Clownfish babies

[phil519]

These were born on jan 18:

I hope the parents will have another batch in about 2~3 weeks and will try and document the progress here.

Anyways - just thought I'd share that it's possible to do...albeit very time consuming.

 

[engineeronh2o]

Awesome, do you have a pic of the parents?

 

[phil519]

Not very good ones:

the male is misbarred on the back. They are not anything "special" like a picasso or something - but they are special to me.

 

[revhtree]

All clowns are special to me! Great job!

What set up do you have the babies in?

 

[phil519]

originally prior to meta they were in a 10g. After I weaned them off of rotifers I went to bbs exclusively - which in retrospect wasnt' a good idea. Rather than feeding the fry I kept feeding "the tank". Basically flooded them with food and caused massive over-eating.

Anyways - after bbs I started training them on cyclopeeze wafers. I'm now using frozen cyclopeeze which gives them a very vibrant red color.

I just ordered the reed mariculture otohome starter kit - hopefully that'll work better.

Anyways - after they stopped eating the live food, I moved them over to the bc29. That's the tank they are in on the pics above. I had to throttle down the pump to a maxijet 400.

 

[joecoastie]

That is awesome. I love seeing clownfish babies. Congratulations! Have you named them? :bigsmile:
Joe

 

[phil519]

That is awesome. I love seeing clownfish babies. Congratulations! Have you named them? :bigsmile:
Joe

lol - no. Here's some more pics - these were born in dec 09. A friend of mine lent his nikon - hence the improved quality pics!! I was only able to save a handful out of the 9 fry:

 

[clowns101]

WOW!Nice!After mete,migh I reccomend live BBS.Thats what I feed all my babies and they do reat.After feeing tham that them go with the frozen cyclops.Thats what I do!I do the same wginh with my damsels too!

 

[Russellaqua]

I wish you great success in your venture! It's a great thing you're doing.

 

[jaa1456]

Where in NJ are you? I would be interested in a pair if you are selling them. Thanks I live in Old Bridge

 

[phil519]

thanks everyone!

Um - I didn't post these up with the intention of selling. Apologies if I gave that impression. Send me a pm later on if you want. Right now i'm just enjoying watching them grow up.

 

[chipcount]

thats very cool!

 

[Troylee]

very cool!!!!

 

[jaa1456]

Sounds good, Thats cool to watch em grow up, didn't know if you had room for all the guys thanks

 

[phil519]

Sounds good, Thats cool to watch em grow up, didn't know if you had room for all the guys thanks

for now i do. The ones above are in a bc29 - that's about a 1/2 inch fish per gallon :wink:

It will probably take at least another month before they are at a size that a vortech/tunze pump wouldn't suck them up.

 

[Mr E Wrasse]

very cool phil... whenever i've tried to take care of the eggs and grow them out, the eggs would always start hatching in the morning instead of at night. It's my understanding that they would normally hatch about 30 minutes after lights out. At the time the fish were in my main display tank so the plan was to siphon them out after they'd hatched (pumps off of course). I've got them in a 58 gallon now and I plan on trying it again soon. Any thoughts on why they would be hatching in the morning?

 

[reefsandrotts]

Hey Hawk
Good to see you on here.
The "kids" look great
Jim

 

[phil519]

very cool phil... whenever i've tried to take care of the eggs and grow them out, the eggs would always start hatching in the morning instead of at night. It's my understanding that they would normally hatch about 30 minutes after lights out. At the time the fish were in my main display tank so the plan was to siphon them out after they'd hatched (pumps off of course). I've got them in a 58 gallon now and I plan on trying it again soon. Any thoughts on why they would be hatching in the morning?

you got me. As i understand it the hatching depends on several factors: temp of the tank, whether you have been flashing a light on the eggs, total duration eggs have matured.

Typically though if my eggs pass the "due date" the female clown will gobble all the babies up.

Are you sure they are hatching in the AM? And not say hatched at night and when you checked in the AM you saw them?

HOnestly I am no expert here. The real breeders take the breeding pair out of the display and keep them in a separate tank and ensure the eggs get laid on a tile for easy removal.

I will try the tile thing next. This way I can avoid staying up late at night hoping they hatch before I have to go to bed.

 

[clowns101]

Well sounds like we are wanting to breed some fish so I am going to make a sticky about it!

Phil519-Would you alow me to use your pictures for this thread on breeding?

 

[Mr E Wrasse]

I checked them the morning of the 9th day and they were still there around 8am and all gone when i looked again around 11am. I suppose it's possible that the female ate them. I did try to get them to lay the eggs on a small round terracotta plate.. but they always chose the rock instead.