Please help me with raising baby clark clownfish

[jp634]

I need some help with raising baby Clarke Clownfish. Our Clowns have been spawning since the middle of July. She has laid 15 clutches so far. Another batch is going to hatch tonight. I am growing live rotifiers, using nanno 3600 for the feeding of the rotifiers, trying to grow micro algea, and hatching baby shrimp. Over the first 24 hours a large number of the fry die. Some of the larve live for about 10 days and by then they are dead. We are using the parent tank water to hatch. We have a 10 gal. tank and it is filled with 5 gallons. I am faithfull in doing 2 daily water changes of ( 1 1/2 ) gallons each time. I am trying to keep the ammonia and nitrates down. We have almost 100% hatch within 30 minutes after the light go out. I am not feeding any vitamins to the parents of the fry and this might be a problem and I am not sure what vitamin (s) i should feed them anyway. Is there a vitamin that I could feed the fry at this early stag or is not needed.:rollface:

 

[dzeadow]

I'm sure you already own Joyce Wilkerson's book Clownfishes? The rotifers have to be plentiful in the larval rearing tank as to the point where the fry don't have to move more than 1.5 body lenghts to find a roti. I haven't done any rearing myself, I just read the book and have it handy. But I know that's a big thing is having enough rotifers the first few days so the fry don't have to move far, otherwise they starve. As for BBS, watch how many you add, she also states that baby clownfish don't have the ability to tell when their stomachs are full so they'll keep eating the BBS until their stomachs literally explode. HTH some. Maybe you'll get some better help before the actual hatch! Good luck!

 

[Heterodonut]

What color are the eggs the day they are laid? To get masive die off the first 24 hours after hatch it sounds like poor nutrition to the brood pair. The eggs should be a very bright orange red. If they are not the odds are stacked against larval survival. Raise the stakes of nutrition for the parents and you will have better odds.

 

[MarinaP]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11172545#post11172545 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Heterodonut
To get masive die off the first 24 hours after hatch it sounds like poor nutrition to the brood pair.

Agreed.

Nano should be diluted with salt water, not fresh (just in case you did not know). Water in the rearing tank should be green enough that larvae does not stick to the sides of the tank.

Air flow might be too strong. Describe your setup, pics will be nice.

 

[jp634]

Marina,
What do you mean by the water being green enough in the rearing tank? I haven't been giving the larve fish hardly any nano. Should I be?? We are having good luck with raising the rotifers and I keep their water green.
We do have the Joyce Wilkerson book and have tried to do everything she said. I haven't read anything about keeping the larve tank green, though. Maybe that is one of our problems.
The eggs are bright orange and look very healthy. My problem is the female lays her eggs about 5:30 in the evening every time before I can get home to feed her. So she has gone all day with out being fed. I have started to feed her in the mornings also but it is still dark and she is not really interested in eating that early. I also turned the air flow down this time and I think we are having better luck. We still have about 50 fry alive and this is the fourth day. Thank you all for your tips.

 

[MarinaP]

You need to add nano to the rearing tank to tint water light green. Some people recommend using DT (speed pass) or homegrown green water (pain) instead of nano3600. The idea behind that is that you add live culture, hence less pollution. You are feeding rotifers in the rearing tank, not larvae with green water.

I do not use live feeds in the rearing tanks. That includes BBS.

Invest in one of those automatic feeders and load it with spirulina flakes. She'll get her fill while you are gone daily.

 

[phender]

I like to use a very coarse air stone in the fry tank with only a few bubble per second. If the fry cannot swim against the current produced by the airstone then you have it up too high.

How are you collecting the babies? Rough treatment can cause big die off in the first couple days.

FWIW: Fry can survive on their yolk sac alone for the first 2-3 days. They will eat rotifers during that time, but its kind of like practice until the yolk runs out. If you are losing lots of babies during this time, it is not a problem with what you feed the babies, it is either environmental or poor parent nutrition. I think probably environmental.

 

[jp634]

Marina,
What are you feeding the fry if you are not using live rotifiers? I have tried to feed the fry dry ground up spirulina (very fine) or cyclop-eeze but they do not eat it.
I turned the air stone down on this batch and I still have probably 75 still alive after 4 days. A hugh improvment since I usually have about 5 alive by day 4. I'm not sure if that was a factor or not. Probably it was.
I have an automatic feeder but it took a dive into the tank and no longer works. I will buy a new feeder and do as you say.
I really appreciate all your help thank you!! Nadine

Phil,
The female always lays her eggs on a piece of shale rock behind the anemone. On the 7th day we lift the rock into a pitcher of the parents water and then we put the rock in the rearing tank. The eggs are never exposed to the air and they are in the same water during the transport and in the fry tank. We have almost 100% hatch every time within 30 minutes after the lights go out. But by morning over half of the fry are dead.
You are probably right about the environment. There is something I'm doing wrong that the fry can't tolerate. I turned the air down and that seems to have made a big difference. I also put a small night light at one corner of the rearing tank. The parents have a night light on all night and I thought that the eggs might be used to that light and then when they hatched in the rearing tank they were in total darkness all night long. So I thought maybe that might be a factor.

I really appreciate all your help Phil . Nadine