Rotifers for Clownfish Fry

[Katowoo]

Hi - I'm a new member. Gresham from Reed Mariculture referred me here. My true percs have laid their first batch of eggs. Everything I've read on line says the new fry will ONLY eat live rotifers and that they should be fed live rotifers for about 1 week. For say a batch of 50 new fry, how many rotifers should I be feeding daily. Reed sells them in batches of 600K and 5 million count.

I have a separate breeding tank set up already.

Thanks in advance!

 

[edandsandy]

They only need (green water) phytoplankton for age 0-4 days, then rotifers for age 4-7 days, 8-10 days newly hatched brine shrimp, 10-12 days they can have pulverized flake food.
you need to have all this in line before they hatch in 7 days...
Try reading Clownfishes by Joyce D. Wilkerson....
Best of luck BTW!

 

[billsreef]

Rotifers culture up quickly. If the eggs have only been laid a day or two ago, get the 600K batch and start up two 5 gallon cultures. They will be dense enough to harvest by the time the eggs hatch. However, if the eggs are older than a couple of days old, you might want to go for the bigger batch of rotifers so that you can feed right away as well as setting up those 2 cultures. As far has how many, you need to get them dense enough that no larvae has to swim more than 1 body length before bumping into a rotifer when the rot density is at it's lowest point. So that means lots of them. I'm afraid I've been doing this so long that I do it by eyeball, but there are some guidelines of densities to shoot for out there. I'll see if I can dig those numbers up for you later on...if no one else has that info handy.

BTW there is a great sticky thread at the top of this forum on growing microfoods. One the keys to being a good fish culturist is also being a good plankton culturist

 

[billsreef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15338051#post15338051 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by edandsandy
They only need (green water) phytoplankton for age 0-4 days,

Got have rots mixed in that greenwater for that time frame. The fish larvae don't eat phytoplankton, they eat the rots. The greenwater in the rearing tank is to keep the rotifers fed and nutritious for the larvae

 

[Katowoo]

Thanks Sandy / Bill for your responses!

On another note, the eggs are laid on one of the branches on my hammer coral. Should I let them hatch and try catching them in the dark with a flashlight or move the coral and rock to the rearing tank the day of hatching?

 

[rkelman]

You don't NEED BBS. I haven't hatched BBS in a year for my clutch's. I use Otohime A instead.

As far as moving the rock / coral it depends on the size. If its small I'd move it over. If its big you'll have to catch them...

 

[chessmanmark]

This is from The Complete Illustrated Breeder's Guide-

" Each larva needs to consume between 500 and 1,000 rotifers ...per day. A rearing aquarium with 200 larval clownfish will require roughly 200,000 rotifers at any given time to ensure feeding sucess."

 

[tufacody]

rkleman - can you please explain on the Otohime? Do you use this from the start? how much? where do you buy it?

 

[rkelman]

Otohime A is a larval fish food. I start mine on it after about 4 days or so along with Rotifers. After a 1 - 1 1/2 weeks they are on Otohime A exclusively. Reeds sells it.

 

[GreshamH]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15338982#post15338982 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by billsreef
The greenwater in the rearing tank is to keep the rotifers fed and nutritious for the larvae

And to offer a "background" for the larvae to see the rotifers better with

 

[GreshamH]

Re: Rotifers for Clownfish Fry

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15336545#post15336545 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Katowoo
Hi - I'm a new member. Gresham from Reed Mariculture referred me here. My true percs have laid their first batch of eggs. Everything I've read on line says the new fry will ONLY eat live rotifers and that they should be fed live rotifers for about 1 week. For say a batch of 50 new fry, how many rotifers should I be feeding daily. Reed sells them in batches of 600K and 5 million count.

I have a separate breeding tank set up already.

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to RC Katowoo

 

[Katowoo]

A couple of more questions.

1) When the fry are large enough and weened off rotifers, It's recommended to remove about 1/3 of the rotifers daily and get rid of it. Can I put these both in my saltwater tank (not the breeding tank) and/or my freshwater Discus tanks rather then rinsing them off into the sink. Would there be any benefits of rotifers for these tanks?

2) Can new clutches of fry be in the same breeding tank with an older clutch that's say 2 weeks old?

TIA

 

[landlord]

I begin fry removal for my Tomato clowns at day 10 (percs could be different though). Cannot really speak to any benefit they would offer your display tank since my old rots get the flush.... I do not believe the saltwater rotifers will survive for any length of period in saltwater. I think they would explode due to osmotic shock ???

I personally would only start mixing fry if they were off of the greenwater / rotifer stage completely. Otherwise you will have an unfiltered larval tank receiving greenwater, rotifers, otohime(or equivalent) all simultaneously. I would steer clear of that for the sake of keeping down nutrients, not to mention you could choke fry on large food particles and vice versa the larger fry could consume all the rotifers before giving the fry a chance to eat.

Kurt

 

[rkelman]

I rarely need to remove Rotifers from the larval tank. It usually becomes hard to keep them in there because the fry get more voracious as they get older.

I wouldn't mix them at that age. They have different requirements. One should be on either BBS or Otohime / other prepared foods and the new ones would be on Rots.. That would make a really messy tank.

 

[billsreef]

Extra rotifers can be added to a reef tank, where they will make good food for filter feeders They won't likely survive long enough in FW to be worth putting in your Discus tank.

 

[Katowoo]

Thx! I've got 2 x 5 gallon cultures of rots that I purchased from Reed going now.
Questions:
1) With the filter floss that I got from Reed, do you suspend it in the bucket or do you lay it on the bottom. My first thought is to lay it on the bottom as setritus and dead rots will fall to the bottom. Any thoughts on this?
2) Do you rinse out the floss everyday?
3) Also at what point to I change out a portion of the water in the rot culture with new water and how much?
4) Got some Ultimate water conditioner from Reed as well. How oftern do I use this to remove any ammonia build up?

Thx.!

 

[kerusso316]

I think BBS are a nessidity for perc's.Their development is much slower than O's.Rkelman have you ever tryed no BBS with Perc's?

 

[rkelman]

I've never tried to raise Percs. I have a pair but they aren't laying. Why would the slow development require BBS? Oto A is still smaller than BBS isn't it? I know very little about Percs

 

[Zooid]

I've tried raising ocellaris x percula clowns with no BBS and the survival rate is lower than with BBS but it is possible to use just rots and Otohime.

 

[rkelman]

Interesting. My survival rate went up when I quit with BBS...