Waiting for Ocellaris Eggs to hatch

[dela]

Ahh.. Now you tell me! Last night I made sure the bubbles did NOT touch the eggs and they went "untouched" all day today.

This evening, I added phyto and rotifers to the tank and I turned off all of the lights at 7:30. I will check later on tonight to see if they hatched. If so, then I will leave a light on for them to start feeding on the rotifers. I figure I will give them three hours of complete darkness before I go shining a light on them. At 10:30 ish...

 

[dela]

Breadman, if you are looking to learn about clowns, you should buy the clownfish book, by Joyce Wilkerson. It has all kinds of information on clowns and clownfish related things.

 

[jaytee250]

about how old are your clowns

 

[izzy123]

Well, I had some limited succes with raising the fry of my clowns......

I have only 2 left, and they're 4 weeks old now....... I started with about 200 or so, but I did not have enough food ( my own fault)
I lost the most of my fry after 24 hours, and the rest at 36 to 48 hours.

after 5 days I started to feed them brine shrimp together with the rots, and I still am feeding the 2 survivors that, along with some flake food and a little of my DIY food every day.
I still keep the tank pretty loaded with brine shrimp and rots, and the little tank is connected to my DT and the water is turned over every hour or so ( I am currently using a filter bag of 200 micron to avoid the little guys from washing away, and the brine shrimp seem to stay in the small tank too)


the main thing in my opinion (other than enough food) is to maintain exellent water quality.

I really hope you have more succes at this than I, but I can tell you that even though I only have 2 left, it gives me great joy to see them grow up!

The best of luck to you!!

 

[GROSSR]

I have millions of rotifers and no eggs. I missed the hatch. Male and female are cleaning the area again. I saw the silver color for 3 days, no copper color.

rich

 

[dela]

Let there be fish!

Let there be fish!

:celeb1:

The fry hatched last night! At 10:30 I checked (with a flash light) and saw a bunch swimming around, so I covered everything back up and went to bed.

This morning, I found about half of the eggs did not hatch (and didn't look right). I'm guessing this was due to poor water circulation around the eggs. Or maybe a few went bad and a fungus spread without the male to tend the eggs. All in all, I'm guessing about 40-50 eggs hatched. Of those, I'd say about 10 didn't swim well and were either dead or just on the bottom.

I guess one good thing about letting the eggs hatch with the parents is that you would not even be aware of any poor swimmers. Any defective fish would simply not get transferred.

Still, that leaves about 30-40 to try and raise.

Anyway, I want to say, that when I first approached the tank, I got a little freaked out. I saw some fry last night, so I knew they were in there, but when I peeled back some of the side covering this morning, the only fish I saw was this little guy that was flailing on the bottom. I didn't know if it was too bright, or what.

I had the opal acrylic cover over the egg crate louver + the sides were blacked out. The room was lit as a result of the fuge and culture lights, but inside the tank looked pretty dark! So why was this guy looking like I was blasting the tank with light?

I turned on the overhead shop light (1 T12 lamp) to get a better look, and after looking inside the tank, decided it was too dark without the shop light. There were plenty of guys swimming in the water column apparently undisturbed by the shop light. And the shop light provided enough directional light that I could finally make out some rotifers. So I left the shop light on and left just the egg crate louver. That opal acrylic just made the lighting too omnidirectional, which made it hard to see the fry, let alone the rotifers.

 

[dela]

These guys are really delicate!

These guys are really delicate!

So apparently I excel at killing fry!

First, I try and siphon out some of the gunk on the bottom of the tank, and wind up with about 10 fry in the bucket. Which would have been OK, except the bucket is on the ground and I'm splashing the water from way up top!

(I'm siphoning with an airline tubing into a pitcher from now on!)

Then I see there are lots of rotifers on the glass, so I decide to clean the glass and bottom. When I'm done, there are a couple of dead fish on the brush!

They would be better off if I just left them alone!

Here is a picture of one of my victims. I was surprised by the color of its eyes.

 

[ClownfishSushi]

So apparently I excel at killing fry!

First, I try and siphon out some of the gunk on the bottom of the tank, and wind up with about 10 fry in the bucket. Which would have been OK, except the bucket is on the ground and I'm splashing the water from way up top!

(I'm siphoning with an airline tubing into a pitcher from now on!)

Then I see there are lots of rotifers on the glass, so I decide to clean the glass and bottom. When I'm done, there are a couple of dead fish on the brush!

They would be better off if I just left them alone!

Here is a picture of one of my victims. I was surprised by the color of its eyes.

Welcome to clownfish breeding. 101 ways to kill fry. You're going to kill a lot of fry, just make sure you learn from your mistakes.

Transfering fry accidently happens. They usually don't mind the trip through the tube but obviously you want to minimize their impact on exit.

I do all my scraping with one of those stainless steel scrapers. Bottom scraping daily is necessary. You can leave the sides alone for the most part. The fry will eventually learn to eat the rotifers off the glass anyway.

The split hatch happens. I had multiple spawns that hatched over 2 nights.

I actually collected last night as well. My 11th spawn of Onyx hatched. This was the first clutch to be laid since I transfered the parents to a new system. The fry looked thin. That can happen. Still, I managed to keep a couple hundred alive and hunting this morning. I'm not sure how this clutch is going to turn out so I'm just focusing on fattening up the parents for spawn 12!

 

[izzy123]

Welcome to clownfish breeding. 101 ways to kill fry. You're going to kill a lot of fry, just make sure you learn from your mistakes.

:lol:

Good one, I'm still waiting on a new batch of eggs from my clowns ( 4 weeks now) and I expect to make all new mistakes again when they arrive!!

 

[dela]

Day 2

Day 2

Well, I did learn from at least one mistake. This morning I used a 1/8" rigid tube connected to an airline tube to do my cleaning. Rather than a bucket on the floor I used a pitcher and by adjusting the height of the pitcher I could adjust the flow.

Did not suck up a single live fry. Did suck up a handful of dead fry, but got a better idea of how many I've got.

I put the count at around 50.

Also, I increased the lighting; I put the 15 watt fluorescent over the 10 gallon tank, but oriented perpendicular. Then I added a couple of layers of egg crate directly under the light to keep the intensity down. The fry did not seem to mind the extra light. Tomorrow I will remove the extra egg crate, and the next day I will make the light parallel to the tank. After that, I'm not sure what I will do to increase the light, but it would be nice if the light were bright enough for the phyto to really grow. So instead of having old phyto cells moping about, I would be culturing a vibrant and healthy base, which would in turn keep the rotifers nice and healthy...

 

[dela]

I do all my scraping with one of those stainless steel scrapers. Bottom scraping daily is necessary. You can leave the sides alone for the most part. The fry will eventually learn to eat the rotifers off the glass anyway.

Good to know. And good luck with the fry!

 

[dela]

Day 3

Day 3

Tonight I will do my first 20% water change.

-----

This morning, I didn't see any dead fry! :beer:

I am concerned I'm over feeding the tank. I keep the water nice and green/brown with phyto, but I'm adding the equivalent of one 2 liter bottle of dense rotifer culture per day to 5 gallons of fry water.

That is the part in all of this where I feel the most clueless. I have no idea what density of rotifers I have. So I just keep dumping them in! Hopefully more is better...

Ordered some of this Otohime A and B1. Hopefully it will get here soon! (Although I like feeding them rotifers. Phyto and rotifers are easy to grow!) Too bad you can't get big rotifers!

 

[dela]

Day 4 already?

Day 4 already?

The Otohime has arrived!

Hope this does not turn out to be a good way to pollute the tank and kill the fish!

Now that it's not the weekend, this is a lot harder!

 

[hvacman250]

Tonight I will do my first 20% water change.

-----

This morning, I didn't see any dead fry! :beer:

I am concerned I'm over feeding the tank. I keep the water nice and green/brown with phyto, but I'm adding the equivalent of one 2 liter bottle of dense rotifer culture per day to 5 gallons of fry water.

That is the part in all of this where I feel the most clueless. I have no idea what density of rotifers I have. So I just keep dumping them in! Hopefully more is better...

Ordered some of this Otohime A and B1. Hopefully it will get here soon! (Although I like feeding them rotifers. Phyto and rotifers are easy to grow!) Too bad you can't get big rotifers!

IMO , you are WAY overfeeding. If I have a bad hatch and have less than 100 hatch, I add rots once (the night of hatch). For the next 5 days I add nothing but Phyto morning and night. The rots multiply faster than <100 fry can eat them. Too many rots can spoil your water quality.

At day 3 I start adding Oto A. Day 5 or 6 I do no more phyto and only add A and BBS (mainly just for a treat for them ) If I'm busy, I skip BBS and do strictly A. When the biggest fry can move to B1, switch.

Typically when I move them around the 30 day mark to a growout, they are eating B2.

At around 3-4 months old, I'm at C1. I have a LFS that wants to buy them at 4 months old ~1" and they are typically eating C1 then. If I have 5-6 months old, they are eating C2. I rarely have a 5 month old though; they are gone by then.

 

[Atela]

Great thread Dela! Thanks for sharing with us.

 

[dela]

hvacman250,

I thought my fry looked like they are ready to pop! I'll have to post a picture I took last night. Hopefully they are just fat and happy. No deaths lately that I am aware of..

I guess I can scale back the mass production of rotifers and phyto. (Last night I even started to a couple of extra gallon jugs of nanno just to make sure I had plenty!)

How do you feed the Oto? Started feeding last night and continue feeding twice a day. I soaked a pinch of Oto A in a little fresh RODI water and then used a baster to spread it around.

Seems like the trick would be to feed them enough, but not too much. (A pinch does not seem like enough, after drowning the fry in rots!)

And then clean half hour after feeding?

Unfortunately I only have time to clean once per day, but I'll be feeding twice per day...

Thanks Atela. I'm just trying not to kill all the fry!

 

[ClownfishSushi]

I feed 300-500 ml of rotifer solution 3 times a day. You were definitely overfeeding.

No need to soak the otohime. Just crush it a little in your fingers and sprinkle the dust across the surface. The fry will figure it out. Make sure you overlap food types until all the fry have moved on to the next food type.

 

[ClownfishSushi]

One more thing to mention. When you are feeding rotifers the idea is that you are feeding the tank and not the fry. In otherwords, you're looking to get the concentration up and uniform. Overfeeding can be bad but it's not usually lethal. Otohime is a different story. Think of it like any other fish food. Feed enough that the fry can eat for 5-10 minutes. Anything left floating after that is just going to waste and will crash your fry tank.

 

[dela]

My internet is down, and my laptop video card is dead, so im having to check with my phone. Sorry, no pics for now. these guys are hard to photograph, but i did my best...

Thanks Izzy for the kind words.

And to the person who asked about the age of the clowns, im not sure. ive had them for about 9 months, got them from a guy who had them for six, and before that??? dont even know if they are tank bred or WC.

Either the rots have crashed or the fry have really mowed through them as they are no longer very dense. also the fry are getting big and becoming much better swimmers.

Going to jinx it, but so far i have not killed any fry since that first day.

Thanks for all the advice!

 

[dela]

Day 7

Day 7

Got up this morning and thought the fish were behaving VERY odd. Normally they congregate in the center of the 10g tank as a result of the light in the center and the air bubbles on both sides. today they were all around the sides, as if they were looking at their reflections.

I think the water quality is declining rapidly as a result of the Oto. Been doing 20% water changes with one cleaning (using old old water). Seems like two cleanings might be necessary (with new old water). Thank God it's Friday!

Also, having green water problems as a result of over harvesting. I think a twelve bottle system is the way to go. One pump for six bottles. Harvest two bottles per day (morning/evening). Instead, I have one six bottle station plus a random assortment of extras, which is way too chaotic. Now that my outdoor rotifers appear to be taking off, I will shut down some of the indoor cultures and make this change.

Also, I think the fish are going through metamorphosis. Some of the colors are changing from dark to light. And there are plenty of crooked tails.

Here are the pictures I wanted to post the other day. The fish no longer have that big gut. I'm concerned they went from overfed to underfed. Adding BBS and copepods this weekend.