew]

If everything tested ok it could also be low O2 levels. I use 2 air tubes or air stones on all tanks. Maybe turn the air up a little.

 

[rgfast]

Just a thought, are you checking salinity in lave tank at least every other day? I lost a good ten clutchs thinking I was doing everything right with daily water changes of 1.020 water only to find that what I thought should be 1.022 water to realy be 1.026

 

[BBOSS]

If everything tested ok it could also be low O2 levels. I use 2 air tubes or air stones on all tanks. Maybe turn the air up a little.

O2 level is one thing that I cannot test; Now I remember I've read somewhere that too much rotifer can suffocate the fry, I had high concentrations of rotifer in the fry tank, so this definitely can be the problem. I will aerate the water before drip it to the fry tank, and turn up the air for my next batch. Thank you for the suggestion.

Just a thought, are you checking salinity in lave tank at least every other day? I lost a good ten clutchs thinking I was doing everything right with daily water changes of 1.020 water only to find that what I thought should be 1.022 water to realy be 1.026

Salinity has been checked twice daily since hatching night. The parent tank is a mixed reef tank at 1.025 and I've been slowly lowering it to 1.023 on the 6th day. My target was to 1.022 for the fish only tank. I have kept the salinity of the fry tank at 1.023 since day 6. Thank for your thought.

 

[bok]

I have the same issue..... From the last 5 batches I have about 5 babies from each batch remaining. From one batch remained only one , but he survived and he is now with the second stripe. In total I have about 20 babies from 5 batches , different sizes toghether in a growout tank.
I guess that is something with the food. Maybe the ammount of rotifers or their quality is the issue. Because when they start to die , the ones that will die are smaller and thiner. They just don't eat or can't asimilate the food.
I will also try to enrich the rotifers and keep an eye on your topic .

 

[BBOSS]

I have found one major issue with my water.

I tested the PH last night and it was 7.1. I don't know how long the PH had been that low, but it was such a basic maintenance task I have neglected to test for so long that i feel like an idiot :mad2:.

The parent tank's PH level has been stable with daily swing between 7.8 and 8.1. I have been using the parent tank water all along, so never even thought PH would be an issue.

A combination of several possible factors that may have caused the PH to go so low that I can think of .... such as not enough O2, too much rotifer, use of Amquel Plus, Rotifer feed quality .......

RGcomplete has both PH buffer and ClorAm-X in it. I have ordered it and hopefully it will also resolve my PH issue for the future batches.

I would like to thank everyone for helping me with all the constructive suggestions, I really appreciate. Please continue to contribute if anyone can think of any other possible factors.

I have the same issue..... From the last 5 batches I have about 5 babies from each batch remaining. From one batch remained only one , but he survived and he is now with the second stripe. In total I have about 20 babies from 5 batches , different sizes toghether in a growout tank.
I guess that is something with the food. Maybe the ammount of rotifers or their quality is the issue. Because when they start to die , the ones that will die are smaller and thiner. They just don't eat or can't asimilate the food.
I will also try to enrich the rotifers and keep an eye on your topic .

Hey, we are in the similar boat :lol:. I have also come to the same conclusion as you have. I am also going to order some enrichment products to complement RGcomplete, to eliminate any possible feed quality issues.

We are here to learn together. Good Luck with your future batches.

 

[mwilliams62]

Following along here.