Raising Clownfish Fry

[Saadatski]

I have been anticipating the hatching of a batch of eggs that my pair laid on Monday for a week, and last night it came a day earlier than I expected!

I went over to my rotifer bucket to feed them before I went to sleep and I happened to check on the eggs in my tank. To my astonishment I saw a ton of little fry swimming around. I immediately shut off all my pumps and powerheads and used the flashlight/ siphon method to get them out. I managed to get what I would think is about 80 or so fry into the 10g tank I set up for them, many of whom died while being siphoned.

I put a light on the fry tank and covered the sides with construction paper. I also harvested 2 "coffee filters" full of rotifers, stuck them into the fry tank and also tinted the water very lightly with RGcomplete.

Went to sleep and woke up the next morning to find about another quarter of them dead. I assumed this is normal, but I got worried and added another 2 coffee filters of rotifers and tinted the water again. It doesnt seem like they were eating, but I cannot really tell. From what I understand I should be seeing them dart around, which some of them do but I also know many dont eat in the first 24 hrs. I will feed again later tonight just in case.

I ordered an ammonia badge, ammonia detox and this rather handy coffee filter holder (better than the makeshift one I made with a cup and a knife)

https://www.amazon.com/Melitta-Read...67038213&sr=8-1&keywords=coffee+filter+holder

Couple questions

Is it better that when I change the water to take water from my main tank, or to mix up fresh saltwater? Do I just add it directly or slowly by scooping it with a cup or something? Also how much to change on a 10g and how often?

Do I keep the lights on all day?

How much rotifers should I feed? There surely is a better way to gauge the amount to add than by how many "coffee filter full"s.

Sorry to bombard with so many questions, just nervous and want to do this right.

 

[hbrochs]

Clownfish fry

Clownfish fry

They are born with a yolk sak that will give them nourishment for the first 24 hours. I use tank water from my display tank for the nursery tank, so the salinity and temp match. I don't do water changes until day 6 or 7, but I will drip in some fresh saltwater every day. I keep the lights on for 24 hours, and then use a dim nightlight at night. I use a 53 micron sieve to harvest the rotifers that I bought from Reed Mariculture. Reed can also be a great resource for information about rotifer care as well.

The best thread for reading about this is Pickle's clownfish breeding thread.

Google will locate the thread for you.

Its not unusual to have some losses, but if everything is going smoothly it could be done with minimal losses.

Howard

 

[Saadatski]

They are born with a yolk sak that will give them nourishment for the first 24 hours. I use tank water from my display tank for the nursery tank, so the salinity and temp match. I don't do water changes until day 6 or 7, but I will drip in some fresh saltwater every day. I keep the lights on for 24 hours, and then use a dim nightlight at night. I use a 53 micron sieve to harvest the rotifers that I bought from Reed Mariculture. Reed can also be a great resource for information about rotifer care as well.

The best thread for reading about this is Pickle's clownfish breeding thread.

Google will locate the thread for you.

Its not unusual to have some losses, but if everything is going smoothly it could be done with minimal losses.

Howard

Hi Howard, I actually read through your thread yesterday and thats where I got many great tips. I also read up on Pickles thread as well as instructions regarding rotifers at Reed. I have the general process down, the details just aren't coming to me well yet.

Re: your water changes, I am assuming you just take water out once a week then day by day drip in fresh saltwater?

Thank you

 

[hbrochs]

It's hard to do water changes during the first week because it's So easy to suck up the fry. So I start with about 4 gallons of water in my 10 gallon breeder. This way it's easier to maintain a high rotifer:fry ratio, and I can add a gallon of fresh saltwater in a day (dripped in slowly). It's kinda like doing a water change without taking water out. Then when the fry are a little bigger, I do water changes. Figuring how many Rotifers to add daily is a thing you have to get a feel for. I would add Rotifers twice a day, morning and evening. I'd typically pour 6 to eight cups of rotifer water through the sieve, then dunk the sieve in the nursery tank.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Saadatski]

Update: Fry look good and healthy, swim fine and many are noticeably much bigger.

I counted about 25 today, which is much less than what I started with but most died on the first night. Been feeding rotifers twice a day (before work and after work) as well as feed rotifers RGcomplete twice a day when the water begins to clear up.

Daily maintenance schedule looks something like this:

Morning:
Pour about 5-6 cups of rotifers through a coffee filter then dip the coffee filter into the fry tank. I usually wait a moment to make sure they react to it.

Add a couple drops of RGcomplete to turn water light green.

Check ammonia levels in fry tank and top off with freshwater if level falls below the line.


Afternoon:
Repeat feeding as mentioned above

Take out about 1/4 of the rotifer water and replace with main tank water. This both changes its water as well as takes care of the needed minimum daily harvest to maintain a healthy culture.

Add 2ml of ammonia detoxify just to be safe.

Excited for this process and look forward to seeing them growing up.

 

[Saadatski]

Its day 8 after hatching, and I am down to about 20 or so fry left. It seems I underestimated the rotifer feeding as well as tinting the water green in the fry tank. It also took me a while to understand the proper routine of harvesting the culture and keeping it alive.

Its my first batch, but I learned a lot of do's and dont's. Now my main goal is to keep the remaining fry alive. From what I read I may begin feeding dry food around this time to well past meta when they are large enough to accept pellet food.

I am confused on what I should feed. Many of these detailed threads recommend some food that is now discontinued. Many people use TDO, Odohime or cyclop-eeze. I found that Odohime and cyclop-eeze are discontinued, and for TDO I would have to pay a hefty shipping cost of $30 from reed-mariculture.

Are there any alternatives to any of the foods mentioned above? Can I crush up NLS pellets and try to feed those or should I just bite the bullet and buy the TDO?

Thank you

 

[hbrochs]

I would suck it up and pay the shipping for Reed. You can order multiple packs of food in different sizes for the coming weeks, and for the next clutch.
TDO A, TDO B1, TDO B2, TDO C

TDO A is so fine, its hard to find anything comparable except maybe baby brine shrimp, but dealing with baby brine shrimp is another job when you already have the fry to care for.

 

[reefstew]

It is better to use nsw instead of tank water when doing water changes. And you don't need to do a drip. I use a small power head & pump new water from a Brute trash can.