My first attempt raising clownfish

[ReeferMadness09]

Love is in the air. Just caught my clowns in the act. I added tiles in hopes they would lay eggs on them to make my life easier but i must have ticked them off. They decided to pack up and move to an entirely different spot in my tank and lay on the rockwork again. On the plus side its a spot thats very visible, so heres a pic.

 

[Ryan2428]

Awesome good luck

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Clown eggs finally hatched last night/ early this morning. It happened on the 8th day. It was a pain collecting the fry from the display with bowl. I collected as many as i could but ended up leaving some in the display. I'm currently working on another system for future easier collection.

This is a picture i snapped of some of the fry collected. I tried to count in the beginning but you can see thats kinda insane.

 

[Ryan2428]

Wow good work I am watching want to see so pics as u move along

 

[ReeferMadness09]

I just wanted to share my experience on reef2reef. Im adding all my work to the present which is the last 13 days.
Heres a shot of some fry in my grow tank from day 1dph.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

update: 2dph
Today it looks like I had about 10 or so fry deaths. That's down from the 20 or so from yesterday. At this point there seems to be about 50-60 fry alive.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Day 3 after hatch:
The fry seem to have darkened in color and have grown slightly but look mostly the same. On a positive note there doesn't seem to be any deaths today. I gave counting them a shot and I'm somewhere around 75ish. Last night i did my first cleaning and small water change on the tank. I used display tank water and that seemed to be just fine. After the water change i did notice my salinity was creeping upward so I'm currently VERY slowly dripping rodi to bring the salinity back in line with my display tank water. I'll continue harvesting and loading the fry tank with rotifers but will be starting a batch of brine shrimp too.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Details about the grow out setup.

The fry tank consists of a 2.5g tank. I used black paper to cover the sides and bottom of the tank. This is to control the amount of light into the tank and make it easier for the fry to find food. As for lighting I used an old fluorescent tank light. You dont need very intense light. I have a glass lid on my tank to help stop evaporation and use a sheet of paper over the lid to reduce the light to where the fry are happy.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

The clownfish fry need live rotifers for food. I'm using a white 5g food grade bucket to culture them. My rotifers are being kept at a temp of about 78 degrees. They also need aeration to survive and again an air stone works well for this. The rotifers are fed phytoplankton twice a day. I harvest about 1/4 of my culture each day.

 

[Ryan2428]

Can't wait to c them

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Update: 5dph

Its a bit of a pain to get a good picture of these guys. There's been some growth and darkening of color. Still havent had any losses since day 2.

And from the top

 

[Ryan2428]

I get a choice of the 2 I want when ready lol

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Update: 7dph
Still no losses at this point

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Update 8dph

Fed live brine shrimp for the first time tonight. I'm still mixing it with the rotifers but it didn't take long for the fry to figure out it was food. The shrimp have an orange color and when the larvae/fry eat it they have orange bellies. No losses to report.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Update 11dph

At this point Ive almost completely switch over to brine shrimp. I'll still be supplementing with rots in a small amount just to provide extra nutrients.

 

[Rob&Gab]

Awesome, Our snowFlake and Black Ice have been laying eggs too.! this is there 4th batch of eggs. i want to Collect them with Gab, Just there is Not enough time to Tend to them.

cant wait too see yours Mature. !

maybe we will give ours a shot.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Update 13dph -
This is where i'm currently at. Hope I didn't kill all the excitement and anticipation for everyone by fast forwarding like this:biggrin1:. Had a nice surprise this morning, first head stripes! Not everyone has got them but it wont be long. I still haven't had any losses so my best guess is theres about 70 fry. I have another clutch of eggs due to hatch this friday. I anticipate more success collecting the larvae this time around so my numbers should be better for the second hatch.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Im also going to start weening off the brine shrimp over the next few days. I'm mixing the live brine with dry food and they just seem ready for the dry food. They start to swarm the top of the tank gulping it down. Its almost like they prefer it when im feeding.

 

[Rob&Gab]

can you Give a little bit of detailed water changes how many days a week How much of a water change do you do For 2.5G i am thinking about this and you might make us Do it as well.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

I waited the first 3 days before I did a watch change. After that I used a red solo cup and change about 4 cups worth of water using display tank water. All the water Ive used for my fry tank has come from my display. From there on I've done water changes about every other day. By the end of week 1 I don't think you'll need to be changing more than about 1/2 a gallon. What you'll need to do is make sure you keep the bottom of the tank clean by sucking up all the food and algae sludge that accumulates on the bottom. I cut a piece of rigid air line tubing long enough to hold and keep my hands out of the water. I then cut a small piece of the cheap airline tubing and put it on the end. Put that tipped end into the tank and create a syphon. Hold it like a pencil rubbing it across the bottom at a slight angle in small motions and that really gets the junk up. Usually by the time i get the bottom clean i've achieved my water change as well.

Im at the end of week 2 and my water change today was about 1 gallon. I would recommend getting one of those ammonia suction cup badges and putting that in your tank. It'll be your best investment. Also if you're not adding something like rg complete phyto to your fry tank(which already has ammonia detoxifiers in it) and go with home grown phyto, you'll need to add that. The important thing is really getting the tank bottom clean. I think alot of your water change requirements will depend on how much you're feeding. I personally have been feeding heavy.