Raising Some Clownfish

[saippenu]

Watching my clowns lay eggs every 2 weeks has finally sucked me in.

 

I have 7 larvae that are just 3 days old now. I learned alot about how to do this from these forums and I also purchased and set up my 29 gallon nano based on these forums, so I just wanted to share it here.

 

Everything is going great so far. It is alot of work tho!

 

I'm blogging about it here. Visit My Clownfish Blog

You can tell that I am a total noob But that's ok.

 

I just posted pics of the larvae in their 5 gallon tank.

 

Wish me luck !

[Mini-Dude]

Start a thread in the aquaculture section here about your experiences. Read pickle's and lalani's thread too. You can always ask questions.

[Lalani]

 

Be sure to post plenty of details and pics here!

 

I noticed the picture of the babies in your blog and how the water is crystal clear. How are you feeding them?

[saippenu]

 

Be sure to post plenty of details and pics here!

 

I noticed the picture of the babies in your blog and how the water is crystal clear. How are you feeding them?

 

The water as pretty much a murky green. So much so that you can't take photos through the side of the tank. For some reason, possibly the overhead lights, things look clearer and are easier to photograph from above.

 

Mini-dude, this is a thread in the aquaculture forum

[Mini-Dude]

That makes since. I just saw it on the home page and didn't think of looking. sorry but yeah post some pics please.

[Trogdor447]

i wanna see!!

[saippenu]

i wanna see!!

 

Trogdor, my friends and co-workers are all watching this process with interest so I set up the blog so that I don't have to send several emails and make several posts in various places.

 

I'll keep the blog updated with photos and videos as I go along. If i lose them all, you'll see my crying about it at the blog too LOL.

 

Pics and videos are here.

My Clownfish Blog

[epicfish]

 

Be sure to post plenty of details and pics here!

 

I noticed the picture of the babies in your blog and how the water is crystal clear. How are you feeding them?

 

Don't pretend you know what you're doing...noob!

[Trogdor447]

Trogdor, my friends and co-workers are all watching this process with interest so I set up the blog so that I don't have to send several emails and make several posts in various places.

 

I'll keep the blog updated with photos and videos as I go along. If i lose them all, you'll see my crying about it at the blog too LOL.

 

Pics and videos are here.

My Clownfish Blog

 

thats great, my tank thread is a life cycle of about 1 year! It has not been an easy ride and a lot of mistakes along the way. But this is the hobby we are in, and it is worth the hard times.

[Lalani]

Don't pretend you know what you're doing...noob!

Oh whatever.

[saippenu]

I'm a little concerned about the ammonia level in the larvae tank. I just tested it and it's high. About .60ppm

But I am not sure how much is too much. It's only day 3 so I wasn't planning on a water change until tomorrow. I have the water ready for a change, just very nervous about doing it, and I also have company today, so tomorrow would be better all around.

 

I hope I don't lose them by waiting.

 

Does anyone know how much ammonia 3 day old larvae can safely handle?

 

I am probably over feeding the tank. When I remove a vile and hold it up to light, there are a alot of rotifers in it. I may have gone overboard. I don't think I should have so much ammonia this soon?

[ericm1205]

add some amquel to lower the ammonia level.

[mrbigshot]

photon clowns?

[saippenu]

photon clowns?

 

I don't know what a photon clown is, mine are just regular Ocellaris clowns. Since they were spawning anyway, I figured I'd take a crack at raising up the fry and if I do well with it, and enjoy doing it, I will likely get a pair of Picassos and do the same with them.

 

I had a really exciting day today and have some videos to share. I ended up with 2 larvae to day 7 from my first attempt and today one of them went through metamorphosis. He's adorable, all fat and orange with a white stripe on his head. The other larvae still looks like a tadpole but he has the white stripe so I think when I wake up tomorrow that he will have finished the change as well.

 

I offered them brine shrimp for the first time tonight and they were going for it, yaaay, another hurdle crossed.

 

Here is a video of the one who is through with the change.

 

And tonight was egg night and I videotaped the whole thing. Much better batch this time.

 

Woohoo, lot's of success. I think I deserve a brand new tank with a pair of Picassos

[Pickle010]

Cool Video's! I like them - I rarely seem to get lucky enough to see my fish spawn, especially my GSM's - I think I've witnessed them spawning once in the last year. I sure don't think to grab the video camera when they do. I should though! Nice capture.

[saippenu]

Thanks Pickle

 

I read your whole thread before trying this

 

My clowns spawn exactly 20 minutes after I get home from work every 14 days. It takes them 55 minutes to complete the event. They are like clockwork on everything so it's easy to grab the camera and film. Now that they are using the ceramic tile it's easy to get decent shots because it's right on the outer edge of the tank.

 

Their eggs hatch at exactly the same time on day 8 as well, so it's easy to know when to pull the eggs.

 

I even put a spotlight on the poor things while they were spawning and it didnt seem to phase them.

 

Everyone at work has been following along with the progress ( because I talk their ears off about it ) and they are teasing me that my spare bedroom is going to end up full of baby clowns because I'll refuse to part with any of them. They are probably right heh heh.

[saippenu]

I had such a clear view this time, much clearer and closer than what you can see in this video, that now I understand the egg eating that goes on. I didnt understand why parents who doted on their eggs for 8 days, would chow down on them in the begging of the process. I thought that maybe they were maintaning their energy for the event by snacking.

 

But now I know what it's all about. Every 20 eggs or so, momma is laying duds. The duds are two or three sizes bigger than the healthy eggs, they're shaped differently, being totally round instead of tubular, and they are white instead of orange. The male is cleaning those duds out before he lays his stuff down on the eggs. Once he nibbles all the duds away, he does his thing. Then the female lays more good eggs over the spaces left by the duds. The male again cleans out any duds that she sets down on the next pass, and then makes his pass again. At the end of it all, the female was laying more duds than at the beginning, so more eating was going on at the end....which is usually where my viewing comes into the scene and I get upset that they are eating the eggs that they just laid.

 

So they eat the bad eggs, which are probably more prolific when the parents aren't properly fed, but they aren't eating just to feed themselves.

 

I learned alot from this one.

[mrbigshot]

nice video, the one ealier looked like the parents were a mix of orange and black, this one shows them much better.

 

with a better diet and some experence they will lay nicely.

[Pickle010]

Thanks Pickle

 

I read your whole thread before trying this

 

 

And you still thought it was a good idea to try?

[saippenu]

heh yeah Pickle, like many of us here, I enjoy the mad scientist/chemist routine that having saltwater, and especially reef tanks provides. The constant fussing, measuring and tweaking satisfies that little OCD streak in me without letting it spill into the rest of my life. Raising the babies is just the next logical step in the chain once doing all of the rest becomes old hat.

[Pickle010]

That's awesome - and it sounds like my own story. Looks like you are off to great start - I look forward to watching your progress.

[saippenu]

Watching my clowns lay eggs every 2 weeks has finally sucked me in.

 

I have 7 larvae that are just 3 days old now. I learned alot about how to do this from these forums and I also purchased and set up my 29 gallon nano based on these forums, so I just wanted to share it here.

 

Everything is going great so far. It is alot of work tho!

 

I'm blogging about it here. Visit My Clownfish Blog

You can tell that I am a total noob But that's ok.

 

I just posted pics of the larvae in their 5 gallon tank.

 

Wish me luck !

 

 

Learning lots, as always.

 

Tonight my latest spawn was due to hatch tomorrow night, but with the new white tile, right on an outer edge of the tank, it was obvious to me that the eggs were developing at very different rates. I saw silver 3 days ago on 1/3rd of the spawn. Plain gray on 1/3rd, and snowy white on the remaining 3rd.

This was so early that I Googled egg fungus, but finding that egg fungus was furry looking, and that was not the case, I wondered what was going on here.

 

Tonight, on day 7 after spawn, I became convinced that I needed to pull the eggs, despite the fact that 2/3rds of them still did not look ready to hatch.

 

I then felt that I had immediate gratification/patience issues, that I could not simply wait until day 8 to pull the eggs, since experience has show that “this” is THE day.

 

Two hours later, 1/3rd of the spawn has hatched, it’s about 50 larvae. Looking at the remaining eggs, it is obvious that another 1/3rd, (another 50) will hatch out tomorrow night, and the remainders, another 50, will hatch one day after that…or not at all. They have black eyes now, though not silver.

 

Why might this be? Why are my eggs hatching so very far apart?

 

I have only raised one clutch so far, but the parents have been laying eggs for many months. Of the two babies that I have raised to day 13, one morphed at day 7 and the other not until day 10. Notice that it the same 3 day discrepancy as the current hatching time.

 

Does anyone know why this happens? It is not about the darkness quotient, I left the eggs in the dark for two solid hours and only 1/3rd hatched, but I could tell the others were not ready regardless.

 

I seriously hate not knowing the answers. No doubt this is a personality defect

[saippenu]

My first attempt, which left me with two larvae through metamorphosis, has been going great …..until tonight. They are 16 days post hatch and look like adorable miniature clown fishes that are even getting their second stripes. They are reluctant to give up the brine shrimp, I’ve had no luck at all with crushed ground flake, but frozen Cyclops generates minimal interest and I think they are getting there.

 

Yesterday I put a fake silicon coral at the opposite of the sleeping side of their 10 gallon tank because they don’t appear to understand the lighting scheme of day and night and “Stripe” sleeps during our night, and is awake during our day, “Marcou” is just the opposite. So for the one who gets stuck trying to sleep under full lighting, I figured some shelter was in order.

 

Stripe showed no interest and clung to the heater that both of them live at. Marcou circled the fake coral once then moved right into his new condo. The two, who are normally bosom buddies in the tank, were separated for all of 30 hours when Marcou suddenly decided to move back into the heater home.

 

They have been lock jawed in battle ever since. It’s horrible. I turned the lights off in the tank in the hopes that they will split up and go to sleep…..but they don’t both sleep at the same time so it's not looking good.

 

This can’t possibly be fighting over turning male or female at this age right? Stripe is twice the size of Marcou because he morphed 4 days sooner. But they are only 16 days past hatch day. I couldn’t believe how bad it was. I may be down to one after tonight.

 

I have another batch very close to morph, should I put a pack of those post-morph in with the two older ones? I’m thinking no. But on the other hand, they are too big to be eaten by the bicker brothers.

 

Now I am stressed

[Builder Anthony]

Well thats intresting.Looks like things are going well.

[sfork]

even small ones can claim things, Best option if they're still at it tomorrow is to take out the heater (probably during the day when it usually doesn't turn on anyway) then relocate it when the temp drops a bit. If it's vertical now then relocate it horizontally somewhere else.