My first attempt raising clownfish

[ReeferMadness09]

I won't go into it except to say that I have very little left alive in my tank and that i hope "someone" suffers a similar fate down the road.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

On a positive note I'm using this incident to improve on my previous breeding efforts. I currently have new breeding projects in the works and will have more to post

 

[SueAndHerZoo]

OK, was hoping to learn from your mis-judgment but won't pry. So sorry for your losses but glad it hasn't caused you to throw in the towel.... I know how tempting that can be sometimes. Keep us posted on your new projects.
Sue

 

[Kehaulani]

Are you keeping all the batches in their own individual 2.5 gallon tanks?

 

[Kehaulani]

How do you culture rotifers? What does your set up consist of and look like?

 

[ReeferMadness09]

For me each hatch have their own 2.5g tanks. My rots are cultured in plastic food grade 5g buckets i purchased at lowes. Basically i have a small hole drilled into the top of the bucket lid. I use a piece of ridgid air line and have it sticking just out of the lid and almost to the bottom of the bucket. I then attach a piece of soft airline tube to the tube and run it to an airpump to lightly bubble the water. I use an adjustable valve to control the air rate and i would not use an air stone because it makes the bubbles too fine.

 

[edosan]

Really enjoy your thread! Thanks for sharing.
I will try it some day.

 

[becca10]

Doing great. Following. I made it to day 5 and then had issues.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Thanks to everyone following along with this thread. I hope that it has served to help some of you fellow breeders out there. I know that its been a while since I've really updated this with anything directly relating to my fish breeding but I have been staying with it. The tank crash I suffered before really set me back but I've used that coupled with what I have learned prior to, to improve upon my work and move forward. My process has been a little slow because I'm balancing my time between getting my tank display upgrade done as well as having built an entirely seperate system dedicated to raising clownfish. I currently don't have any new clowns that i am raising since I havent had the time to with the other projects mentioned but I do have clownfish pairs that are breeding which i will document as the rearing gets underway.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

heres a pic of one of my pairs

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Hoping to have some eggs from these guys pretty soon. Should be any day now!

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Still no eggs. I fully believe water quality is the issue since ive slacked some on water changes and filtration is lacking. I decided to stop waiting and started slowly moving my pairs into my breeding system since its finally cycled and ready to go. The above pictured pair were just added so i expect that might delay egg laying for a little while longer until they settle back in.

 

[FishDooD65]

this is an awesome thread! I'm sorry to hear about your previous troubles and glad to see it hasn't stopped you from moving forward. I'm glad to follow along and thanks for staying here keeping us all informed.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

So in lieu of eggs heres an updated picture of my personal pair of mochas ALL the way back from the beginning from the first batch i raised. They wouldnt cooperate and stay still for me to take a picture of both so its only one. Theyre about 1.5 years old now and i think they've developed a nice mocha coloring.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

alright both together, blurry but as good as i could get.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

And we have eggs! Not the biggest clutch they've laid but not bad for being put into a new system. I'll be doing things differently this time by pulling the pots and letting the eggs hatch in a seperate tank with an airstone rather than catching the larvae in the display tank like i had done before. hopefully this will result in a higher survival rate throught out the process! I'm sure there will be a little learning curve with getting this method just right but i see it being more successful in the end (as well as alot less work and late nights too haha)

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Bad news to report. I must not have gotten the bubble rate right for the batch of eggs. The eggs have turned white and have not hatched which would indicate a fungus. I also think i jumped the gun and removed the eggs earlier then the night before hatch. Should have another clutch of eggs being laid soon and i will just collect them from the breeding tank so i can start getting some baby clowns into the pipeline so to speak. Once i get some clowns going I'll get back to figuring out the airstone method.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Well just a quick update, tonight should be the hatch night. I thought it was going to be last night but i guess i miss judged. I'm trying to get used this spawning pair and their cycle but i dont have it down just yet. Another part of the problem is that this pairs eggs when laid are almost black compared to the orange eggs you get from orange ocellaris. I think that is throwing off my visual judgement of when hatch night will be. Tonight has to be the night!

 

[ReeferMadness09]

A picture to help anyone tying to raise clownfish eggs. This is pretty much what you're waiting for your eggs to look like. The day you find them looking like this you can expect them to hatch that night after lights out.

 

[ReeferMadness09]

Finally have clown larvae again!