Clownfish Fry 0-72 hrs....air flow question

[dmc456]

My black ice clownfish have been breeding for about 3 months. I have attempted 5-6 time to raise them. The best I had was 92 past 8 weeks and they are all still going well. I have around 150 total now. The new fry seem to only die off during 12-48 hrs. After that, 95% or more of them make it.

My question is about how much airflow in the fry tank after hatching. I get 99% hatch rate and all the fry are swimming crazy the next morning 300+. The book and forums I have read talk about using a hard airline at 1 bubble per second to start and increase a little each day for oxygenating the water. I think my fry are suffocating due to too many fry and rotifers in a 5 gal tank. I just switched to a air-stone with medium to low flow which is 20x more oxygen and water flow than before and seems to be working much better.

I think it is a lack of water and air flow in the tank because the rotifers settle in the bottom 2-3" of the tank with so little flow and use up all the oxygen. The air-stone and more flow circulates the tank, mixes the rotifers, and the fry are swimming like crazy and eating instead of 1/2 of them lifeless on the bottom or sized with 20% of them swimming around the top.

Those breeding clownfish and getting 250+ thru meta per batch, what are you doing for aerating the water in the first 7 days.

Trying to see if this makes sense so and I'll try it on my next batch in 8 days. Once I changed on the current batch, they stopped dying immediately and I have 150+ currently.

 

[TDS ZERO]

What kind of water do you use for hatching ? All new salt water or tank water ? Temps ?

How about lighting are you keeping the lighting on 24/7 for the first week ?

Don’t think your problem is the air stone

Should try hatching in a larger tank like 10+ gals

Do you tint the water and what do you use

 

[dmc456]

All new salt water, 81-82 deg
24/7 lighting for 2 days (dimmable)
Tint with RG complete with Rots

99% it is oxygen related...fry instantly improved alertness and aggressive hunting / feeding once it was increased. I’ll know with 100% confidence in a little over a week.

 

[TDS ZERO]

You want to have a high medium and low flow spot for the fish so they can choose where they like hang out the best

Some people use one air stone other use 2 it’s all personal preference

After 72 hours turn the bubbles up more
Lack of oxygen can give your fish flared gills

 

[dmc456]

That makes sense and goes with what I'm finding. I put 1 air stone (medium flow) in the corner and its moving some water, they swim upto the column of air but not into it. Some areas are pretty calm and little flow, but you can see the rots moving in the low current. The fry swim all over but have areas they can just chill out and rest too with little movement.

I have a few with flared gills too. Good to know.

I really appreciate the input!

 

[dmc456]

All of them still going strong ~100 is my best guess.

I’ll count them in a few days

 

[dmc456]

Thursday and still going strong

Getting big and starting to eat TDO A

 

[dmc456]

Here are my Breeding Pair of Black Ice Clowns. They have been breeding for about 2 months and lay 300-400 eggs every 10-11 days.

 

[dmc456]

Here is my first large batch 90+ plus 2 from my initial batch which are larger.

 

[dmc456]

You can see the air-stone I added...it made all the difference.

 

[dmc456]

From the above video / tank of the 1-week old fry....I moved 183 to a larger grow out tank today to make room for my next batch of eggs to hatch. They look great and already getting their first stripe. Very healthy and aggressive little swimmers.

I would of only guess around 100 in the tank.

 

[dmc456]

Had my first batch of eggs that didn't all hatch...only about 25-30%....good thing is all that hatched are doing well.

I have teenagers and they left the lights on in the basement 2-nights in a row when they were supposed to hatch. Oh well, I have about 400 baby clowns growing and more on the way. Getting fun.

 

[Paul Bradford]

Thank you for your thread.

I made one attempt and all the larvae died within 18 hours. I think a big part of my issue was the aeration/oxygen in the water.

 

[AZClown]

I think it is a lack of water and air flow in the tank because the rotifers settle in the bottom 2-3" of the tank with so little flow and use up all the oxygen. The air-stone and more flow circulates the tank, mixes the rotifers, and the fry are swimming like crazy and eating instead of 1/2 of them lifeless on the bottom or sized with 20% of them swimming around the top.

I realize this post is a few years old…but thought I’d share my observations. Last night my Clarkii’s had a nice hatch of guessing 200+ fry’s. These are decent size parents, 4 inch mom, 3 inch dad on their 2nd batch now. After transferring them to my 10 gallon fry tank, for the first 15 minutes most fry were active. Then maybe 70% of them settled to the bottom mostly lifeless but still alive. 8 hours later this morning I observed the same lifeless bottom behavior. So I decided to place a 3rd airstone in the middle of the tank. Immediately this caused them to “wake up” and become active. I have 2 other airstones on each side of the tank. This 3rd airstone now breaks up what was previously maybe a 16 inch dead zone of flow creating two nice 8 inch eddies of flow on each side of the tank.

So I can’t help to think there needs to be additional flow and oxygenation within the tank. With additional activity I think they are more likely to feed better. Will see with this batch (my 2nd in 10 days!), the first batch using only 2 airstones and not so successful. Also, in my 2nd batch I’m greatly reducing the tinting as so much of the RG fell out into algae clumps from my 1st batch, even after being introduced in well-stirred and pre-mixed salt water at low RG amounts. I think too much tinting is overkill or at least with already dead phyto. To help this I’ve reduced the lighting which is indirect using an LED bouncing off the white ceiling above. (seems to work well) AZClown

 

[laughing tang]

I realize this post is a few years old…but thought I’d share my observations. Last night my Clarkii’s had a nice hatch of guessing 200+ fry’s. These are decent size parents, 4 inch mom, 3 inch dad on their 2nd batch now. After transferring them to my 10 gallon fry tank, for the first 15 minutes most fry were active. Then maybe 70% of them settled to the bottom mostly lifeless but still alive. 8 hours later this morning I observed the same lifeless bottom behavior. So I decided to place a 3rd airstone in the middle of the tank. Immediately this caused them to “wake up” and become active. I have 2 other airstones on each side of the tank. This 3rd airstone now breaks up what was previously maybe a 16 inch dead zone of flow creating two nice 8 inch eddies of flow on each side of the tank.

So I can’t help to think there needs to be additional flow and oxygenation within the tank. With additional activity I think they are more likely to feed better. Will see with this batch (my 2nd in 10 days!), the first batch using only 2 airstones and not so successful. Also, in my 2nd batch I’m greatly reducing the tinting as so much of the RG fell out into algae clumps from my 1st batch, even after being introduced in well-stirred and pre-mixed salt water at low RG amounts. I think too much tinting is overkill or at least with already dead phyto. To help this I’ve reduced the lighting which is indirect using an LED bouncing off the white ceiling above. (seems to work well) AZClown

@AZClown how did this work out for you? I am looking to raise my first clutch in few days, curious to know how it went. Thanks.