My clown spawn hatch last night.

[Sport507]

They seem to be doning well and eating. When should I do my first water change?

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[NirvanaFan]

Are you feeding them rotifers? Your water should be tinted with phyto too.

I don't do water changes until after meta.

 

[Sport507]

Yes I'm feeding them rotifers and keeping the water slightly tinted.

Should I turn out the lights at night?

 

[Sport507]

double post

 

[dela]

From what I've read, you need to cover the glass so light only comes from the top, and put your light on a timer.

 

[NirvanaFan]

yes, lights out at night. If you keep the water greener than you have it, you can get away with not covering the sides. You should probably keep the water greener than what you have it in the video (if you aren't).

 

[jbax]

covering the sides creates contrast. the larvae can see the the white rotifer dots swimming with a black background. some do it, some don't. it won't hurt to do it. leaving lights on 24/7 till after morph will give them a 24 hr feeding time. they will not huddle up cause the lights are out. some do not make it out of the huddle, when they are that young. the greener the water the more the rots eat. so the fry don't have to eat as many rots to get the nutrition they need. just be careful with ammonia.

 

[Sport507]

Metamorphose

Metamorphose

Thanks for all the advice I will have to chose and figure out what works for me. I'm going with light out at night for now and I have darkened the green in the tank much more and the rotifers are very dense in the tank.

When should I except metamorphose to begin? I know it depend on the species. Here is a pic of my pair spawning.

This is day 2 and I've had no casualties yet.

 

[jbax]

i would start looking on day 8 or 9, for them to start morphing.

 

[Sport507]

How often should I do a water changes, I plan on about 1 gal.? I haven’t done any yet because I haven’t had any causalities.

 

[NirvanaFan]

The fry are very sensitive to water changes during meta. They are a little more forgiving before and after. I usually don't do water changes until after meta, but doing them doesn't hurt as long as you do them very slowly. You can pull the water out fast, but add it slow. Like a drip every 5 seconds or so.

Most clowns are done with meta by 9 days or so, but if they're not getting the right nutrition, it can take a couple days longer.

 

[Sport507]

The fry are very sensitive to water changes during meta. They are a little more forgiving before and after. I usually don't do water changes until after meta, but doing them doesn't hurt as long as you do them very slowly. You can pull the water out fast, but add it slow. Like a drip every 5 seconds or so.

Most clowns are done with meta by 9 days or so, but if they're not getting the right nutrition, it can take a couple days longer.

Thanks for that advice. My plan on the water change was not to use freshly mixed salt water but rather to pull it out of the DT tank that they were spawn in.

Do I still need to do it that slowly?

Also here is a pic of my water tint.

 

[Algaenot]

Keep us updated. Sounds like you're doing a great job. For the first 2 or 3 days, I keep the light on around the clock. The fry cannot feed at night and they can quickly run out of food. That's OK in the wild but if you want to keep your mortality rate low, give them some light. Also, if you feed rotifers twice a day, you don't need to add algae to the tank. Once I stopped doing that, my mortality rate dropped significantly. Over the past 3 hatches, I've only lost 2 fry and one of them had issues from the start.

 

[Algaenot]

How do you plan to remove water during the water change so that you don’t suck up the fry? My preferred method in to take the sieve and place it in the water with the top sticking above the water level by a couple of centimeters. Then you can siphon water out of the sieve without pulling in fry. Keep the tube away from the screen so you don’t pin the fry against the surface. By pulling it up a little you get a more even distribution of flow.

 

[Sport507]

Ok thanks for all the comments. I would like for them to spawn next time on a slate I cut and put in their spawning place. At first the pair freaked and flashed it trying to move it but now seem to except it.

Is the slate to big and what are the changes the will lay on the slate?

Here is a vid of my reef tank.


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[Algaenot]

All of my systems us tile and they typically take to it right away. Since you are working in your display tank, you can put the slate in front of the spot where they been attaching their eggs and give them a little time to adjust. When I first starting breeding clowns, they were in my display tank and I was afraid to change anything in case the change would make them stop breeding. After a while I got tired of scooping the fry out of the DT and placed a piece of tile over the rock where they had been laying their eggs. The next morning they had attached their eggs to the tile.

 

[jbax]

Thanks for that advice. My plan on the water change was not to use freshly mixed salt water but rather to pull it out of the DT tank that they were spawn in.

Do I still need to do it that slowly?

Also here is a pic of my water tint.

yes, still drip slowly. do a 20% WC from day 3-8ish. stop water changes till after meta, then day 12-20 a 25% every other day.

 

[Sport507]

Well I don't have much good news to report today. I'm down to about 8 now and the water is has plenty for rotifers in it. Now I have to figure out the cause it's not a lack of food is not it for sure. The light on my take is an incandescent bulb only 15 watts. I really started question things yesterday day 2 because I wasn't seeing any growth and this morning they are still the same size as when I put them in the tank.

1) I should have blacked out the side.
2) I needed a brighter light.
3) I need more air flow.

My thoughts are 2) they can't see their food.

Should I do a water change and true save the few left?


You guys have any other thoughts?

I'm also running a temp controler on the tank that keep it 80F

 

[Whip316]

ammonia is usually what kills the fry before meta. i would get a ammonia badge and put it in there. from the rots and the fish all pooping in the water its eventually gonna happen..

when i hatch mine in a 10g tank i only add like 4g of water. once they hatch, 24 - 48 hours i drip in 1 - 2 gal denpending on how big the hatch was. more babies, more i drip in. then in day 5 i syphon the bottom and remove 1 gal of water and drip in 2 gal. all trying to keep the ammonia down.

some say dont do WC before meta, but i have good results and dont have to many that die. i get more die from ammonia.

 

[jbax]

if the density of the rots is to much they can suck the oxygen out. also with to many rots you can get high ammonia like whip said. if you get too bright of a light it will hurt you more then help. your air flow looked fine on the video. i black out my sides. it doesn't take alot of work/money/time.

it's your first try. i only raised 40 clowns on my first go at it. i think i was lucky enough to get joyce d wilkersons book(clownfishes) before it went out of print.