Third attempt raising clownfish...

Many have died. I have only scooped out about 50 and there are less than 20 left. I don't know where they all went....

End of Day6, I gave them newly hatched brine shrimp this morning, about 20 per larvae, but I can't tell if they have eaten any. The water is still cloudy with phyto and rotifers.
Yesterday I needed to remove about half the rots. I siphoned the water thru a plankton collector and returned the seived water to the tank.

I have an ammonia alert badge that says I am safe, but when I measured ammonia yesterday, it was at 0.25 mg/L, so I am not so sure. I think I will do a 20% water change tonight to see if that helps. Maybe my badge is broken!

When can I start them on cyclopeeze. I have the frozen kind. I checked my cyclopeeze under the scope, and it seems kinda big....

Your comments and suggestions are all much appreciated. I have a lot to learn.

Kathy
 
After I did the water change, I spent a long time just looking at them. Some of them are dramatically bigger than others. The little ones were doing the s curve lunge thing, so I hope they will be alright. There are not as many rotifers anymore, and they are getting old, I think, so tomorrow morning I will feed some rots and some bbs.

The big ones have pronounced stomachs, and it may be my imagination, but they seem a bit orange, not just at the stomach. Mostly silver stomachs. I couldn't find any bbs in the tank, but i put so few in that they may be just diluted. I am not sure if they are eating them or not, but they seem quite stuffed!

Wish me luck, tomorrow is another day!

When to feed cyclopeeze? and is the frozen kind OK??
 
I start with the frozen cyclop around day 7. Just a very small amount at first. I also skip using bbs.
I start crushed flake around day 5.
 
No deaths this morning...phew!
Fed them bbs and rotifers, extra green.
They definately seem bigger. My daughter with her fresh 9 year old eyes, said they look a little orange.

Still dripping more water into the tank. I will do another water change this evening.

Thanks for the info on cyclopeeze. I will try some when I get home since it is day 7 for us.

I have not done the crushed flake, but it is also worth a try. My adult clowns love it!

Cheers, and keep those comments and suggestions coming!
Kathy
 
What a relief? Waking up to live larvae huh?

It is good to try dry food at an early stage but remenber to siphon at the end of the day since at this stage most will ignore it and it will go to the bottom of the tank.

Where the dripping water coming from?

Ed
 
Hi Ed, Nice to hear from you!
I have been using a gravity drip siphon from water from my display tank that has been filtered thru coffee filter, charcoal, bleached with air bubbling thru it overnight and dechlorinated. It is stored with air bubbling thru it until I need to add it to the tank.
 
Hi folks, I can see I gota try doing something like this. I have a pair of Maroon clowns that lay eggs twice a month or so. I will go over this thread and see what I can come up with. Heres a pic of some eggs ready to hatch.

31094Internet_158-med.jpg
 
Thanks, I got one of those Ogle things for an anniversary present and just tried putting the camera into the eye piece and that's what I got. those are fish food now but there is another batch getting ready to hatch. Think I need to try that tile trick.
 
end of the seventh day

end of the seventh day

Well the young larvae got some new chow today. In addition to rotifers, the standard diet, they got new hatch brine shrimp this morning, pulverized flake food and frozen cyclopeeze this evening. I just gave them a little bit of flake and a couple of drops of cyclopeeze. I thought I saw one of them eat a tiny morsel.
Hard to say since I am over 40 and the glasses never do work that good.

Couple of hours later I did a thorough scrape and vaccuum of the floor.

The larvae are definately bigger, most of them. When one swims next to the black side of the tank, I can see that the tail is really long. I can't see the tail normally when I look down into the tank because it is transparent and the tank bottom is white.

The stomachs are really big today, too, and might be turning orange (over 40, be kind).
The side view of the larvae is very interesting. They are taking on the shape of real fish.

One is near the bottom, darkly pigmented and swimming head up, with his tail nearly touching the bottom. Just hanging out there. I figure it is either the beginning of metamorphosis, or the beginning of death.

A couple of others are doing that head banging thing on the side of the tank. All sides are encased in black plastic, so the light should not be causing it. One crazy guy is trawling the surface. I would be worried, but he appears to be well fed. Perhaps this is just his method of food capture. Are there psychologists for fish?

I do hope some survive metamorphosis. I have a list of takers, now I just need the fish to distribute.

I also want to take some pictures of lots of baby clowns. That would be sweet!

Bedtime, and on to day 8!
Pictures on the weekend. I just can't manage during the week. I have pix of almost every day.

Cheers,
Kathy
 
Kathy,

Great updates. keep them coming. Only a few weeks now before I am in a position to egg trawl those Marine keepers around where I live.

It sounds both exciting and frustrating at the same time. Keep on going and I wish you luck with this batch.

I agreee with the ogles thing. That is a really neat picture and is already on my christmas list. Vikki, my better half, had already spotted it when I metioned it to her some time ago.

Anyway. good luck with getting past Day 9.

Steve
 
spk said:
Kathy,
...Anyway. good luck with getting past Day 9.

Steve
Click to expand...

STILL WORKING ON DAY 8!

Nice to hear from you Steve! :) Haven't lost any in a couple of days, so I guess the ones that couldn't figure out how to eat have already expired.

The dark tail stander has been named by my daughter: Speedy. She saw it speeding across the tank once. I think it will be the first metamorphoser (is that a word?).

The others are growing too. I got a good side view in the clear morning water, and they are really taking on the classical fish shape and with orange bellies. :fish1: Their tails are remarkably long and graceful.:)

Anyone who thinks new hatch brine shrimp are easier than rotifers is nuts. I spend 3 x the time to get the shrimp ready as I did for the rotifers. I guess since you don't need phyto for them, that makes it easier. Planning makes phyto very easy, though, in my opinion.

pH is 7.7, with 0.25 mg/L ammonia-- not terrible. I think I'm going to siphon the bottom twice a day until after metamorphosis. Particularly with the dead food going in now. Can't afford too much ammonia.

Good luck with your setup, Steve. You should start a thread on this board so we can follow your progress. I am contemplating a multiple tank set up, but need more thought and advice before I start to build.:cool:

Cheers,
Kathy
:) :fish1:
 
Kathy,

I will start the thread as I start the process. Only one more week to go before the thing starts.

Looking at some second hand tanks but wil wait till I have the frame built.

Glad to see the kids are taking an interest, us oldies need some fresh blood to come into the hobby now.

Take it easy and keep us posted.

Steve
 
Lesson learned: Never let your daughter name a fish.

Now she wants to keep it. She cried for 30 minutes over this larvae that might die tomorrow, and that she has looked at, and formed a deep attachment to, for all of ten minutes.
 
end of Day 8

end of Day 8

No losses today. Larvae are noticably bigger and fish shaped. In the corner are two dark larvae, and I think I am seeing white head bands on them! They are acting weird, with their noses to the silicon, but this may be metamorphosis! I also saw one orange one with a headband, I think.

Wilkerson says that ocellaris have orange color through metamorphosis, whereas other strains of Amphiprion are dark. If I am seeing what I think I see, I have two dark ones and one orange one. I wonder if there is some kind of cross breed that occured at one time to give this result. Or perhaps they start dark and turn orange.

The rest of the larvae lag behind, but I expect they will change in the next couple of days. I don't know why I expect that, but I do. It will be interesting to see what color they will be.

I do hope they all survive, if for no other reason than my daughter will be heartbroken if Speedy dies.:(
I suppose I will too. One does get attached....

Cheers, more tomorrow,
Kathy
 
Today is my lucky day.

It looks like they will all survive metamorphosis. Most have headbands, and all have the thickened bodies of real fish. They are not just eyes, stomach, and tail anymore! Tomorrow I will try to process some more pictures. I got some tonight of the headbands and I think a dramatic shot of an immature one. We'll see when I get them on the computer.

I think the dark color I was seeing may have been a lighting effect from the dark background of the tank. I think they are all orange.

Their stomachs are all orange now. I need to check the book, but I think I may be able to discontinue rotifers and just do the new hatch brine shrimp.

I did do a siphon cleaning breifly this evening, and I think I sucked out some older shrimp. I hope they don't try to eat things that are too big for them. ....

Tomorrow I will add the sponge filter and see how they do with that. It would be good to reduce the ammonia. It is not terribly high, but any reading other than 0 makes me nervous. pH=7.7, so perhaps it is not too dangerous.

Anthony Calfo came to St. Louis for a talk today hosted by our local club. What an awesome speaker, and a creative guy! And incredibly nice!

I had all the luck today, too. In the raffle, I won 2 corals and a collection of Anthony and Bob Fenner's new posters. I got all five signed by Anthony. In one of the corals was a nice little asterina star and 3, THREE mini brittle stars. Will the luck never end?

I'm going to bed before something bad happens...
Cheers,
Kathy
 
Kathy,

This is excellent news. A good day all round. I wish we had access to some of the people that you can get to meet.

Enjoy and cannot wait to see some pictures.

Steve
 
Anthony travels a good deal. He is in Europe a lot. If your club invited him, and paid him something I am sure, he would come!
 
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