New project: Breeding clown fish
New project: Breeding clown fish
Hello everyone,
As you saw on the last video, our clownfish couple decided to lay some eggs. The other night I was kind of restless and couldn't sleep and as usual I went to the tank with a torch and saw tenths and tenths of little clown fish larvae flying all over the place.
Here is a small video from the pitch dark tank with the little hatched babies
We decided to siphon them out and observe them for the next couple of days and here is what we were able to get out with our very sleepy eyes.
Unfortunately we only had baby brine shrimp which was too big for their little mouths and lacking nutrient value so in within 5 days we lost all of them.
That little experiment made us study more and more about breeding clownfish. Not because we want to make money out of it but merely to be able and be part of the natural processes taking place in our own tank. If clown fish wanted to make babies, as responsible parents that we are, then we have to give them chance in life, right?
Two days after our order, the package arrived from UK (couldn't find any supplier in Denmark). 500ml of live rotifers, 100ml of super high concentration of Nannochloropsis & Tetraselmis Phytoplankton and a rotifer sieve.
Equipment used by both rotifer tank and phytoplankton tank:
- Air pump with 2 channels (36 Euros)
- 80cm double fluorescent lamp (26 Euros)
Equipment for rotifer tank:
- IKEA bucket (3 Euros)
- 2m of soft airline (free)
- 1m of rigid airline (free)
Equipment for phytoplankton tank:
- 2 x 2L coca cola bottles (9 Euros "“ Yes, even coca cola is much more expensive in Denmark than any other part of the world)
- 2m of soft airline (free)
- 1m of rigid airline (free)
Setting up the rotifer tank:
- Freshly mixed 10L RODI water with salt at salinity similar to the salinity of the live rotifer pack (1.017)
- Place 2 airlines in (without airstone as I read many articles that airstone skims which is not good for rotifers)
- Place the bag of rotifers in for 10 minutes to reach same temperature as the rotifer tank
- Pour the content of the rotifer bag in the rotifer tank
- Feed a few drops from the super high concentration of Nannochloropsis & Tetraselmis Phytoplankton
Setting up the phytoplankton tank:
- Remove the labels of the bottles and wash repeatedly with warm water. Place a bit of vodka and shake. Alcohol in vodka will act as disinfectant. Rinse thoroughly several times with hot water and allow to dry
- Drill a hole at the centre of the bottle cup. Open a secondary smaller hole to relief and built up pressure from the air bubbles
- Freshly mixed water from the tap with salt at salinity of 1.017. Used tap water instead of RODI because phytoplankton needs food to grow and tap water supplies sufficient nitrates and phosphate.
- Added approximate 3ml of the super high concentration of Nannochloropsis & Tetraselmis Phytoplankton until a colour slightly darker than the flesh of a cucumber was achieved.
- Place the airline in (without airstone as I read many articles that airstone skims which is not good for rotifers)
And here is the end result:
Are we going to be successful? We really dont know but at least we try.
For the time being we are crossing fingers that our Clown fish couple will soon feel the need of laying more eggs.
Will keep you posted on our little project.
Thank you for reading the update and wishing you a wonderful weekend ahead from snowy Copenhagen.
Warm regards
Dino