Nemo Babies - Kat's 90g
- Thread starter superkat
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superkat
Premium Member
not restricted to only NirvanaFan...here are the eggs:
basically...i need SIMPLE, CLEAR AND CONCISE information. Don't laugh, pictures are helpful.
First up - how do i isolate the area to keep the fry there so I can move them to the 10g.....or do i move the rock to the 10g?
Second, does anyone in Rochester have rotifers?
basically...i need SIMPLE, CLEAR AND CONCISE information. Don't laugh, pictures are helpful.
First up - how do i isolate the area to keep the fry there so I can move them to the 10g.....or do i move the rock to the 10g?
Second, does anyone in Rochester have rotifers?
Alright... Clown breeding 101...
Basically for the first 4-8 days, the clowns need live food. The best live food that people have found so far are live rotifers. These are extremely small motile invertebrates. They look like a speck of dust in the water.
Rotifers eat phytoplankton. They can eat a few different kinds of phytoplankton. The easiest of them to culture is probably nannochloropsis (what I culture). Rotifers and nanno can be cultured at a specific gravity of 1.019. There are others that are probably better to culture, but nanno is what most people use. If you can get your hands on Isochrysis or another flagellate, use that in conjunction with nanno.
The easiest way for people to culture phytoplankton is in empty 2 liter soda bottles. Phytoplankton needs 2 things to reproduce. Light and food (fertilizer). Light is generally provided by shop lights, but you could use the sunlight in the NY summer. The normal florescent tubes in shop lights work well. Food is provided by a fertilizer. Some people use Miracle Grow, but a properly formulated f/2 fertilizer made for phytoplankton is a better choice.
You need to culture the phytoplankton to feed the rotifers. Set up 7 2 liter bottles of phyto and harvest one each day. Feed half to the rotifers and keep half to grow the phyto in the bottle. I usually take 1 liter of rotifers out of the 5 or 10 gallon tank I am culturing them in. Add 1 liter of phyto to the tank to replace the water you took out. Fill up the 2 liter bottle with 1.019sg water. Then add 20 drops of fertilizer and put the bottle back next to the shop light.
Phytoplankton is non-motile and sinks when set. In order for the phyto to not smother itself, you need to provide aeration via an air pump. A rolling boil is too much, but 15 bubbles per seconds is good.
I keep a small heater to keep my rotifer cultures a bit warmer. They reproduce faster when kept warmer. I also aerate the culture to keep the water oxygenated and moving. Since you feed the rotifers phyto, you need to keep the phyto moving. The aeration does just this.
So, now that you know how to culture phyto and rotifers, you just need to know what to do with the fry. The best method is to get the clowns to lay their eggs on a tile or pot. This can be removed right before hatching to the fry tank. Since they laid their eggs on the rock, you can't really remove it.
You will have to shut all the flow off to the tank (pumps, powerheads, closed loops, etc). Your tank will be fine for the hour or so it takes to collect the fry. You have to make the tank room completely dark. Or, you can hang blankets on the tank to black it out. I try to get the room as dark as possible.
Fry are attracted to light. About 20 or 30 minutes after you get everything dark, the clowns should start to hatch. Shine a flashlight in the top corner of the tank nearest the eggs. The fry will swim to the light. Take a cup and carefully scoop them up in it. Even more carefully, dump the fry in their new tank. Continue this until you have a bunch of fry. Try not to shine the flashlight on the eggs to much. If you do, they will take longer to hatch.
I'll write up part 2 to this quick tutorial tonight or tomorrow, but that should be enough to get you started.
So, in order to get ready you will need:
10 gallon tank for fry
5 or 10 gallon tank for rotifers
7 2 liter bottles for phyto
air pump and gang valves to supply air to rotifers, fry, and phyto
1 or 2 bulb shop light.
phytoplankton fertilizer
Basically for the first 4-8 days, the clowns need live food. The best live food that people have found so far are live rotifers. These are extremely small motile invertebrates. They look like a speck of dust in the water.
Rotifers eat phytoplankton. They can eat a few different kinds of phytoplankton. The easiest of them to culture is probably nannochloropsis (what I culture). Rotifers and nanno can be cultured at a specific gravity of 1.019. There are others that are probably better to culture, but nanno is what most people use. If you can get your hands on Isochrysis or another flagellate, use that in conjunction with nanno.
The easiest way for people to culture phytoplankton is in empty 2 liter soda bottles. Phytoplankton needs 2 things to reproduce. Light and food (fertilizer). Light is generally provided by shop lights, but you could use the sunlight in the NY summer. The normal florescent tubes in shop lights work well. Food is provided by a fertilizer. Some people use Miracle Grow, but a properly formulated f/2 fertilizer made for phytoplankton is a better choice.
You need to culture the phytoplankton to feed the rotifers. Set up 7 2 liter bottles of phyto and harvest one each day. Feed half to the rotifers and keep half to grow the phyto in the bottle. I usually take 1 liter of rotifers out of the 5 or 10 gallon tank I am culturing them in. Add 1 liter of phyto to the tank to replace the water you took out. Fill up the 2 liter bottle with 1.019sg water. Then add 20 drops of fertilizer and put the bottle back next to the shop light.
Phytoplankton is non-motile and sinks when set. In order for the phyto to not smother itself, you need to provide aeration via an air pump. A rolling boil is too much, but 15 bubbles per seconds is good.
I keep a small heater to keep my rotifer cultures a bit warmer. They reproduce faster when kept warmer. I also aerate the culture to keep the water oxygenated and moving. Since you feed the rotifers phyto, you need to keep the phyto moving. The aeration does just this.
So, now that you know how to culture phyto and rotifers, you just need to know what to do with the fry. The best method is to get the clowns to lay their eggs on a tile or pot. This can be removed right before hatching to the fry tank. Since they laid their eggs on the rock, you can't really remove it.
You will have to shut all the flow off to the tank (pumps, powerheads, closed loops, etc). Your tank will be fine for the hour or so it takes to collect the fry. You have to make the tank room completely dark. Or, you can hang blankets on the tank to black it out. I try to get the room as dark as possible.
Fry are attracted to light. About 20 or 30 minutes after you get everything dark, the clowns should start to hatch. Shine a flashlight in the top corner of the tank nearest the eggs. The fry will swim to the light. Take a cup and carefully scoop them up in it. Even more carefully, dump the fry in their new tank. Continue this until you have a bunch of fry. Try not to shine the flashlight on the eggs to much. If you do, they will take longer to hatch.
I'll write up part 2 to this quick tutorial tonight or tomorrow, but that should be enough to get you started.
So, in order to get ready you will need:
10 gallon tank for fry
5 or 10 gallon tank for rotifers
7 2 liter bottles for phyto
air pump and gang valves to supply air to rotifers, fry, and phyto
1 or 2 bulb shop light.
phytoplankton fertilizer
Kat, I've got some phyto, rotifers, and fertilizer to get you started if you want it. You'll have to bring something to put the fertilizer in though. I don't have anything. Something not see though that you can make drops from would be best. Old contact solution bottle or something would probably work.
I'm in Irondequoit near Dan's Crafts and Things. You are more than welcome to come over sometime and see how I do things. It may not be the best way, but it works. I'll show you how to culture the phyto, rotifers, and feed them to the fry.
I'm in Irondequoit near Dan's Crafts and Things. You are more than welcome to come over sometime and see how I do things. It may not be the best way, but it works. I'll show you how to culture the phyto, rotifers, and feed them to the fry.
PM Replied.
One more thing you'll need that I forgot. A rotifer sieve to filter the rotifers from the water. They can be bought online (and maybe from the LFS, I'm not sure). Or you could make one yourself out of some pvc and ~53 micron cloth. I don't know where to get the cloth locally, but you may know where to get that better than I do.
One more thing you'll need that I forgot. A rotifer sieve to filter the rotifers from the water. They can be bought online (and maybe from the LFS, I'm not sure). Or you could make one yourself out of some pvc and ~53 micron cloth. I don't know where to get the cloth locally, but you may know where to get that better than I do.
acdraindrps
New member
This book covers more than clownfish and is also good.
Did they just get silvery eyes?
setup, game plan?
So, you've got the fry in their tank. What do you do now?
You've got the fry tank set up right? Yeah... definitely forgot to go over that part first. A small 5 or 10 gallon tank works best.
It needs a heater. Put tape (black electrical tape is best) over the light. You don't want the fry attracted to it and die.
You'll also need some sort of circulation in the tank. You can't use powerheads because the flow is too high and it will chop up the little guys. The best method to get flow is to just use air bubbles. Stick the airline tube under the heater to disperse the heated water. As the bubbles rise, water comes up too. This will create flow in the tank. You can put air lines in each corner if you want, which is best, but most people just have 1 or 2.
That is all that is needed for the fry tank. Pretty simple huh? Now you have the tank set up and the fry in it. They get hungry quick (just like any baby), so you'll want to get some food for them as soon as you put the fry in the tank. The fry have poor vision and don't go far to hunt for food. You want to add enough rotifers in the tank so the fry don't have to swim more than 1 or 2 body lengths to run into a rotifer. That's a lot of rotifers!
You probably collected a few gallons of water while scooping up the fry. That is perfect. 5-10 gallons of water is fine in a 10 gallon fry tank. It doesn't really matter. Sometimes 5 is easier to keep rotifer density high for the fry. I like to use the broodstock tank water in the fry tank. They're fragile at an early stage, so making them go through a 100% water change isn't good for them.
So, lets get those fry eating. Make sure not to add rotifer water to the fry tank. The rotifer water is not good quality water. It can contain nitrates, ammonia, and other stuff. I try to culture my rotifers at a specific gravity of about 1.020. This is just higher than what I culture nannochloropsis at, and a bit under what the fry are at. Just siphon or scoop out a few gallons of rotifer water through a sieve and into a catching bucket. You'll notice you caught the rotifers in the sieve). Add the water in the catch bucket back to the rotifers.
So, add your rotifers. Wait a couple minutes and see how they have dispersed. Need to add more? Go for it. Get some more rotifers and add them to the fry tank. You'll want to be adding rotifers for the fry at least once a day (twice is better) for a week to 10 days.
Now that you have your rotifers in the fry tank, the fry should start eating. You'll notice the fry will get silver bellies when eating rotifers. So, the fry are eating. Here's the thing though. Rotifers are almost like brine shrimp to adult fish. They don't have a whole lot going on. You are actually wanting the fry to eat the phytoplankton. They get the phyto by eating the rotifers.
What happens to the rotifers after a couple hours without phyto? They don't have the same nutritional value. So, how do you solve this problem? Add some phyto to the fry water. Not a lot, you're not wanting the fry to swim through phyto, but you want to tint the water green. This way the rotifers will eat, and the fry will eat the rotifers. Brilliant! Remember how you have at least one airline tubing bubbling air in the water? This will keep the phyto up in the water column.
Adding phyto to the fry tank has other benefits as well. Baby fish have poor eyesight. Adding phyto to the tank is like adding a plain backdrop on a stage. It makes the rotifers stand out and easy to see. The phyto also helps to clear up the nitrates, phosphates and other stuff that is in the water. It helps to clean the water a bit. Having phyto in the tank also lets the rotifer population stay high. They have something to feed off of and make baby rotifers. This makes it so you don't have to add rotifers to the tank 30 times a day. Once or twice is usually enough.
So, you have set up the phyto, rotifers, and fry tank. You've got the fry eating rotifers for the first week or so. Excellent. You'll notice they grow somewhat quickly.
You'll lose at least a few fry every day probably. There is nothing you can do about it. Some of them just don't seem to eat well and die. Siphon the bottom of the tank every day with airline tubing. Obviously try not to get live fish in the siphon. Get the dead fish and poop out of there. I usually run this water through my rotifer sieve and add the water back to the tank.
Part 3, which will be the last part, should be posted tomorrow or Saturday.
Feel free to ask any questions (everyone, not just Kat).
You've got the fry tank set up right? Yeah... definitely forgot to go over that part first. A small 5 or 10 gallon tank works best.
It needs a heater. Put tape (black electrical tape is best) over the light. You don't want the fry attracted to it and die.
You'll also need some sort of circulation in the tank. You can't use powerheads because the flow is too high and it will chop up the little guys. The best method to get flow is to just use air bubbles. Stick the airline tube under the heater to disperse the heated water. As the bubbles rise, water comes up too. This will create flow in the tank. You can put air lines in each corner if you want, which is best, but most people just have 1 or 2.
That is all that is needed for the fry tank. Pretty simple huh? Now you have the tank set up and the fry in it. They get hungry quick (just like any baby), so you'll want to get some food for them as soon as you put the fry in the tank. The fry have poor vision and don't go far to hunt for food. You want to add enough rotifers in the tank so the fry don't have to swim more than 1 or 2 body lengths to run into a rotifer. That's a lot of rotifers!
You probably collected a few gallons of water while scooping up the fry. That is perfect. 5-10 gallons of water is fine in a 10 gallon fry tank. It doesn't really matter. Sometimes 5 is easier to keep rotifer density high for the fry. I like to use the broodstock tank water in the fry tank. They're fragile at an early stage, so making them go through a 100% water change isn't good for them.
So, lets get those fry eating. Make sure not to add rotifer water to the fry tank. The rotifer water is not good quality water. It can contain nitrates, ammonia, and other stuff. I try to culture my rotifers at a specific gravity of about 1.020. This is just higher than what I culture nannochloropsis at, and a bit under what the fry are at. Just siphon or scoop out a few gallons of rotifer water through a sieve and into a catching bucket. You'll notice you caught the rotifers in the sieve). Add the water in the catch bucket back to the rotifers.
So, add your rotifers. Wait a couple minutes and see how they have dispersed. Need to add more? Go for it. Get some more rotifers and add them to the fry tank. You'll want to be adding rotifers for the fry at least once a day (twice is better) for a week to 10 days.
Now that you have your rotifers in the fry tank, the fry should start eating. You'll notice the fry will get silver bellies when eating rotifers. So, the fry are eating. Here's the thing though. Rotifers are almost like brine shrimp to adult fish. They don't have a whole lot going on. You are actually wanting the fry to eat the phytoplankton. They get the phyto by eating the rotifers.
What happens to the rotifers after a couple hours without phyto? They don't have the same nutritional value. So, how do you solve this problem? Add some phyto to the fry water. Not a lot, you're not wanting the fry to swim through phyto, but you want to tint the water green. This way the rotifers will eat, and the fry will eat the rotifers. Brilliant! Remember how you have at least one airline tubing bubbling air in the water? This will keep the phyto up in the water column.
Adding phyto to the fry tank has other benefits as well. Baby fish have poor eyesight. Adding phyto to the tank is like adding a plain backdrop on a stage. It makes the rotifers stand out and easy to see. The phyto also helps to clear up the nitrates, phosphates and other stuff that is in the water. It helps to clean the water a bit. Having phyto in the tank also lets the rotifer population stay high. They have something to feed off of and make baby rotifers. This makes it so you don't have to add rotifers to the tank 30 times a day. Once or twice is usually enough.
So, you have set up the phyto, rotifers, and fry tank. You've got the fry eating rotifers for the first week or so. Excellent. You'll notice they grow somewhat quickly.
You'll lose at least a few fry every day probably. There is nothing you can do about it. Some of them just don't seem to eat well and die. Siphon the bottom of the tank every day with airline tubing. Obviously try not to get live fish in the siphon. Get the dead fish and poop out of there. I usually run this water through my rotifer sieve and add the water back to the tank.
Part 3, which will be the last part, should be posted tomorrow or Saturday.
Feel free to ask any questions (everyone, not just Kat).
I just figured I would share my breeding setup in my basement. Excuse the mess. I need to clean up after building my stand.
You can see the nannochloropsis bubbling in the right side of the picture in front of the shop light. The tanks on the top are for breeding pairs. Right now none of them are breeding :hmm5: but a couple pairs should start soon. I just acquired a pair of Onyx perculas that should start breeding in 3 or 4 months if fed a lot. There is also a pair of skunks that are still a bit too young to breed. They have another 5 or 6 months probably. In the 2nd tank back, there are a few peppermint shrimp. They're breeding, I just have to get around to raising them. The tank on the far left currently has 3 baby ocellaris clowns. I need to get rid of one of them (anybody looking to buy a juvenile ocellaris?). The remaining two will be moved to my display system. Those baby clowns parents will be moved into their tank and should resume breeding soon. So, hopefully in 6 months I'll have 3 breeding pairs of clowns and some peppermint shrimp.
The tanks on the lower shelf are for rotifers. There is a 10g and a 5g for culturing them.
You can see my brine shrimp culture station on the cabinet to the left of the tank stand. There are 6 two liter bottles that can culture brine shrimp in.
If anyone has any questions on my setup, feel free to ask.
You can see the nannochloropsis bubbling in the right side of the picture in front of the shop light. The tanks on the top are for breeding pairs. Right now none of them are breeding :hmm5: but a couple pairs should start soon. I just acquired a pair of Onyx perculas that should start breeding in 3 or 4 months if fed a lot. There is also a pair of skunks that are still a bit too young to breed. They have another 5 or 6 months probably. In the 2nd tank back, there are a few peppermint shrimp. They're breeding, I just have to get around to raising them. The tank on the far left currently has 3 baby ocellaris clowns. I need to get rid of one of them (anybody looking to buy a juvenile ocellaris?). The remaining two will be moved to my display system. Those baby clowns parents will be moved into their tank and should resume breeding soon. So, hopefully in 6 months I'll have 3 breeding pairs of clowns and some peppermint shrimp.
The tanks on the lower shelf are for rotifers. There is a 10g and a 5g for culturing them.
You can see my brine shrimp culture station on the cabinet to the left of the tank stand. There are 6 two liter bottles that can culture brine shrimp in.
If anyone has any questions on my setup, feel free to ask.
superkat
Premium Member
John, YOU ARE AMAZING!
okay...tank is set up. yes, they have silvery eyes. I haven't gotten them out of the 90g yet. That's today after I get a few hours sleep. Opening night last night. :crazy1::wildone: do i have time to do that? or should I be trying to get them out right now?
nighttime pics:
okay...tank is set up. yes, they have silvery eyes. I haven't gotten them out of the 90g yet. That's today after I get a few hours sleep. Opening night last night. :crazy1::wildone: do i have time to do that? or should I be trying to get them out right now?
nighttime pics:
Kat, take another high quality picture when your lights come on. Try to get it as clear as possible. I'm going to guess the eggs will hatch tonight or tomorrow. They're close. Here is a picture of eggs the day of hatching. Notice how they pretty much look all silver. The photo was taken from KathyL from MarineBreeder.
superkat
Premium Member
yup...that's pretty much what i'm seeing. i'll try and get a clean shot when the lights come on. Another question....why does one of the clowns keep blowing on the eggs? It's really pretty consistent and ritualistic....it's every few seconds and then she (the larger is the mom, right?) comes and does this little 'POOF' on the eggs.
