My clowns had babies - help please?
- Thread starter t5Nitro
- Start date
Slim_jim989
New member
It is usually hard to raise the fry but not implossible. heres a good site it just really depends on how deticated you are and if you have the equipment to rear the fry.
http://www.breedclownfish.com/ but if you do a search or just look you will find plenty of articles with this same topic.
http://www.breedclownfish.com/ but if you do a search or just look you will find plenty of articles with this same topic.
Slim_jim989
New member
well your clowns will hopefully protect the eggs till they hatched, but your other fish will most likely eat them and when they hatch its like free fish food. lol good protein for your other fish.
t5Nitro
New member
So do any of you guys have breeding clowns and just let it go without any problems? As mentioned, I figured the same, good protein for other fish. I thought it would be fun to raise them but I just read everything on that link given and it sounds somewhat expensive and more work than I figured.
sedor
New member
If you don't have the proper equipment ready to go then the success rate is...well unfortunately its 0%. I hate to be the guy raining on peoples parade, but breeding clownfish is something that can't be done without a lot of hard work, and not to mention the expense for maintaining multiple tanks running for months. These days its difficult to even sell clownfish to local stores because of the abundance of them available, and the stores unwillingness to risk diseased stock. But its really cool that they are breeding in your tank. If you really want to look into breeding you should consider buying a book on the topic and going from there.
noobtothereef
New member
find somebody in your local reef club, im sure somebody would be more than willing to rear the fry, its worth a shot, i know if you were local to be i would take them and put them in one of my qt tanks
t5Nitro
New member
Just for a future reference in case I try it, you can't just buy live rotifers to feed the fry for about a week? Skip the whole culturing steps.
Something like this? http://www.reed-store.com/shop.cfm/Reef-Nutrition-Products/Rotifers-Live-and-Concentrate/RSK-5M:2/
It says they last 7 to 12 days and the fry only need to be on them for about 5 days according to some articles. How many do they eat? There is a pretty high count of rotifers in that bag in the link. Do people normally not go that route due to the price of the rotifers?
Something like this? http://www.reed-store.com/shop.cfm/Reef-Nutrition-Products/Rotifers-Live-and-Concentrate/RSK-5M:2/
It says they last 7 to 12 days and the fry only need to be on them for about 5 days according to some articles. How many do they eat? There is a pretty high count of rotifers in that bag in the link. Do people normally not go that route due to the price of the rotifers?
Last edited:
elder luis
New member
I think it´s very difficult... I can´t create them... 
Each clownfish larvae needs about 1000 rotifers per day. A hatch of Occelaris clowns could easily have 250 larvae, so thats a quarter million per day. But thats not the hard part... you cant just drop in a quarter million rots and head off to work. You have to maintain a proper density of rotifers in the larvae tank (~15/ml according to Wilkenson). Thats about 56k rots per gallon of water... and you need to roughly maintain that density as they are eaten otherwise the larvae wont be able to find the food.
Basically... if you arent interested in raising rotifers and nhbbs, dont bother trying to raise clowns.
If you truly are interested, pick up a copy of Wilkerson's book Clownfish and read it a few times. Some of the stats are a bit out of date but it will give you a solid idea of what you are up against.
Basically... if you arent interested in raising rotifers and nhbbs, dont bother trying to raise clowns.
If you truly are interested, pick up a copy of Wilkerson's book Clownfish and read it a few times. Some of the stats are a bit out of date but it will give you a solid idea of what you are up against.
JJ Ocean
New member
You need to feed the rots phyto. Rots that haven't eaten anything in 2 days have virtually no nutritional value (at least not enough for clown fry) "“ just because they can live for 7+ days doesn't solve the problem. Also, even though it looks like a lot of rots in the bag, I'd speculate that amount is only probably enough for 1-2 days (depends on the hatch size though). Clown larvae consume large amounts of rots due to the fact that well fed rots still aren't that nutritious "“ size and ease of culture is why they are fed (not quality).
The least maintenance route you could go is to buy the bag of rots, drop them in a 5 gallon bucket with an air stone, buy some non-live phyto to feed them every day (keeps you out of the algae culturing business) and feed them Oto A (or very finely crushed flakes/pellets) starting with day 6-8 (baby brine is an alternate for Oto, but you'd need to hatch). I personally go rots to day 6, BBS to day 20 and Oto the rest of the way out. I culture my phyto too because it is cheaper than buying, but it does require more work.
To be honest, if you don't have all of this already "“ I'd let the hatch pass until you are prepared. It is really hard to play catch up on hatch "“ not impossible though.
-John
The least maintenance route you could go is to buy the bag of rots, drop them in a 5 gallon bucket with an air stone, buy some non-live phyto to feed them every day (keeps you out of the algae culturing business) and feed them Oto A (or very finely crushed flakes/pellets) starting with day 6-8 (baby brine is an alternate for Oto, but you'd need to hatch). I personally go rots to day 6, BBS to day 20 and Oto the rest of the way out. I culture my phyto too because it is cheaper than buying, but it does require more work.
To be honest, if you don't have all of this already "“ I'd let the hatch pass until you are prepared. It is really hard to play catch up on hatch "“ not impossible though.
-John
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