ORR Clownfish Breeding

[orr2003]

I am going to use this as my clownfish breeding journal. I have been in the reef hobby for many years on and off and just set up a new reef on 4/28/2017. A few weeks after setting up the new tank my 13yr old daughter wanted to try and breed some clownfish. So a couple weeks after setting up the reef we added a 45g RR frag tank that we sectioned off into 4 compartments and we started looking for clownfish to pair up. We have a Black Ice pair, 2 Lightning Maroon pairs, and we had a Phantom female and Phantom bullet hole male pair but unfortunately the phantom male got picked on so bad we had to removed him and just put the Phantom female in the reef tank. At this point I am thinking about putting the Phantom female with the Lightning maroon male and see if we can get them to pair up since we have one Lightning pair spawing already.
The Black Ice pair and one of the Lightning Maroon pairs have started to spawn. They are on their 3rd clutch of eggs now laid 11/16/2017 and 11/20/2017. We are going to wait a couple more spawns befroe we try to raise the fry. Everything is ready and rotifer culture is up and running so hopefully within a few more weeks we will have some babies.
I took a couple short videos or the mated pairs today and a video of our reef.
The clownfish broodstock tank is plumbed into the main reef system but it needs some cleaning soon.
Hope you enjoy the videos.
This is our first attempt at raising fry so it will be a learning experience for sure. We have been reading everything we can and believe we have a good understanding of what is required but with that said any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Steadyreef42]

Awesome. Looking forward to updates!

 

[orr2003]

Here goes......first attempt to raise clownfish fry. Black Ice pair laid eggs on 11/20/17 so tonight was the 8th night. We decided to give it a go. Pulled the pot from the broodstock tank about 5 minutes before lights out and put into the fry tank. Fry tank is a 10g with all sides blacked out and bottom is all white. Fry tank has a heater and small air stone. Placed pot into fry tank put small airstone inside the pot and covered the top of the tank to black the tank out. 2 hours later uncovered the tank to find well over 100 fry, pulled the pot out, tinted the water with some live nanno and a little nanno paste from brine shrimp direct. Added some rotifers that have been feeding on algae paste, live nanno, and live Iso phyto to the fry tank and turned on the light to the fry tank. So far so good. Wish us luck maybe we can get some of these past meta with a little luck.

 

[sabeypets]

A couple of years ago I had lightning maroons hatch before I left on a trip. I planed on challenging my 16 year old son to raise them while I was gone but it was my 14 year old daughter that accepted and raised 16 on her first attempt. She is now 16 and can raise clowns easily on her own. Great project to work on together good luck!

 

[orr2003]

A couple of years ago I had lightning maroons hatch before I left on a trip. I planed on challenging my 16 year old son to raise them while I was gone but it was my 14 year old daughter that accepted and raised 16 on her first attempt. She is now 16 and can raise clowns easily on her own. Great project to work on together good luck!

Thats awesome sabeypets! My daughter is pretty excited about watching them grow...that is if we can keep them alive. She is already wanting to try and pair up a Black Ice and Lightning Maroon. The Lightning Maroons should be laying today or tomorrow.

 

[orr2003]

Thought we would wake up this morning and find some dead already but so far none have died that we can tell. Rotifer density in the fry tank was a little low from what we could tell so added some more this morning.
Here is a little better video 12 hours post hatch.

 

[orr2003]

Couple questions for you more experienced guys and gals.

1. I blacked the front of the fry tank with black poster board that can be removed. When can/should this be removed or should it just be left on until meta?

2. When should you start your first water change?

3. Does the first water change consist of removing water from the fry tank and replacing it or should you just be dripping in more water on top of the existing water volume?

4. Should the first water change water be newly made saltwater or water from the broodstock tank? *note* my broodstock tank water is also my SPS reef tank water....all hooked together.

I started the hatch tank with 4 gallons of broodstock tank water and 1 gallon of freshly made saltwater for a total of 5 gallons to start. So I have 4 or 5 gallons I can add over time to dilute the fry tank.

 

[Dono1990]

refer to the post in here called Clownfish breeding. Need help with raising fry past day 5. The one guy posted in there answering a lot of your questions about water changes/cleaning/etc..

 

[sabeypets]

Couple questions for you more experienced guys and gals.

1. I blacked the front of the fry tank with black poster board that can be removed. When can/should this be removed or should it just be left on until meta?
When tinting the water like you are have I found it unnecessary to black out. Most will remove at meta.

2. When should you start your first water change?
I start with a 10 gallon tank half full and drip a gallon a day in until it is full [about 5 days], then siphon a gallon off the bottom daily and drip in new.

3. Does the first water change consist of removing water from the fry tank and replacing it or should you just be dripping in more water on top of the existing water volume?
never remove until after meta, drip more in daily.

4. Should the first water change water be newly made saltwater or water from the broodstock tank? *note* my broodstock tank water is also my SPS reef tank water....all hooked together.
I use fresh made but either will work.

I started the hatch tank with 4 gallons of broodstock tank water and 1 gallon of freshly made saltwater for a total of 5 gallons to start. So I have 4 or 5 gallons I can add over time to dilute the fry tank.

 

[orr2003]

Thanks sabeypets.

Everything seems to be going good so far. I started dripping in new saltwater today. I saw about 20 or so dead ones on the bottom today and used a pipette to suck them out.

What would be a normal percentage to keep alive from a hatch? I realize not all are going to make it just curious what I should expect if all proper conditions are met.

 

[orr2003]

2dph and all seems to be thriving. Still a long way to go so keeping our fingers crossed.
Video of the fry tank today and one of our rotifer and phyto cultures. We have two 5g buckets of rotifers and Nanno, Tetra, and Iso phyto going. Rotifers are feed Brine Shrimp Direct nanno algae concentrate and they also get some tetra and iso a couple hours before being feed to the fry.
The Lightning Maroon pair laid another clutch of eggs yesterday so we will be hatching those in about a week in a separate fry tank.

 

[sabeypets]

I'm happy around 80% with clowns, I have talked to others that claim they get close to 100%. There is definitely a learning curve the more you raise the greater your success.
Most fail with maroons the first attempt due to underestimating the amount of live food 1 or 2 thousand mouths eat for 8 to 14 days. I usually only try to raise 200 to 300 hundred at a time. Maroons are also a harder to sale, make sure there is a market as you Don't want a 1000 maroons and the LFS will only take 2 at a time.

 

[orr2003]

I'm happy around 80% with clowns, I have talked to others that claim they get close to 100%. There is definitely a learning curve the more you raise the greater your success.
Most fail with maroons the first attempt due to underestimating the amount of live food 1 or 2 thousand mouths eat for 8 to 14 days. I usually only try to raise 200 to 300 hundred at a time. Maroons are also a harder to sale, make sure there is a market as you Don't want a 1000 maroons and the LFS will only take 2 at a time.

80% sounds like a good number to shoot for. We lost some the first 24 hours but since then all seem to be thriving. I would say we are around the 80% mark so far. We are at day 4 post hatch and they are definitely are growing. How many days is normal for you before they hit meta?

 

[orr2003]

We are at day 7 post hatch!! We siphoned the bottom of the tank a couple times now and replaced about 1 to 1.5 gallons each time with new saltwater. We have had 3 or 4 dead fry on the bottom each time we siphoned but most are still thriving. We fed TDO-A on day 2 to day 5. TDO-B1 was started on day 4 and we will continue to feed it until around day 15. Still not sure really how much of the TDO's we should be feeding and how often? Some of the TDO accumulates on the bottom of the tank and was the main reason for siphoning the bottom. Still providing rotifers as a live food source and we are currently hatching some baby brine shrimp to feed tomorrow.
Couple new videos 7pdh

 

[Chitown tom]

Love the updates!
Keep them coming!

 

[pandagobyguy]

Any advice for how to get my clowns to spawn?
I bought them as juveniles and theg have seemed fully grown for about a year. Trying ro figure out how to get spawning to even happen....

 

[orr2003]

Any advice for how to get my clowns to spawn?
I bought them as juveniles and theg have seemed fully grown for about a year. Trying ro figure out how to get spawning to even happen....

Honestly I didnt do anything at all. I have my broodstock tank hooked into my reef system which keeps the water parameters very stable. I just feed a couple different types of food and after about 6 months I had two different pairs start spawning with a couple days of each other. Many people say raise the water temp but I didnt. My tank stays constant at 79.6-80.1 I have the lights over the broodstock tank set at 11 hours a day and I feed them 2 or 3 times a day. Most everything that I have read says feed many times a day, raise the temp to 82-84 and run 12 hour light cycle. I am just lucky I guess. But I would read this link, very good info on clownfish breeding.
https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/269202-pickle’s-guide-to-breeding-clowns/

 

[pandagobyguy]

Honestly I didnt do anything at all. I have my broodstock tank hooked into my reef system which keeps the water parameters very stable. I just feed a couple different types of food and after about 6 months I had two different pairs start spawning with a couple days of each other. Many people say raise the water temp but I didnt. My tank stays constant at 79.6-80.1 I have the lights over the broodstock tank set at 11 hours a day and I feed them 2 or 3 times a day. Most everything that I have read says feed many times a day, raise the temp to 82-84 and run 12 hour light cycle. I am just lucky I guess. But I would read this link, very good info on clownfish breeding.
https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/269202-pickle’s-guide-to-breeding-clowns/

Thank you! Great thread! Ill be lurking lol

 

[Tyreef2016]

following

 

[LatinKing]

following as well