Breed Clownfish | Saltwater Fish

[miamiangler]

Dave , very nice pic`s of your fish , also Happy New Year !

[alanna]

Love the pitures! Great job!
As far as my clowns not laying for awhile my best guess is the tank was not up to what they wanted. I did a big water change. They did lay eggs Dec. 26th a small batch which was gone on that Mon.
But the female clown looks fat again so, I guess I'll have eggs again soon. I need to do another water change but I'm out of salt. I hope I can get to Little Rock Sat. if the weather is OK.
I moved all of my baby clowns to one tank. Its so nice to only have to feed 3 tanks.

[alanna]

Well, I have new clownfish eggs as of last night. A nice big batch.

And a new project Ella my wolf eel-blenny layed a huge batch of eggs last night also . How cool is that? They are a large cluster of purple eggs that stick together about 2half in x 1half in. I thought she was sick because she didn't eat the last time I feed her and her belly was swollen. I thought she was constipated and maybe needed a belly rub to help her or a epson salt bath to make her have a bowel movement. Guess I was wrong.
The sad thing is she is such a good mother to the eggs curling her body around them and she moves them with her. From what I read she is looking for a male to fertilize them.
Anybody got a male wolf eel- blenny(carpet eel-blenny,Anarrhichthys ocellatus)?
The 2 puffers in her tank have not bothered her or her eggs. The dog face puffer was just upset because of all the attention on the tank so he went to his corner and did his little displeased color change. Just when I thought things were getting easier with only 3 tanks now not only will I need the fry tank going in 6-7 days but another tank for the puffers. I tried to talk my son into taking the puffers to his room he says they are ugly.

[davek0819]

Great news about the clown eggs.... wolf-eel egss...very cool, you might have to set up you own site...good luck finding a mate. Are their fry easy to care for?

Mine are currently caring for a new batch due to hatch Wed / Thus. The rotifer and photoplankton cultures are in full swing and doing very well. I should have enough food for them if/ when I can collect them.

I tried to talk my son into a brackish puffer tank awhile back and he would go for it either.

[alanna]

So far unable to find a male eel. But I'm not sure how well they will sell. The fry can eat b. shrimp. It sounds easier than clownfish. But I'm worried I would hatch 200 and not have a place for them. I asked the shop where I sell my clowns. He said they are pretty hard to sale. Good luck with your hatch this week! I hope my rotifers are ready I haven't been taking care of them. I guess I find out I'm going to set up the fry tank tonight with co-culture. I started feeding them alittle around the 27 of Dec.

[davek0819]

You can always set up around 200 eel tanks about the house.

Well I sold some clown on Sunday, 5 of my larger ones, happy day. They're hard to catch, I was afraid I might stress them while I was netting them. I think next time I'll wait for more to get to the right size so I don't have to be more specific trying to catch them.

The rotifers are doing well, I'm surprised how quick they've been culturing so I decided to harvast and feed my few corals. The candy cane seemed to enjoy them. The polpys started to extend even while the lights were on after I turkey basted the rotifers around them. I could tell the plate coral caught some and was moving them towards it's mouth.

Still waiting on the next hatch, I'm hoping for Thursday, I have a meeting tomorrow night so I won't be around if it happens. The eggs were turning silver today, but not completely, so I might have another day.

[davek0819]

Batch #5 ...i think...the eggs hatch last night right after lights out, same as before. My son and I managed to catch as much as we could. They're in a 10 gallon tank, about 3 gallons of water, I used a black trash bag to block out the 3 sides and put a white sheet of paper below. I put the light on as soon as I had the tank set up and began the co-culture. Guessing about 50-100 in the tank, hard to tell because of the green water.

The fry seemed well this morning and I can see many of them darting after the rotifers already. I forgot how small they are. I'm trying to follow most of my steps from the first batch where I seemed to have the most luck. Many small water changes up until the morph is the plan at the moment.

[alanna]

Funny about that many eel tanks Its hard enough caring for 4 tanks now I've got to set up another for the fry due this weekend. Not sure where to put them. Looks like around 60 or more fry from the last batch doing great. Ella the eel is fat again, but she is still eating alot so I guess she will lay later. Still no male. Not that I'm too upset that I don't have a male. I would hate to have to mail you 200 baby eels as a surprize I think you could keep them in 1 tank for a while. I wish I new a place that would buy the eels from me if I did have some. Still too worried about not being able to sale them, but I've only ask one place. Rotifers are great and rotifer with b shrimp are fine too, seems to be more rotifer in the one with the b shrimp unless it baby b shrimp too. Its too hard to tell the difference in tiny floating dust particals

[alanna]

sorry had alot going on here.
I did sale 19 baby clowns at $6.oo each
I then got a flame angel, a used r/o unit, some food for all the other fish, a few snails and crabs.
I have maybe 8 ready to sale now.
I killed the last 3 batchs due to heater issues and one batch the starfish ate the night of the hatch by reaching through the rocks when the lights were out I caught him doing it when I didn't find any fry after 45mins of course I shined the light on the eggs and there he was. He was after the new batch of eggs they had on Sun. it took me awhile to get him out from behind the rock with a long spoon. I put him in my sons tank.
Ella the eel is still laying eggs about every 2-3 wks. I stopped looking for a male too worried I wouldn't be able to sell them.
Rotifers and b.shrimp cultures are fine.
I must say I'm getting a little tried of feeding all the tanks of fry, but it does help pay for my hobby I would like to put more big colorful fish in my big tank, but it would upset the clowns and they would stop laying again.
I have some babies missing 2 bars, I wonder how they will sell.
I also have one dwarf clown with all his bars he is cute he should be about 6mos old.

[davek0819]

Very late follow up... Well a slip on some Ice back in January took it's toll on my breeding tanks, rotifers and plankton cultures. I tore my knee which left me imobile for 2 weeks and limited movement for several months, it kept me from doing water changes for about 3-4 months. Plankton crashed and then the rotifers so I stopped collecting fry. Having different batches in one grow out tank caused some of the bigger clowns to pick on (kill) some of the smaller ones. I wasn't able to feed them as much as needed. I think the poor water quality in the main tank even caused the clowns to stop spawning for a bit. With smaller water changes when i was able to put weight on my leg again the main tank re-established itself and the clowns are now spawing on a regular basis. I managed the sell more of the fry and even traded for a new coral. I ran into a snag selling the fry because there's not much demand for the Clarkii because they're a bigger clownfish. I have a few more to sell, or I was thinking about letting them grow out in the 20 gallon.

I haven't giving up yet, but figured I'd give it a rest for a little while since i'd be starting over from scratch. It was nice to see the fry grow to over an inch, but it was very disappointing to watch the cultures crash when I wasn't able to do anything about it.