Some tips and tricks I have picked up along the way.....
If the baby clowns have too much light overhead, they will do headstands on the bottom of the tank. Either cut some light by raising the canopy/overhead lights, screen it with some sort of mesh, or add some more phytoplankton to the water. The clowns usually only do this for a week or so.
It may sound weird, but be careful of water changes. Even low (10% water changes can shock baby fish. Make sure to do them slowly. pH of the fry water will be pretty low, doing a water change can actually raise the pH of the tank water and convert the ammonia to a more toxic form.
Don't feed baby brine for more than 4 or 5 days if possible. The fish can go through what I call brine shock. They are extremely susceptible to shock. Even something like dropping a gang valve or cup into the fry tank can cause them to go into shock and die. You will notice that they will swim in a couple quick circles and sink to the bottom of the tank. There's not a lot you can do about this besides feed brine shrimp for less time, add something else to their diet (like crushed high quality pellet/flake food) or be extremely careful. I suggest NOT doing water changes from day 3 on with feeding solely brine shrimp.
Black out the side of the fry tank for the first couple days. Some people say it helps the fry see, other people say it doesn't matter. It surely can't hurt.
Make sure to have the air bubbling in the fry tank right under the heater. This will help disperse the warmer water.
Don't get depressed if you lose your first few batches of fry. Most people fail to raise a fish their first few times. I failed the first 2 times to raise any, then got 4 on my 3rd try. It's okay to lose the fry, just try to figure out what happened. Did they day from lack of food? bad quality food? If you can learn why they died, you will be a more successful breeder.
If the fry only make it 12 or 16 hours, the fry probably died from capture related problems/injuries. Make sure you are EXTREMELY careful when collecting the fry. Don't just dump them in the fry tank. Submerge the cup and tilt it on it's side.
Make sure you ask questions. It is hard to raise marine fish. If it was that easy, then everyone would do it.
If the fry only make it to 2 or 3 days old, they died from malnutrition. This could stem all the way back to feeding the parents. Make sure the parents get a high quality diet. Feeding squid (high in fat) is good in moderation. Make sure to not feed it as the sole food, but work in a little bit if you can. I like to feed my own mix of frozen seafood (clam, shimp, squid, nori, tuna, etc). If you are sure the parents are laying good quality eggs, the rotifers you are feeding could be a problem. Make sure to feed the rotifers phyto, and often. The rotifers are a delivery mechanism for getting the highly nutritious phyto to the fish. Make sure their density is high in the fry tank.
Maybe one of these days I should post exactly how I culture phyto and rotifers, with pictures. Words only say so much.
Anyway, that's all I can think of for now. Make sure to ask questions if you have them. Even if you may be interested in breeding, it never hurts to know how to do it.
And if anyone has breeding fish (particularly clowns) and needs phyto (nannochloropsis) and rotifers, let me know. I'm more than happy to give you some live starter cultures. If you're not interested in raising you fish, collect the fry and give them to me to raise!
