Amphiprion clarkii - 30 Days Post Hatch

Chris Littrell · Apr 3, 2018

I am now 30 Days Post Hatch of my second attempt to raise eggs from my pair of Amphiprion clarkii.

One group - still to hard to get a photo and a count.

Background:
Amphiprion clarkii - Parents live a 55 gallon tank with a simple canister filter and HOB skimmer. They share the tank with an anemone and a single snail. I have had the parents a little under a year. They have been consistent spawners for me and their previous caregivers. I think I am the third lucky owner.

Up until the beginning of this year trying to raise the spawn has seem daunting and just imposable. With a spawn late in January they spawned in a piece of coral that I was able to remove and move to 29 gallon fry tank. This was a total failure. There were a number of issues, food and egg spoilage being the biggest factors.

Current Spawn:
On March 3 and 4 I was lucky enough to have eggs from my Amphiprion clarkii hatch and make it into the rearing tank. I used a homemade fry trap based on the commercially available Vossen trap. My guess is about 50 fry made it to the 29 gallon rearing tank. Today I have 35-40 little clown fish eating and growing!

My favorite part of this project has been figuring out how to overcome the hurdles.
Many people have successfully raised clown fish and I have in no way done anything differently than others in the past but in the subsequent threads I will post some info on what I did to help me with my success.

shred5 · Apr 3, 2018

Wow they look nice .. congrats. Nice color and bars...

Chris Littrell · Apr 3, 2018

The first failure in my first attempt was food. Rotifers are daunting in the beginning. The sheer number 100,000 - 1,000,000 rotifers is a lot. They are small specks in the water. How do you really know what your doing. Most people talk about watching the water clear after you add green water. But not too clear, that will kill them... There must be a better way. Luckily I work at a school that has a science lab with an old directing scope. Does not need to be fancy. Looking on Amazon you can find them nicer than what I use for less then $50. Putting a drop of two of water on the stage and seeing little things moving with green dots on their backs made it so much easier to know what you were growing. I don't think I would try to grow them without one.

Less is more. For me growing rotifers in smaller batches has been much better. To start with I picked up half a dozen 1 gallon glass jars. I worked the numbers to stagger grow the rotifers in the jars. If one culture failed I had several others as backup. I was able to crank up production and easily keep enough in the fry tank.

Chris Littrell · Apr 3, 2018

The second failure in my first attempt was egg health. I tried the air stone but they eggs did not hatch. They succumb to fungus. I needed the male to tend them till they hatched. This meant I needed to figure out a way to collect them. After much reading I decided to build my idea of the Vossen trap. This is a commercially available trap for doing exactly what I needed. Lure the fry into an opening where air could create enough current to move them into a small space where I could get them and move them into the rearing tank. I wanted to be able to set the trap and move the fry the next day. The tanks I have are at the school I work at and I needed a set it and forget it plan. I was able to set the flashlight up and leave it on all night and in the morning there were the smallest little fry I had ever seen. (we participate in the Trout in the classroom program then they are giants compared to the clown fry).

Triggreef · Apr 3, 2018

So awesome!

Chris Littrell · Apr 20, 2018

Update. 44DPH...
Still have 38ish happy little guys. They have continued to grow and develop color. They are feed TDO-B2 at least 2 times. a day. About 3/4 of a cap full if you are familiar with the container it comes in. I have finally worked the 29 Gallon tank to full by adding about 50% more water than I take out on a twice weekly water change. The Ammonia is zero but the Nitrates and Nitrites are both high on the dip test. Will never get it low with the BioLoad and amount you are feeding them. I decided to add a HOB filter today. They seem to be fine with the more current. Sometimes you need to stop and remember they are supposed to be in the ocean. A little HOB is not like a wave or anything.

On a side note Mom and Dad have picked up where they left off. Another spawn on the glass in the 55 gallon. They missed 1-2 cycles it seemed. Not totally sure why but it was nice to see they were back at it. It will be a while before we try to collect more fry. Being a school will probably be sometime in the fall.

For those of you in the SW Connecticut area we are having an ARKSC meeting on May6th if you want to come and see the setup. Link Below.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/meeting-may-6th-clownfish-breeding.377438/

Not the best photo but a good idea of how they are doing.