Breed Clownfish | Saltwater Fish

[UNIXMan]

Curious to know what the general success rate is out there. For instance, about how many eggs do you get, how many hatch, how many make it past the dreaded day five? I don't expect it to be easy, but there should be more than only 7% surviving, right

Thanks in advance.

[yelo240z]

Really varies a lot...
Batch 1 eight weeks old, 5 survivors (out of 25 fry scooped from tank)
Batch 2 six weeks old, approx 100 survivors (out of 150)
Batch 3 3 weeks old, no survivors (out of 2)
Batch 4 3 days old, approx 80 survivors (out of 150)

all numbers are approximate... except for the 5 from batch 1 and 0 from batch 3..

[UNIXMan]

You had a good run of luck. Maybe it's something I'm doing? From what I've read here and on other sites, it sounds like everything should be "automatic" once they hatch. I have a lot of experience breeding freshwater species, but I've never had a marine spawn before. This is even my first run at clowns, if you can believe that, although I started my first marine tank over 30 years ago.

Batch 1, I did everything by the book from different sites, 3 hatched, no survivors past day 1.
Batch 2, I did everything as though they were freshwater. Hatched about 65 of 113 eggs, half made it through the week. They looked really good but were dying. Before I realized I had a few worms that were eating them (long story), I lost them all I think they would have made it, too.
Then I found this site....
Batch 3, I followed advice on this site, 2 hatched, neither made it overnight.
Batch 4, went back to what I know. Hatched 30 of about 120 eggs, down to 8 on day five.
They're getting ready to lay another batch of eggs.

Any thoughts as to why the numbers are crazy or something you think you might have done differently to help (or hurt) the little ones? Much appreciated.

[yelo240z]

I read all of the instruction on this site and it was a big help... here is my routine..
I let my eggs hatch in the main tank (only have the mom and dad and yellow tang)

I fill the nursery tank up about 50% with fresh sea water as soon as the eggs are laid and set the temp at 80 degrees with airstone set on low (6-10 stream of bubbles).
Day of hatch or earlier, i take water from the main take and fill nursery another 25%. Back fill main tank almost to the top.
Night of hatch, i cover my tank with towels and turn off all the lights around 10:00 p.m. and wait 45 to 60 minutes (also turn off all pumps, filters and skimmers).
Then i check for fry using a flashlight to draw them to it. If they are there, they will come within 2 or 3 minutes.
If no fry, i recover the tank and wait another 60 minutes, if no fry, turn pumps back on and go to bed.. lol...
Usually, if not the first night, they hatch on the second night (my batch 2 some hatched first night, rest hatched on second night).
When they come to the top, i scoop them out with a plastic cup and place the water and fry in a plastic bag, i keep scooping until the water has the bag approx 1/3 full.. i take the bag and float it in the nursery to let the temps equalize, about 20 to 30 minutes. i keep scooping and filling bags until all the top ones are gotten, then i use a siphon to get the ones down low in the stream of light. After temps equalize, i slowly dump the bag of water and fry into the nursery. Some batches of eggs are better than others and you get higher survival. my clowns are laying every 12 - 15 days and i think quality of hatch is going down.. they need to take a break.. lol... sorry if this is redundant info.. frozen food and clean water started my clowns laying

[yelo240z]

Ooops, forgot.. you must have live rotifers on hand and put them in the nursery the same night. They cannot survive without live rotifers. put more in twice each day even though there seems to be a lot of stuff floating around.. Also, monitor your ammonia closely and do small water changes(10 - 20%) when you vacuum out the dead ones. Get seachem ammonia badge to simply thing. This will tell you constantly, your ammonia level... also, i almost killed them all by using chemicals to remove ammonia.. people do it, but i recommend basic water changes everyday to keep your water chemistry where it should be... ammonia and ph is what you need to monitor... i do not have a filter, so the ammonia is not being converted to nitrite and nitrate, but i check for these every couple of days just in case...

[UNIXMan]

Much appreciated. Not too different than what I'm doing, except if I'm not going to be home to catch them I'll pull the rock with eggs on it and get a small power filter to keep them washed. Then I turn it off and keep air stones going for the hatch.

Your temp sounds high -- I keep mine at 77 deg, same as the main tank. I use a sponge filter in the fry tank -- makes me feel a little better, even though the little voice in my head keeps telling me it doesn't really do anything. I also had some bad luck with live rotifer cultures going sour. Last two smelled really bad, and I tested the water. Ammonia was over 6ppm and I tossed them all. I used bottled ones this time, along with brine shrimp. My best success, Batch 2, was before I even knew about the rotifers and all I fed them was brine shrimp. So far, ammonia's been good, and pH too. I never use ammonia absorbing chemicals with fry - I know it's a very bad thing. I have used charcoal safely with freshies, and it probably would work for salties, too. Have you tried that?

Came home from work to about 150 more eggs today. I will be home when they hatch next Thursday so I'll be able to siphon the fry out instead of pulling the rock first. It will be a challenge because of the other fish, but it has to be done.

Thanks much for the added info. I'll let you know what happens.

[yelo240z]

I think my hatch rate is very high because i leave the eggs to hatch in the main tank. On hatch night, i see the mom and pop working the eggs and that might have something to do with the hatch rate (just guessing, have not read any facts on whether this is true or not).. for my batch 2 and 4, there must have been close to 200 or more that hatched. Have not tried any charcoal on any of my tanks.. i keep the fry in a 10g and 5g, so the water changes are not huge.. if your fry make it to the third day, they can probably eat the very small newly hatched baby brine shrimp. To get the tiny ones, you can't rinse them in fresh water because they will wash through the brine shrimp net. I used an eye dropper and took the shrimp and water right out of my shrimp dish to get the little ones when i was low on rotifers. i am fighting the rotifer high ammonia problem with water changes using the water i siphon out of the fry tanks (has some ammonia, but not as much as that in the rotifer bucket.. My fish laid batch 5 today.. judging by the size of the egg patch, probably around 200-250.. live rotifers seem to be the key to keeping them alive til day 5 or 6 when they can switch to bbs... Good luck with you new batch!

[UNIXMan]

There's A LOT of info out there, and most of it is contradictory. I'm not sure I know what to believe anymore, lol. The male takes great care of the eggs from the minute they're laid, and last time I did see the female fussing with them toward the end. You're probably right about that, but I haven't found any info on it. I am using a 10g. Do you think a 5g is a better size? I think it's a little small.

I'm not so sure about the rotifers. I did OK without them and got a lot past day five on Batch 2. I had used that tank to cure some new rock. When I drained it, I didn't rinse it out -- I just drained it. I should have because I never noticed there were a few bristle worms left behind. I think I would have been OK if the worms didn't get them. I didn't use any rotis. I didn't know about them. I have only ever used brine shrimp even for all the freshwater fish I've raised. I also never had ammonia until this time. Hmmm... Good thing to use for brine shrimp is coffee filters. I also change the brine shrimp water every couple of days to keep them happy. Do you feed them? I give them baby food (peas & carrots) just a little bit. If you don't feed them, they eat their egg sacs and are worthless to the fry. Also, they die and become little ammonia factories. I only buy the really high quality baby food -- make sure there's no potato in it or your water will get funky very fast. If you do it right, you can actually grow them into adults.

Good luck to you with Batch 5. Mine (about 175?) should hatch Thursday. And now, I'm off to do some water changes.

[yelo240z]

I usually just hatch enough bbs for 2 days so there is still some egg sac nutrition left for the fry..already too much work to keep the fry and roti's alive... let alone growing bbs... lol... my 10 gal has batches 1 and 2 in it and they are growing. So when batch 4 came along, i had to get another tank and opted for a 5g due to counter space constraints. I have a 30g tank that i am trying to cycle and eventually move the bigger fry out of the 10gal in to it... in the mean time, if i get lucky with batch 5, they can go in with batch 4 for a while (when the fry are 2 - 3 weeks apart, they can't eat each other)... then they go in the 10 gal when it is vacated. I am in the process of building a sump for the 30 gal so i do not have to do daily water changes. Not sure when this is all going to slow down, but something needs to change before i can go on vacation.. haha...

[alanna]

As far as rotifers go I use a 5g bucket with a lid and a small air stone. I don't change the water and i just feed them when I need the #s up for a hatch. I use rotifer diet. Then I collect rotifers with a coffee filter and just feed the rotifer in the fry tank. Co-culture works great for us lazy folks. I don't have to collect rotifers every day. Lots of rotifers help keep your water in the fry tank in better shap which to me equals less water changes. I did contaminate one rotifer culture bucket with brine shrimp now it is a rotifer and b.shrimp culture so I just feed out of that bucket when the fry are 5 days old. So now I don't have to hatch b. shrimp.
It is all a lot of trial and error. Mostly error But I learned alot and have been able to support my hobbie by trading baby clowns for salt, other fish, fish food and a R/O unit. So keep up the work it will payoff alittle as long as you can find someone to buy your fry or trade with you. Good luck!