Clownfish breeding journal!

[coraltastic]

Well I have been at this for about a year now, lots of downs few ups. I have 5 pairs of clowns. 2 pair of occillaris one laying and one to young to start yet, a pair of black/white clowns ( both feathering pot like laying but no eggs yet), a onyx female with a snowflake male( super fat female, male picking at pot), a black/white darwin female with a blackice buckshot male ( they r two small to breed at this time also). The pair that r laying right now is very good with there egg keeping but I seem not to be a good fry keeper. The eggs hatch I collect the fry with small light and a shallow bowl (also tried air hose), put them in a 10 gal tank with all painted sides, tried both leaving light off until next morning and also tried turning on after collecting. Most all if not all fry r dead the next morning. I am about to give up and sale my other pairs if I don't start having some luck soon. I figured I would start posting everything I am doing from day one and see if uall can tell me what I am doing wrong. I will start posting my process in awhile.

 

[Mr Cob]

Great idea to start a new thread to see if anyone can add some input to help you out.

Have you read my build thread? I have lots of ups and downs over the course of the thread but managed to work through all of it. Every day is a learning process even still.

Just a quick thought... have you tried pulling the pots? Normally I pull the pot the next evening after seeing silver eyes.

 

[coraltastic]

Well like most of you all when i seen my first batch of eggs I was surprised. So then I started doing research found out about rotifers, and the 8 day cycle, ect. Then I'll ordered the rotifers RG complete and Roto floss from Reed's moral culture ( only set up one bucket). Got 10 gallon tank painted the bottom white painted three sides blue but the front not painted. I done all this trying to get ready for the second batch of eggs. My rotifer culture that i only set up one bucket, crashed while waiting on the second batch to hatch. I then reorder my rotifers and set up two buckets of cultures. Now I think I am ready for the third batch of eggs. I waited eight days till the eggs hatched then I used a flashlight hanging over the tank and a Shallow bowl to collect the fry, I then put the fry in the 10 gallon tank With a bout 3 gallons of water, Added rotifers straight from the culture buckets not strained, a little RG complete to tint the water green, Turned on a Dim light overhead, And went to bed. I woke the next morning to find 80% of the fry died. Day after day more fry died only had one left. (I figured it was just were it was the third batch of eggs) I lost all of the fourth and fifth batch. On the sixth batch of fry I had 14 babies left. (During this time I was building a breeding system in my fish room I used 3 20 highs for broodstock tanks also used 2 20 longs For grow out tanks) After about two weeks I transferred the 14 babies into one of the 20 longs for them to grow in. After about a month in the 20 long I scrubbed the bottom of the tank and the sides and stressed the babies out all died Except for one. I have tried several different things since the sixth batch of eggs and haven't had any luck on keeping Any of the fry.

 

[coraltastic]

Yeah cob thanks you helped me out a lot with the roti and the fry. I have tried pulling the pot it didn't work for me either.

 

[Mr Cob]

Couple thoughts... I was losing fry when I didn't have a dense culture of rotifers to feed them. The fry cannot see very well and really need a dense culture to feed on in the tank.

When you move the fry over are you moving them into existing tank water that they just came out of? If not...you should so that there is no initital water parameter shock.

Are you enriching your Rotigrow complete? It may have chlormax to remove amonia but it is not enriched. I prefer Rotigrow Plus because it is already enriched.. I then dose Prime once a week to my rotifer cultures. Beats having to enrich daily before every feeding.

 

[revhtree]

Cool keep us updated.

 

[coraltastic]

I have 3 roti cultures now. They aren't that dense but r ok density. I am using broodstock water even when I do my water changes after the 3 rd day. I have even tried a 5 gallon tote all blacked out seating beside the broodstock tank with a a airline dipper adding water to the fry and overflowing into the sump and still all dead. Not enriching roti. I will get some roti plus. I have a batch of eggs that will be hatching Saturday. I have been feeding my roti home grown algae lately. A 50/50 mix of nanno, and tetra photo.

 

[ddwatson]

If you are having density problems with your rotifer cultures turn the heat up and lower salinity. Rotifers produce best at 1.007 to 1.014 at around 83 to 86 degrees. Lower your salinity in your tanks to 1.021 so you don't shock your Rotifers and that will fix most of your problems. I struggled with all of the same things. I done a hunch of research and this is what fixed the problem. I currently have 11 breeding pairs.


David

 

[coraltastic]

Thanks for the info. My salinity is at .018 and the temp is room temp. I will try lowering the salinity and raising the temp to see if this helps.

 

[coraltastic]

Well I put a heater in one of my roti buckets and am raising the temp to 86. Going to bring the salinity down slow to .014. If the density increases I will do the same to the other 2 buckets. I will keep uall posted. Here is a few pics

Sorry photos r twisted.

 

[coraltastic]

 

[redtop03]

I've gotta stop in and check out your breeder system in person, it's all looking really complicated LOL

will you be home tomorrow ? I have a Dr's appointment in Lexington at 11am would love to stop by if we have time afterwards

 

[coraltastic]

Working 10 hr shifts won't be home until 6. Ur welcome to stop by if that isn't to late.

 

[redtop03]

Working 10 hr shifts won't be home until 6. Ur welcome to stop by if that isn't to late.

I'll have to be back home before then, I'll catch you some other time, maybe some weekend when you'll be home and I can run up that way, gas prices keep me pretty much at home when I'm not going to work LOL it's all looking great from the photos though

 

[coraltastic]

No problem just let me know.

 

[ddwatson]

You should have good results. It fixed my rotifer problem. The density is so thick it slows the rotifer sieve which is what you want. I start the larvae tank 2 days early and put in the Rotigrow plus like Mr. Cobb. Then add rotifers. By the time I hatch the babies in that tank the rotifers are thick and I can stop the rotigrow plus. I do keep an ammonia alert in the tank since I use rotigrow plus, but I have not had a problem so far. Give it about 2 days and you should see a rise in rotifer density. Good Luck!

 

[coraltastic]

Thanks alot. I am ordering the roti plus right now.

 

[coraltastic]

Order placed. It will be here in a few days.

 

[AsphaltPays]

Definitely following Along

 

[coraltastic]

Ok so common since will tell u that when u just do water changes in ur roti that the evaporation is going to make the salinity go up, but I didn't realize how much. My water change water is .016 which is what I was trying to keep the cultures. I tested tonight to start slowly decreasing the salinity and it was .020. So how do uall tell when u need to add ro water with doing all the water changes the level changes. Should I draw a line fill to line every night with ro water and then when I do my water change fill to line then take water out and add new saltwater to the line.