perc clown eggs close to hatching

[S-B]

as my perc clown eggs get ready to hatch. I'm wondering if it's better to leave the fry in the tank in a home made holding basket
or move them to a tank of their own with some of the water from
the tank they are in now ?

my rotifer culture is looking good under the microscope so I think
I'm ok for food , not sure but hopefull.

this is my first try at saving the babies .

I have read all I could find over the last 3 years on breeding and raising fry , but am still nervous

any advise would be great

 

[Fishboy42]

First things first!

[welcome]

Removing them to their own tank is probably your best bet, as it allows you better control over feeding and water parameters. A simple 10 gallon with a heater and an airstone works well. Using 100% parent tank water for the larvae is also a safe way to go.

Since you are new here you might find this thread helpful for setting up your larval tank, etc, although some of it will probably be review:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=240158

Hope this helps!

Matt

 

[S-B]

Thanks for the welcome !

That is one of the info pages I have been reading over and over.
I will setup a 10gal today .

just a note: today is Day 6 and some of the eggs have thier silver
circle in the eyes .

 

[S-B]

this was the very first spawn for my clowns after 3 years of waiting . sad to say , tonight none of them made it passed Day4

 

[Dman]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6876733#post6876733 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by S-B
this was the very first spawn for my clowns after 3 years of waiting . sad to say , tonight none of them made it passed Day4

Don't dispair, you're actually pretty lucky. Not to sound morbid but most clowns eat the first couple of spawns before they even hatch. So day 4 is pretty damn good.
A quick suggestion, if you haven't already started one, is a log book. Write down every detail you can think of, it may seem trivial or retarded now, but it'll make perfect sense later.

 

[S-B]

looks like I'll be getting a second chance at it . My clowns spawned lastnight . this time they laid the eggs on a small
clay pot.

 

[KMatysek]

As another newbie, I just want to tell you to hang in there. That's one good thing about this is that the parents just keep on producing eggs at a pretty rapid frequency.

Mine have laid 6 batches since Thanksgiving. I wasn't ready for the first 2 hatches (I've had this pair for 5 years and they just now decided to spwan because I rearranged some of the corals a little, so I had to scramble to learn what to do and be ready). Batch 3 was during Christmas vacation when house lights were on 'til well past midnight and that messed them up and they hatched sometime after 5AM (now I know to cover the tank at lights out time). We were out of town for batch 4, so batches 5 and 6 were my first successful capture. I killed batch 5 at day 7 by overfeeding (first day dry food) and insufficient water changes. Batch 6 is at day 5 now, so I'm watching the water like a fiend.

It killed me to lose the earlier batches, but I now have the right attitude. I see it all as one big experiment and I'll get it right eventually...

Good luck with your next batch!

 

[Kathy55g]

KMatysek, you've got it right! Everytime something bad happens, it is a learning opportunity!

S-B you are lucky that they spawn on the pot!

 

[S-B]

my fry tank is a 10gal and with the first batch of eggs I had 3gals
of water I took from the parent tank the day of the hatch. I kept
the sides of the tank covered with back plastic bags , like in the clownfishs book fry tank setup too do . I'm wondering , what
type of setup are you all using ?

from what I've been reading here , the morning after a hatch I
will want too

1 tint the water green with live phytoplankton and add live
rotifers. making sure not to tint the water too dark as
I want most of the phytoplankton gone before night time

2 keep lighting to a minimum (room lighting only )

and temp between 78/80

is this correct ?

 

[Kathy55g]

Air.

Put an airstone under the heater. Use a heater that does not have an indicator light, or cover the light with black electricians tape. Keep an airstone under the eggs to keep them aerated and moving. I have labored under the delusion that one should not let the bubbles touch the eggs, but I am a newbie, and have not had the best hatch rates. Others say one should blast the eggs with airbubbles. I am not an expert on this placement, so perhaps someone else will chime in.

This is what I do in my 20 gallon tanks: Once the eggs hatch, remove the rock or whatever they were on, but keep an airstone in the tank opposite side of the airstone that you retain under the heater. In a couple of days, add 2 more airstones. You can't have too much air at that point.

It's OK to have a little leftover phyto in the water at night. The rotifers will eat whether the lights are on or not. You want the rotifers to be well fed and nutritious for when the clowns wake up. I just would not add more phyto until morning.

You might want an ammonia alert badge in the tank. Test it first by holding over an open bottle of ammonia to make sure it changes. I failed to do this once and badge was non functional. Killed some fish that way...

Good luck! Keep us posted!

Kathy

 

[S-B]

do you use a full 20gal of water in that tank ?
I'm wondering if in the 10gal I'm using instead of me only adding
3gals of water maybe I should go with 5gals of water in a 10gal
tank ?

 

[Kathy55g]

OH NO. I use 5-8 gallons to start. The volume you should use depends on how much you need to cover the eggs, and how many rotifers you can supply. I have fairly dense cultures, but if you don't, and are worried that you won't have enough rotifers, keep the larval tank volume smaller, that will increase the number of rots in a given volume.

 

[S-B]

ok thanks .
I'll stay with the 3 to 5 gallons of water.