Small clownfish fry

[Trek Rider]

I've been raising various clownfish species off and on for 10+ years. I am at a loss with my current situation. I have a maroon pair but the fry are very small compared to my other experience (melanopus, ocellaris, clarkii). I have tried raising the fry in rectangular tanks with dark covers, dark 5 gallon buckets, tried feeding them L and S rotifers (which are fed RGComplete), and tried different levels and durations of light. The water in the fry tank is from the broodstock tank and the temperature is matched. The fry hatch between 7 and 9 days after being laid with the vast majority hatching on day 8. The fry are collected using a fry collecting device, not siphoning. The fry seem to stick their noses to the side of whatever vessel I am using and do not swim throughout the water column. They are not congregating at the bottom of the vessel, it is usually on the sides in the top third of the veseel. By day 4, they are all dead - presumably from starvation. Any advice in getting over this hump is greatly appreciated.

 

[mwilliams62]

Sorry I don't have much to offer but for some reason I am thinking that Maroon clownfish are harder to raise.
I know a guy over on Marsh Reef that use to raise them not sure if he had any troubles with them or not. Might try doing a search over on their forum and see if you can find anything about Maroon clownfish fry. I have only raised True Percs and in the process of selling the last batch so I can try raising ocellarious.

 

[ThRoewer]

I had success in round (actually octagonal) tanks with a circular flow. I remember their larva to be smaller than those of ocellaris and percula, who have the largest larva of all clownfish, but not much smaller than all the other clowns.
I have no idea why they don't feed on rotifers, mine did. Though the yield of post metamorphosis juveniles was low. I discovered that they started fighting and killing each other as soon as the head bar started to show.
Since the demand was low and the trouble of separating them not worth it, I didn't raise another clutch and rather concentrated on percula.