Breed Clownfish | Saltwater Fish

[kidaround]

I would love to see a pic of your 10 week olds! How many do you have in that batch? Do you have more than one breeding pair? I give special props to the people that have more than one pair of breeders! I keep myself busy w/ just my one pair

[UNIXMan]

Well, he's past day 10, and that's the worst of it. He should have at least his head stripe by now, but sometimes they come in later, depending on species. I hear good things about otohime, but I never used it. I basically make my own version of it. I'm sure theirs is better quality

I would not put a HOB on now - he's too young. I use one myself (I have a TopFin-30 on that 10 gallon tank), but I wait until they're a couple of months old. When I start the filter, I crank the output to the lowest it goes, and I put a sponge on the intake tube. This one might be ready for a power filter in about a month. Meanwhile, the sponge will be fine. I don't even use a sponge until they're about 2 weeks old, maybe more, because the food is so small it clogs up the sponge quickly. Also, it's easier to see the dead ones and suck them up. Be patient - the water will be clean enough with just the sponge. A good sponge can handle hundreds of babies in a 10 gallon with no problem. His water is definitely clean enough.

I have about 2 dozen of the 10 week olds. They're in a 10 gallon that's been divided because I have two 11 month olds on the other side that were supposed to go to my brother, but he never set up his tank. The older ones have the filter and heater on their side. I have the divider set up so the filter spills along side it - that creates a good current on the other side. I will take a picture for you of the current setup, but here is a picture from last June of a tank full of 2-1/2 week olds. They hatched on the 7th, and this picture was taken on the 23rd. Most of them have 2 stripes at this point. I let the algae grow to support copepods that I harvested from my display tank. I have just one breeding pair of clowns, but it looks like the 11 month olds will start soon. I may sell them as a breeding pair if my brother doesn't take them.

DSCI0162.JPG (50.68 KiB) Viewed 228 times

[kidaround]

Thanks for the pictures! I cannot wait for mine to start looking like that. My lonely little guy is just starting to color up to a tan, and swimming differently, but I still don't see any stripes. It seems strange that he's taking this long, but I'm just happy that he's still alive!! My newest 5 day old batch is suprisingly holding on strong. I'm guessing about a hundred or so. It even looks like mamma is going to lay again today:) If I'm actually getting the hang of this I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all these tanks:)

[kidaround]

Sal~ This is day 6 with my newest batch, and I couldn't believe my eyes....some already have head stripes:) Isn't this really early? My oldest single survivor doesn't even have this... regardless I'm excited he's still alive, and I'm very excited about these new babies! Just wanted to share:)

[UNIXMan]

Sal~ This is day 6 with my newest batch, and I couldn't believe my eyes....some already have head stripes:) Isn't this really early? My oldest single survivor doesn't even have this... regardless I'm excited he's still alive, and I'm very excited about these new babies! Just wanted to share:)

Some get stripes early, some take "forever" - and sometimes they get weird coloring, too! This is really great news!! Glad you're making progress. How many do you have at day 6? You only have a few more days to go and they should all be in the clear. Day 10 is a problem day, give or take a day. You should consider yourself successful if you end up with 60% or better of the hatched fry. Lots of work, but it's an amazing feeling, isn't it?

[kidaround]

Thanks Sal, without your encouragement I probably wouldv'e been a little less hopeful! I would say that I have well over 100 babies still alive. I tried counting, but it's impossible:) I'm actually surpised that I didn't end up hurting over 1/2 of them during last nights clean up. The bottom of the tank gets sooo dirty w/ all the green water sediment. I've been scraping it off the bottom then letting it settle, and syponing it out. I end up creating quite a comotion in the tank, and it seems I'm doing more harm than good. I still haven't figured out the best way to handle this, and by the time I get the bottom cleaned I have only 1" of water left in the tank so I have to strain it, and replace it which creates another whirlwind. I'm using a 10 gallon (5gallons filled) I really need to figure out another way because this makes my job take me longer than it probably should, and I think that I'm harming some of them with this process.
I'm wondering if I can put my first baby in with these guys? I don't have that problem in his tank, because I don't use the green water so the bottom doesn't get as messy. When do you stop adding green to their tank?

[UNIXMan]

If your tank is that dirty, you're probably putting in too much greenwater. I'd cut back on it. At or about day 10, you should start them on flaked food. Make a coarse powder out of flakes, and give them some along with the bbs. Once they transition to flakes, you can cut down on the bbs by about day 20 or thereabouts. After you stop feeding them live brine, there is no need to use greenwater. It's only to keep the rotifers and bbs alive. Great to hear you've got so many!! Yeah, it's very hard to count them. I usually count the eggs before they hatch. Then, I count the number of eggs that didn't hatch to find the total number of hatched fry. Also, I count bodies to figure out how many died. When they get a little bigger, this method doesn't work if they eat the dead ones. You MUST make sure they don't learn about cannibalism - it will be a problem if you don't prevent it early on.

If you have only the one guy, it shouldn't be a problem to put him in with the rest, but give him a really long time to acclimate. Once he's in there, he should fit in with the rest of the crowd. It's never a big deal to mix them if they're only a couple of weeks apart, especially if you only have a small number of the bigger ones. There is no more fighting than usual. If you have a lot of big ones and introduce a few small ones, you're going to end up with a lot of big ones and a small pile of bones I would add the big guy to the little guys' tank - less fish to catch and less acclimation. Plus, the older guy is better equipped at his age to deal with the change in water chemistry.

When I clean my tanks for the little guys, I use an air line as the siphon tube and scrape the bottom with the air line. I may not get it all, but I pick up all the loose stuff and a good amount of the stuck on gunk. If I need to do a "big" cleanup, I catch the little guys and keep them in a small bucket while I clean house to lessen the trauma. Most of them handle people very well, but there are a few now and then that are very afraid, and you also get the occasional nasty biter. It goes slow, but in a 2-1/2 it's not that bad. I also use the air line to siphon water back in. I think it gives them more time to acclimate to the chemistry change.

Really glad to hear you're doing well with them. I hope you've taken some notes to determine what it was you did differently this time that may have been the reason for your great success. Taking a lot of notes and keeping a log is very useful - it's how you learn the most. Post a picture, I'd love to see them. Let me know how it goes

[kidaround]

Sorry it's taken me a while to get back. It's been a nice really long weekend, and I was trying to stay off the internet for most of it:) Here's a picture that I've taken today. They are 11 days old, and some of them seem to really like that corner:) I should have another batch hatch tomorrow. Looks like a much smaller batch, but that is okay with me:) Just curious as to how many tanks you have for your clowns? I was thinking that I might need to get some more they keep up at this rate, lol. What is the grow out time?? 5 months?

[UNIXMan]

VERY kewl!! I stayed off the Net, too, haha. Hope you had a great weekend. Mine was pretty quiet, but good. Great pic of your 11 day olds! They do form little groups, and there's always a corner that becomes the greatest place to be till they discover another corner. It's also amazing how they will fight all day and huddle together at night.

I just have 2 tanks now. I was thinking of starting up a third, but I don't want to get too complicated. It takes 5 or 6 months before you can sell any. That's 12 batches, at every 2 weeks, and there's no way I want to keep that many tanks. Then you have to find something to do with them - there's only so many pet shops, and they only want so many fish. As it is, I can't sell them all at once, and I even sell them privately. Once they get in the swing, it's about 200-250 eggs every two weeks. A bit much

[kidaround]

It's now been 3 weeks 3 days since the big & only batch I've been able to keep alive:) Now I'm facing a dilema possibly?! I noticed two days ago 1 of the many turning almost white from the typical orange. He was hanging out by himself under the heater towards the bottom of the tank. I decided to take him out just incase it could've been a sickness and didn't want it to spread. Now I'm faced with 4 more like him. 2 seem to be eating still, but they sit on the bottom of the tank afterwards where all the rest are swimming around happily! What could this be? Has anyone else experienced this? I put the sponge filter in with them about 5 or 6 days ago. Water changes still everyday about 10 percent. Water drips per second back in. Not doing anything else out of norm. Is this typical at this time? Should I be taking these one's out? Wierd. I just don't want to loose them all!! I still believe I have over 100. Is the 10 gallon ok for this amount? I do 2 bottom cleanings a day, and feed them about 5x's a day. PS How are your fishies, Sal?