Breed Clownfish | Saltwater Fish

[miamiangler]

I was lucky to see my clown fish laying her eggs on 4-26-09 . gave my time to get things set up for tonight . I made some calls and found a pet shop 18 miles away that could get me rotifers . I also met the lady who breeds clownfish at the store . She gave me great advise on raising the rotifers .Instead of a 5gal bucket I am using a 2 gal one with very little air flow ,so far it`s working !I started culture 2 Today . I also picked up a soft cover book ,CLOWNFISHES by Joyce D. Wilkerson , great read and lots of good information on captive care and breeding.
I took some pictures before I will take the rock out and put it in the fry tank , will post what happens soon !

IMG_0136MA22144736-0003.jpg (34.08 KiB) Viewed 3080 times

[miamiangler]

Well the hatch started rather slow for some reason ,only 14 fry hatched by Saturday morning May 2 (day7)Hatch # 1 . Not sure why ?I also put rotifers in the Fry tank , within eight hours the fry where already going for the rotifers .I moved the fry tank to the bathroom where it is much darker !

As of Sunday morning May 3 (day8) nothing yet I went to the pet shop and bought another 2 and half gallon tank and heater . Set it up as another fry tank . By 3:00pm had 30 fry swimming around . Hatch # 2 caught them all

By 7 PM got home and lucky enough to watch Hatch # 3 happening I gave the fry some help with a turkey baster by gently moving water over the eggs . I caught another 25 or 30 fry ? I started losing count ! Now I have two fry tanks side by side so not to put a big load in one tank . So Far only 1 fry lost !

Put the rock back in the same place in my reef tank , The male clownfish has started to clean it !

[alanna]

Love the pictures You did great with so many fry! That make me feel more comfortable with taking my rock out on 5/4 due to yours went so well. I was able to count my fry now that they are bigger. I counted 26 or 27. But the lights went out Sat. pm and stayed out for about 11 hours. I found 1 dead fry. The temp. dropped to around 75. This was also the 1st time the lights had been out in the fry tank. I also now have a large puffer fish that is not eating. I bought a generator for next time. I was so worried all of the fry would die. My big tank with batch #4 eggs seems to be OK. Still working on getting rotifer diet at a store I haven't got to speak with the owner this week about ordering it. I did leave him some info. on what I needed an where to get it. My rotifers have a smell. Is this normal or do I need to do a big water change or do I just have a green water culture going on? I may try to find that book you have. Have you read any of it and did you like it?

[miamiangler]

Hi Alanna, Thanks I have more but have not down loaded the pic`s on the PC yet ! Moving the rock was not as easy as I thought , My Male clownfish was depressed for a day not eating and searching the whole reef tank looking for his treasures Yes I have read some parts over and over ! I would say it is worth every penny , the book has many great Ideas that I am using .I have lowered my fry tank very slowly down to 1.021 .
As for your lower Temp , I had the same problem , but I did not calabrate the heater right and the temp dropped to 77F on Friday Saturday morning I had it back up to 82.6 F and seemed to do the trick . I think the lower temp delayed the hatch ... so far I have only lost 9 fry as of today . Most of the work is keeping up with the rotifers !!!!... I am using two 2.5 gallon buckets with a piece of tubing just giving about 1 bubble a sec. what I have been doing is siphioning the bucket with the rotifers into a clean bucket just leaving the dirt and a little of the water behind ,about 6 fl ozs. now that water I put in a small container ( small plastic soda bottle )and add some clean water to that . I leave that out side in the shade ,but not in the direct sun ,add two cap full of phytoplankton (Dr.G`s) with no air stone ! so far it has worked for me .. the rotifers seem to multiply in a day and when strained are nice and green ! I am no expert it`s only day 2 and 3 that my fry are still alive ! As for the smell I think means you are having a crash with the rotifers ! I would change the water as soon as you can . you might be able to start a new culture with it ! good luck with your hatch!

[alanna]

Thanks for the info. The 6 oz. bottle is this what you are using as green water or just to multiple the rotifers in that bottle? I did start a 3rd rotifer culture last week. I still have lots of rotifers in all of the buckets. I also do the slow air bubble for them. What are you feeding your rotifers? My porcupine puffer fish passed away last night. But the snowflake eel in the same tank is fine. All my fry are doing good. They are getting the last strip. I'm thinking about putting some live rock in the tank with them. I'll try to find the book this weekend when I'm off work and can make the 2 hour trip to any of the fish stores. Do you have more eggs yet?

[miamiangler]

I have moved the culture to a 2 liter bottle with a air stone , so I will see how it works in multiplying the rotifers. I`m still new to all of this so I am hoping it works ! I still have two buckets of rotifers going ,so far knock on wood ,no Problems !
This morning some of the fry did not do to well I Still have 17 in tank #1 and 14 in tank #2 ,but after a water change and later adding 3 quarts of 1.020 main tank water to each tank . Which took most of the day ,by the drip a sec method !The fry seem active and starting in hunting mode ! All have silver bellies and starting kink tails ,some just drift and eat (day 2 )
I am feeding tthe rotifers Dr.G`s Phytoplankton, It is all I could find for now . It might be part of the die off or maybe because of the late hatch . I dont have any eggs yet which Is good for now ,till I get the hang of all the work involved in raising fry. right now it`s trial and error. I probably need to do a water change .I get my sea water offshore when I`m in my boat !
Sorry to hear about your puffer fish ,I never had luck with them ,also not a good fish in a reef tank , they have been known to give off toxins into the water . I also have a small 7 inch snow flake eel in my reef tank .I didn`t feed it for a few days and made quick work out of my mated pair of coral banded shrimp . Hopefully when the ocean water heats up to 82degrees I`ll catch another pair of shrimp
I hope you find the book , I would call around first or maybe you can find it online . try Amazon .com, I paid about 24 dollars for my copy .

[alanna]

My puffer and eel are or at least the puffer was in a 29gal tank with just live rock. I had to have 2 tanks due to the temptation to get stuff that eat coral and shrimp or will eat anything smaller than itself. I think I've had the puffer for about 3-4 yrs he was like a puppy dog very interactive with us. I got a fire red shrimp a few wks ago and my 2 candy cane shrimp disapeared during the night. I didn't see that one coming. I don't know much about sea water but it may have chemicals in it that could be bad for the fry or it could be better.
Sorry to hear you lost more fry. I did move the rock last night it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. The poor male and female just looked shocked. At 1st I only had 5 fry after 30 mins. so moved the air stone because it looked like to much flow. after 30 mins. only a few more fry so I put the rock back on the air stone. I went to bed a 4 am I was busy with work stuff. 7 am alot of dead fry on the bottom of the tank, some still swimming and some still not hatched. I then took the black trash bag off the tank and put the rock with eggs back in the big tank. Thinking they will hatch tonight and not to upset the male and female anymore than I have to. I did this so I could turn on the light for the other live fry so they could see better to eat. Not sure why so many dead fry maybe air flow was too high for hatching or maybe they couldn't see to eat. I checked them before I left for work and the were fry still alive. The big tank all the eggs had hatched and gone. I didn't think they hatch in the light. Oh well... This is alot of trial and error. Maybe more error. Hopefully I can find way tonight to put some pictures up of my 26 older fry they are so cute! My rotifers are still OK, I guess. I see dust like stuff floating in the water. It must be nice to live near enough to the ocean to collect stuff from it I hope mine lay again in a few days and I didn't upset them too much with the nest move. I tried to put the rock back just like it was. Good luck with the rest of your fry. Keep me updated

[miamiangler]

Sorry to hear your trouble with your hatch ... best not to bother it much . could be you had the air stone too strong . I just have it enough to move the eggs . By putting the rock back in your main tank ,I am sure the clownfish cleaned it off . Mine did it as soon as I put the rock back in it`s place. My rotifer`s are not doing well. It must be that I have to feed two tanks 3 times that I am running low. I just called the pet store to see if I can get some by 8:00pm , I am sure I have enough for two more feedings . I have moved every fry to one tank ,there`s about 21 of the approx 60 I had ! I am hoping with all this work ,I might get one or two for now .. there`s 10 that are bigger then the rest and eating well .

living near the Ocean has it`s good things , I am out there every weekend fishing , now in the summer when it gets to hot to fish I do the snorkeling and diving thing .I collect mostly inverts.now . last year I caught a small dusky jawfish , all I can say what a character he is

[miamiangler]

Update Day 3 15hrs,

This morning 6AM have no dead fry (did a recount 29 fry alive), all seem to eat well . did tank bottom cleaning , added one drop Iodine to tank .

Temp 82.4 F, 1.020 S G

Will pick up roti`s at 12 noon when store opens and going to use a bottle of what the breeder is using to feed her rotifer`s


Will do a water change 1 quart when I get home from work ,I like the level of the tank water I have Now . When do the black cover come off the tank or should it still stay on ? going to try some flake food in the morning ,but still debating that idea !
Will start hatching live brine today to start feeding some on Friday. Has any one tried adding vitamins to the live brine before feeding the fry ?

[miamiangler]

update day 4

Nothing new , no lost fry ,did a water change ,temp 82.4.SG1.020

Started a new culture of rotifer`s and mixed a quart of green water .


As of 4:37PM the female clownfish has started laying batch #3