Clownfish breeding. Need help with raising fry past day 5.

Fishguy02 · Sep 28, 2017

My clownfish are on there 4th go around with eggs. My problem is that around day 4-5 over half die, 5-6 day the rest die. Im using a 5gallon tank for the fry. Im feeding rotifers everyday, doing a 50% water change every day. Water parameters are good. My water temp is 78. I know it should be closer to 80. (Waiting on bigger heaters) right now I'm matching the temp of the parents tank. Im looking for any info/help on raising the fry. Im sure there will be more ?, so ask away.
Picture of the parents.

Picture of the fry tank

gioNVA · Sep 29, 2017

Do you use water from the parent tank? I've had better success when I used new saltwater (mixed for 24 hours) on the fry tank. Also use a 10g tank and start with 5g of water. Also, you may need to pump more air.

leahfiish · Sep 29, 2017

Are you enriching the rotifers?

WestOhooligan · Sep 29, 2017

Stop doing water changes on your fry tank so much, this is killing them. They need stability. I would use a 10 gallon tank, filled with about 4-5 gallons of water. About every other day, add a gallon or so until you fill it up. I don't even attempt a water change until after meta. To control ammonia, use a product like Prime or another ammonia detox product.

Enrich your rotifers with a high quality food, apbreed carries some great ones. I used RotigrowComplete for mine. I tinted the water with nannochloropsis. Tinting the water creates a visual contrast for the fry to spot prey items easier, and continues the enrichment process. I fed my fry twice a day, about every 12 hours. I liked about 20/mL give or take.

If the bottom of the tank is getting gross, use an airline tube to carefully siphon detritus off the bottom. Refill what you took out with fresh mixed saltwater and use an airline tube to return the water. I also draw a line on the water levels to keep track of evap so I could run ro/di water back in. Again, slowly with airline tubing.

www.mbisite.org will have tons of info.

Fishguy02 · Sep 29, 2017

gioNVA said:
Do you use water from the parent tank? I've had better success when I used new saltwater (mixed for 24 hours) on the fry tank. Also use a 10g tank and start with 5g of water. Also, you may need to pump more air.

I use the water i use to scoop them out of the parent tank with, then i top off the parent tank. Maybe a gallon or so. If you could see through the rose bubble nems in the above picture you could see the eggs. I think the first batch of rotifer that i bought from ebay were garbage. I have since ordered RG-Complete, and 2 bags of 1million L-type rotifers from Reef Mariculture. Defiantly better quality.

I can actually see tons of rotifers now. So we will see. Thanks for the help.

Blue Lip · Oct 14, 2017

Tint the water in the fry tank with phytoplankton

WestOhooligan · Nov 8, 2017

Fishguy02 said:
I use the water i use to scoop them out of the parent tank with, then i top off the parent tank. Maybe a gallon or so. If you could see through the rose bubble nems in the above picture you could see the eggs. I think the first batch of rotifer that i bought from ebay were garbage. I have since ordered RG-Complete, and 2 bags of 1million L-type rotifers from Reef Mariculture. Defiantly better quality.

I can actually see tons of rotifers now. So we will see. Thanks for the help.

Are those in your fry tank or culture?