Orchid Dottyback larvae and fry tank questions

[Nate89]

Good Day all,
I have a clutch of Orchid Dottybacks that are a week old in a 5 gallon tank which are doing great. I have some question that Google couldn't answer for me so i figured i would make an account and see if anyone here can help me.

i am curious as to whether or not you can have too many rotifers in the fry tank?

and as well i have a another clutch of eggs that are due to hatch tonight in the tank as well in a homemade tumbler, is there a way anyone can think of on how to black out those eggs for hatch night and still have a light source availible to the current fry so they can see the rotifers? Or should I just cover that side of the tank to darken it and leave a spot with light for the current fry.

 

[Pete Luna]

in my opinion, as long as the Rotifers are not causing an ammonia issue, you're ok. When I feed my clown fry, I load up the tank.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I would assume that you can't really have too many rotifers for these guys, but it may well depend on the species of fry (I say this because I know some marine animal larvae, like cuttlefish fry, will stop eating the pods around them if there are too many pods in the tank - but I doubt this would apply with dottybacks).

For the darkening, you could cover that side of the tank, or you could try doing something like putting a barrier (like a piece of opaque plastic, for example) between the light and that side of the tank, or you could do both. That's the best I can think of for the moment.

Cool project - good luck!

 

[Nate89]

in my opinion, as long as the Rotifers are not causing an ammonia issue, you're ok. When I feed my clown fry, I load up the tank.

yea that's what I've been under the assumption of so far. and I've been doing 1 gallon water changes pretty much every day to help combat that.

 

[Nate89]

I would assume that you can't really have too many rotifers for these guys, but it may well depend on the species of fry (I say this because I know some marine animal larvae, like cuttlefish fry, will stop eating the pods around them if there are too many pods in the tank - but I doubt this would apply with dottybacks).

For the darkening, you could cover that side of the tank, or you could try doing something like putting a barrier (like a piece of opaque plastic, for example) between the light and that side of the tank, or you could do both. That's the best I can think of for the moment.

Cool project - good luck!

the fry that are 7DPH seem to be doing well with such a dense rotifer population. i think it will get a bit trickier over the next few days as i start unenriched Artemia tomorrow and they will compete with the rotifers for the phyto which could cause a bit of a die off in my mind. But shouldn't be anything overly difficult to deal with as long as i continue water changes to combat ammonia

That's what i was thinking as well a plastic sheet over the top with a vertical piece attached to it that runs part of the width of the tank to block it

Thanks!

 

[Nate89]

Just an update if anyone is curious:

3 clutches of Orchid Dottybacks, 17, 10 and 3 days post hatch
1 clutch of clownfish fry (only 2), 5 DPH

I must have 150ish dottybacks in different stages. So far I've only seen to 2 dead ones which I feel like there should be more but I'm happy that that's all I've seen but as the first clutch nears metamorphosis I expect that number to climb.
Hard to get decent photos as the size range is from 3-10ish millimeters in length.

 

[tnw50cal]

Very cool,following.

 

[tnw50cal]

It's been 2 days and no updates, I can't take it.

 

[Nate89]

It's been 2 days and no updates, I can't take it.

Haha, things seem to be going well, lost one of the dottybacks from the youngest fry other then that the only big things in the last few days is my clowns have laid again and I have been experimenting with the youngest clutch with the first feeding by using hikari first fry fish food and not really adding rotifers. So far so good like I said one death today but other then that the larvae seem to be responding to the fry food eating it off the surface.

other then that I think my tank with the older clutches in it may be going through some kind of bacterial bloom but doesn't seem to be affecting the larvae just the clarity of the water.