David M
New member
Update; I lost all the gsm's, don't remember what day but it was all at once. I missed the next tomato hatch, it came a day early. So I set my sights on the next opportuiny, tomatos' again as the gsm's have not spawned for a month now. The tomato nest hatched on 4-09 and are still going strong today, day 6. They are eating oto A, I can see it in their guts. There are probably 500 +/- of them. Crossing fingers and working my butt off to keep them alive. It just so happens that I also have a couple hundred ocellaris at 5 days and some orchid dottybacks at 3 days so it's pretty hectic in the fishroom right now. Thankfully the rots have held up and the toms are about done with them anyway. I'm not gonna get excited until I see stripes 
( or purple 
)
( or purple )
Just 6-1/2 hours later, they are dropping like flies. Maybe 75 so far.
Damn things are even smaller than I remember. Used a blue tank, BIG mistake. Black is better as they are clear and the blue shows right thru them.
At first I couldn't get them past the first 48 hours. When I finally did and they died out at 5 days, I thought I still had the same problem and focused on water quality. Having done everything humanly possible to provide optimum wq and watching this latest group die I realize I have a new problem, I'm either over feeding or feeding artemia too early. I have had the most success with ocellaris so I tend to follow that protocol for other clowns, obviously it doesn't work. I fed the artemia on day 5 and I believe they are dying form ruptured stomaches. Possibly from over eating or possibly because they are just not as tough as oc's and can't take the ragged, jagged bbs into their bellies so young. Next time I will wait 'til day 7 to offer bbs.
