Picasso Clownfish Larvae All Died

[Paul Bradford]

I had been planning to raise a clutch of Picasso Clown for about a month. I thought I had everything set, the hatching process went well and when I got home from work the next day they were all dead (~18 hours from hatching). So upsetting!!

Ran the following tests:
- PH ~8.20
- Salinity 1.026
- Ammonia less than 0.15
- Temp 81

The tank was blacked out for the first couple hours for hatching 10 pm - 2 am, then removed the pot, added rotifers and green water, and turned on their light. Had one airline putting out approximately one bubble per second. During hatching, there were four gallons in a 10-gallon tank. Removed 1.5 gallons at 2 am when I removed the pot, so I had 2.5 gallons in a 10-gallon tank (ammonia badge, old school suction cup thermometer, Neotherm 25 watt heater set at 80).

My thoughts on causes:

I may have added too many rotifers and they consumed too much of the dissolved oxygen in the water, which caused the crash.

I added some water from my main tank (not the parent tank).

Not enough water agitation from the airline (one bubble per second).


Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

Registering any Ammonia is bad for any fish. I would think that was a big reason why the babies didn't make it. Sorry for the loss of the babies.

 

[Joshua2598]

Ammonia is my guess

 

[Paul Bradford]

Registering any Ammonia is bad for any fish. I would think that was a big reason why the babies didn't make it. Sorry for the loss of the babies.

My ammonia test kit doesn’t test lower than 0.15. What is a good way/test to monitor the ammonia? I’m already using the ammonia badge.

 

[Joshua2598]

My ammonia test kit doesn’t test lower than 0.15. What is a good way/test to monitor the ammonia? I’m already using the ammonia badge.

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