Yes! Our inter-racial clowns layed eggs!!! Oh my - what to do to keep them alive....

[ocfishaddicts]

what went wrong???

what went wrong???

hi guys... here's the answers to your questions - thanks for the advise..

• i believe there was/is enough oxygen with the air stone...
• i heard there was potentially a "rotifer sock" that i am suppose to filter through first??? my fish guy/partner in crime hadn't heard of that and i am not sure what to do... i put the rotifer water in the baby container and salinity might throw it off or??? can't seem to find my salinity scope so i don't know...
• maybe i put to many rotifers in or???
• ammonia test strips said that it was turning "barely" stressed and i put in a couple of the beta chlorine drops...
• yes, i am co-culturing, and the clowns layed another clutch of eggs a couple of days ago, so may i will try again to hatch them with the live rotifers (if they still are living)...
• hubby received the batch of live rotifers he ordered online (1 million) to his shop and put them in his refrigerator and forgot to bring them home until today... so, i am not even sure if those "live" ones are still living - is there a way to tell? just dense and may be moving with the water... have them in a separate container with a bubbler to grow.....
• yes, have done a water change on day 2 - approx 15%
• also, i am growing the current batch of rotifers that were with the baby containers - removed the majority of the died babies and hopefully the rotifers will live with whatever salinity is in there...

thanks for the input...

 

[sjonathan]

Hello RC members!

sorry to hear that ocfishaddicts but dont give up. Best way to be good at something is trial & error. Thanks Ocfishadditcts & RC members for all the helpful information. Im on my first batch of Goldstripe Maroon clown fish eggs & im on day 5/6 cause all i see is hundreds of eyes. Ill give it a shot on raising them.

Whats the best way to seperate the larvae from the main tank? Turkey baster? will they float on top when they hatch?

 

[billsreef]

left the light off for approx 18 hrs (hadn't setup the timer yet)...

That is a very long time for a larval fish to go without eating, and is the most likely culprit based on the rest of the info you posted. Better off going with 24 hours worth of well fed daylight rather than such a long dark period.

With sieving rotifers, it lets you concentrate them and minimize the amount of rotifer culuture water going into your larval cultures.

 

[ocfishaddicts]

hi sjonathan... congrats on your maroon eggs!:beer: and i am very glad to hear that someone is finding this tedious/detailed thread helpful! that is encouraging in itself to keep me posting - not really excited with our progress at the moment...

my understanding is hand collection can be done holding a flash light (babies will swim towards to light) and either catching the babies with a syphine or a cup (i think cup is easier on them)... good luck! and let us know how you do =)

 

[sjonathan]

thanks ocfishaddicts. Bad news, got home from work late last night & all the eggs disappeared. probably the parents or yellow tang or my coral banded shrimp ate them. Ill be putting a ceramic tile where they layed their eggs before so i can just take out the whole batch before they hatch.

 

[ocfishaddicts]

thanks ocfishaddicts. Bad news, got home from work late last night & all the eggs disappeared.

hi sjonathan... that is so sad... hmmmmm.... are you sure they didn't hatch? interesting... normally the parent protect them well... did you move anything around? anything change? you may want to start logging the date/day layed and the day hatched. i heard depending upon your water temperature that the hatch date can vary, warmer the sooner... maybe yours hatched.

it probably would be a good idea to put a smooth surface object by where she layed before - shell, rock, pottery, or tile that you can remove...

good luck!

 

[ocfishaddicts]

Different approach...

Different approach...

ok... that's it... i am trying a different approach!

have recruited my partner in crime (fish maint guy's partner - fish store 3 minutes away) and have given him my hatchery setup and live rotifers as i will be on vacation for the next few days. maybe he will have better results at his fish store and we will still work together - he is learning too... the next batch of eggs should be hatching this wednesday or thursday and he will pick up before hand and try to raise.

will keep everyone posted. thanks again for everyone's support. we'll see how this new approach works...

:idea:

 

[sjonathan]

nothing changed in my tank but i did find out that my sister&her kids was looking at it w/a flashlight all night. I guess they got her stressed out & ate it. Maybe thats the cause...but what ive read that if they do get stressed out or im not feeding them enough(which i feed them 2-3times a day) that they will eat their eggs.but dunno if thats the case.

if they did hatched, wouldnt they leave the egg shells or something still attached to the rock? i didnt see nothing on the rock & no sign at all, even just a single larvae in the tank or sump. I was looking forward on raising them too!

I did put in a peice of tile where the eggs use to be & i kinda dirty'd up their nesting area so all afternoon my clowns were just haulin pebbles. Kinda fun to watch'em cleaning!

Thanks ocfishaddicts! Good luck to you too! Let us know if anymore eggs at your end. It really helps alot reading these posts.

 

[kl3377]

Day 4 - all dead and only tons of live rotifers alive.... what happended???? potential items, left the light off for approx 18 hrs (hadn't setup the timer yet)...

Temp is 80, alk is fine, air stone fine...

Very irritated...

I am kind of jumping in late but saw this post and it raised an eyebrow. I have found that my fry need light 24/7 for the first 7-8 days. I usually use a 60-75w bulb and put a white rag on the top of the tank to filter the light (all sides covered with black construction paper). I have a female orange/white-male black/white mated pair and currently have 40ish 17 week old and 100 plus 11 week old juvis in the basement. I also keep my temp closer to 82, this seems to get them through the metamorphisis stage faster. It is a ton of work to get them to the point where you can sell them off (I will probably never do it again) but it is pretty rewarding. Good Luck!

 

[ocfishaddicts]

Calling All RCs --- pls post pics of your breeding / hatching / raising setups...

Calling All RCs --- pls post pics of your breeding / hatching / raising setups...

I have found that my fry need light 24/7 for the first 7-8 days. I usually use a 60-75w bulb and put a white rag on the top of the tank to filter the light (all sides covered with black construction paper). I have a female orange/white-male black/white mated pair and currently have 40ish 17 week old and 100 plus 11 week old juvis in the basement. I also keep my temp closer to 82, this seems to get them through the metamorphisis stage faster.

hi kl3377 - definitely appreciate your input! good insight and will keep it in mind on the next batch (light, temp...)

what's the deal??? are you holding out on us lol - would love to see pics pls - both batches, setup and parents :bounce3: how exciting to have an inter-racial pair and to actually have successful frys... wow. how cool is that!

i am attaching pics of the babies day 2 the morning right when i got the live rotifers (you can see i lost a lot of them to that point) also including the nursery setup that i had as well and lastly throwing in a pic of the parents with a new batch of eggs. --- partner in crime took the nursery setup to try and hatch next batch and although he may change the setup some - we'll see....

tank on the right is the nursey / hatchery with: smaller hatch

• container wrapped with a cut black trash bag (water pressure kept it up against the sides)
• mother tank water for easy water change
• 2 bottles of rotifers (heard conflicting advise - reading having them with heater and/or light)
• heater to keep all warm (set 80 degrees - will increase in the future)
• spong filter that had been seeded in the mother tank sump and ready for "fry" graduation into full 10 gallon
• clip on light with 60 watt - had pointed higher/in direct when not looking at them

tank on the left

• was going to be used to grow more rotifers and had lower salt 1.018 level - i think i would do the rotifers different and was going try the left tank or 5 gallon buckets. i also heard a clever idea to put them in a 5 gallon sparklets bottle (bottom cut off) with a stand / spout for easy feeding/straining.

items in the middle:

• containers that had all loose items - amonia strips, drops, bbs eggs, flash light, scissors, air stones, air valves, reading glass, other smaller glass & baster to clean out waste, plastic container was to mix algae paste (in refrig) first before putting in with rotifers, etc...
• bbs hatch setup - black stand with air stone and cut off bottle
• calendar to track egg laying, hatching and lavea age
• behind where three air pumps - had trouble with enough air for some reason
• missing - rotifer collection seive (ordered)

Calling All RCs --- pls post your breeding / hatching / raising setups - i/we would love to learn from them as well...
:bum:

 

[ocfishaddicts]

Update... approx 1/3 of the frys are living day 5! have left the light on and have done 2 water changes --- seems to be working! and a new batch of eggs have been laid a few days ago as well - everything seems to be moving along well so far =)

 

[jloschen]

i wish my clowns would lay eggs

 

[ocfishaddicts]

Getting them to lay eggs....

Getting them to lay eggs....

hi jloschen... there are some things you can do to help encourage it, and with a little bit of luck hopefully they will. we have a smaller tank with a true perc and black & white ocellaris pair that we are trying to get to lay eggs also... they are on the same protein rich variety diet as the ones that are currently laying in the big tank, so i put a large smooth clam shell in the tank a few days ago. they are now displaying more bonding to the shell pecking at it and hovering along with shimmering/flirting with each other a little...

sooooo, with a little luck, maybe magic will be in the water for both of our clown pairs .:love2:

 

[billsreef]

:beer:

 

[tiababygirl2]

what a great forum...nice job!
It makes me want to start breeding again..It a passion...

 

[me_reef_geek]

I just sold the first batch of clowns that I have raised female is a true percula and male is an occy
they were born on march 9th 2010 it was very cool to watch them go threw metamorphosis and actually turn into clowns for the first time

for the first week I also kept 24hrs light. I used a 5g tank with an air line (no stone) and temp 80-84 and moved in the eggs the day they were supposed to hatch, they ended up hatching the next night.
I probably didnt keep enough food in the tank the first 24hrs and lost about 1/2 the first 2 days I think poor water quality cost me another 3rd within the first month then it was smooth sailing after that I only ended up with 30 fish total at the end of 3 months

also I didnt hatch brine shrimp I used a product called instant baby brine shrimp it is great tho only problem I had was I couldnt use it all within the 6 weeks it is good for after opening it

 

[ocfishaddicts]

Babies are going strong - getting ready for next batch of eggs to hatch...

Babies are going strong - getting ready for next batch of eggs to hatch...

thanks everyone! and how exciting me_reef_geek to actually be so successful and sending off to new homes! post some pics.... can't wait until we see the markings on ours!

ok... here is the latest update:

Current Frys (Day 9) - the babies are sooooo cute swimming smoother and fat! they look like little fish fleas darting around. approx 30 left and getting big. interesting how some are larger than others. doing 20% water changes each day and now have the light on a timer. currently feeding rotifers (tons in there multiplying) and growing baby brine shrimp (bbs). having a problem with all the shells floating around and trying to separate. going to start a new batch just in case - will look into the instant baby brine shrimp product suggested. keeping our fingers crossed to make it through the rest of the metomorphis phase. ---- have taken pictures and will post later. this has been really rewarding and fun getting to this point!!! both my partner-in-crime and i have a hard time leaving them at the fish store (have a setup in the back).

New Batch of Eggs (Day 6) - we are getting the next tank setup for the current batch of eggs to hatch - targeting this sunday. started to setup a new 10 gallon tank with mother tank water getting ready for the transfer.

Really appreciate everyone's interest and encouragement during this fish raising journey! Keep it coming and also pictures.

Happy Reefing!

:fish1::fish1::fish1::fish1:

 

[me_reef_geek]

here are a few pics of mine

the fish laying and fertilizing the eggs. they hatched in 8 days

day 1

day 3

3 months

5 months

I didnt take pics before the went to the lfs but the black was starting to show some were sweet the whole top of there body was turning black

 

[billsreef]

:thumbsup:

With the BBS, look into either getting decapsulated cysts, or decapsulating them yourself. If you go for doing it yourself, you can decapsulate several weeks supply at a time and store them refrigerated in a saturated brine solution.

 

[sjonathan]

Nice to hear your doing great w/your fry's Ocfishaddict.

Love the pics me reef geek.

what day do you start doing waterchange on your nursery tank after they hatch? ive read different times. some say after 3 days but other say after a week. Today is hatch night for me & its my first time trying.

what salt level should i lower my nursery tank after i put in the larvae? my main tank is at 1.025.also my rotifers water is at 1.019 but my main tank water is at 1.025, will i have problems keeping my rotifers alive in the nursery tank?