Maroons Spawning, need some assistance

[EvMiBo]

My white-stripe maroon, Premnas biaculeatus pair just spawned their first batch of eggs about 3-5 days ago. This caught me by surprise since the male was only introduced about 4 months ago. I've read through "My Clowns just laid eggs ... now what???" and am slowly realizing that this isn't as easy as I imagined. I have dry and frozen cyclo-peez ("second food") on me and have never bought fortified L-Strain rotifers ("first food") or another kind of live phytoplanktion. I feel bad but don't plan on raising this first batch for various reasons, but mostly because of my lack of preparation. If I can organize a solid procedure to raise future batches I think it would be awesome (since they're likely to continue).

I guess my questions are:
- Is Joyce Wilkerson's book, "Clownfishes: A guide to their captive care, breeding and natural history" still regarded as the best book to buy in this category? Seems like in 2003 it was, but that was almost 10 years ago and I know the aquarium hobby, foods etc have come a long way since then.
- I plan on "in tank hatching," is there a more efficient method to gathering the larvae than a cup or bowl?
- Is a refugium (attached to the display tank already) a bad idea? Or is a 5-10g seperate tank recommended?
- I'm sure more questions will arise but this is all I can think of right now.

here's a pic of them a couple minutes after they met face to face. the red sea pulsing xenia is their casa.

 

[zeeter]

Wilkerson is still considered the bible of clownfishes, but look around as many of her techniques have been improved upon since her writing. Everything in her book is solid from a scientific perspective.

I wouldn't worry so much about the first batch of eggs. Usually the parents take a couple of times to get the procedure down before you'll have a clutch worthy of cultivating.

I've had poor luck with rotifers - mostly due to impatience. I have heard some people using pulverized spirulina rather than rotifers, then moving to baby brine. This has the obvious advantage of not having to deal with rotifers or phyto (even the people who use rotifers are moving away from phyto in favor of dried powder).

While a perfect world would have rotifers and a 90% survival rate, the spirulina method has produced up to a 70% survival rate. This is good for maroons as they lay up to 2000 eggs.

Do not put them in your refugium. They need a bare tank blocked off from all light from the sides. Even put electrical tape around the heater so the light in there doesn't show through. Not only that, but the larvae are small enough to fit through nearly any filter you put on the overflow.

My personal preference is to provide them with an ideal egg laying rock or slate and then remove that the day of the hatch. Catching them in the tank using any of the siphoning techniques is not an easy task and you are bound to miss some. Removing the clutch before hatching will solve this problem. Best to have two identical rocks or slates for the fish to lay eggs on so that it can be immediately replaced. Clowns have been known to stop their cycle if there's even the slightest difference in their environment.

 

[Joe S]

While Wilkerson's book is great, there are some others that provide a little more detail on larval and juvenile tank design, as well as ways to remove newly hatched fry from the broodstock tank and transferring them to a larval rearing tank.

(1) Conditioning, Spawning, and Rearing of Fish With an Emphasis on Marine Clownfish (Frank H. Hoff)
(2) The Complete Illustrated Breeder's Guide to Marine Aquarium Fishes (Matt L. Wittenrich)

 

[EvMiBo]

Thanks for the replies guys. I think I'll try to get a copy of Wilkerson's book and perhaps one of the two mentioned by Joe. Having a solid scientific perspective is always something I value.

zeeter-
Feeding is one the things that most concerns me, so if I can use something that isn't live, like this pulverized spirulina as my #1 food It'd be nice - do the bbs need to be live or can they they be frozens? Of course, the #2 would still be dried cyclo-peez.

I'll get a 10g, this is what I figured but I though I'd ask. Is there any form of filtration needed on the 10g? I think these types of questions can be answered in the books, but while I'm here I figure I'll get ahead

I'm going to go with the slate idea, thing is - I imagine knowing when "day of the hatch" takes some practice, I can currently see their silvery eyes (not bronze yet). Is there any other key factors to hint at day of the hatch? Also, is it best to first put the small slate into a cup of water so that it is essentially submerged throughout the transfer?

While Wilkerson's book is great, there are some others that provide a little more detail on larval and juvenile tank design, as well as ways to remove newly hatched fry from the broodstock tank and transferring them to a larval rearing tank.

(1) Conditioning, Spawning, and Rearing of Fish With an Emphasis on Marine Clownfish (Frank H. Hoff)
(2) The Complete Illustrated Breeder's Guide to Marine Aquarium Fishes (Matt L. Wittenrich)

I actually am able to acquire the Matt L. Wittenrich book at an excellent price, I will get that first but also the Frank H. Hoff book as well since it's an emphasis on Clowns. Thanks so much for the recommendations .

I've got a lot of reading to do!

 

[zeeter]

zeeter-
Feeding is one the things that most concerns me, so if I can use something that isn't live, like this pulverized spirulina as my #1 food It'd be nice - do the bbs need to be live or can they they be frozens? Of course, the #2 would still be dried cyclo-peez.

I'll get a 10g, this is what I figured but I though I'd ask. Is there any form of filtration needed on the 10g? I think these types of questions can be answered in the books, but while I'm here I figure I'll get ahead

I'm going to go with the slate idea, thing is - I imagine knowing when "day of the hatch" takes some practice, I can currently see their silvery eyes (not bronze yet). Is there any other key factors to hint at day of the hatch? Also, is it best to first put the small slate into a cup of water so that it is essentially submerged throughout the transfer?

The pulverized spirulina plan is not the ideal way to feed the fry. They want live food, however it is an alternative - usually only used in emergencies when live rotifers are not available. I'm not advising that you do spirulina; I'm just pointing it out as a possibility. Yes - the brine shrimp should be live.

For the fry tank, you should only use an air pump and a rubber air hose - do not use an air stone. The bubbles from the air stone are small enough that they can get caught in the gills or even swallowed by the fry.

It is probably best to keep the slate submerged through the transfer process, however don't fret if they mistakenly see dry air for a few seconds.

There is great debates as to whether or not to use the parental tank's water in the fry tank. Personally I like to fill a ten gallon tank up to about 1/3 with parental water, then add additional salt water on a daily basis until the tank is nearly full - usually close to metamorphis day. This will help keep the water parameters stable (especailly pH) - though the bottom of the tank needs to be cleaned daily to prevent ammonia build up. This is especially true if using spirulina as the powder doesn't swim around until eaten; if not eaten on the way to the bottom it will begin to decompose. I use those cheap ammonia alarms along with daily testing as with that little volume of water the ammonia can build up quickly between tests.

The silver eyes are your best bet for telling when they're going to hatch. Keep an air stone on the eggs in the fry tank at gentle pressure to keep them aerated.